Human rights are not privileges conferred by government. They are every human being's entitlement by virtue of his humanity. The right to life does not depend, and must not be reliant, on the pleasure of anyone else, not even a parent or sovereign. We must weep that your own government, at present, seems blind to this truth.
A community is democratic only when the humblest and weakest person can enjoy the highest civil, economic, and social rights that the biggest and most powerful possess. The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government. Peace, development and human rights are essentially inter-related, inter-dependent and indivisible. Human security comes only with human rights and the rule of law. Human rights are the basis for creating strong and accountable states without which there can be no political stability, quality infrastructural development or social progress.
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A right is not what someone gives you; it's what no one can take from you. Nobody is above the law and nobody below it. Clean water and health care, quality education, food, shelter and security, all of these things should constitute a set of basics that people must have as birthrights.
Our leaders go abroad for medical care and their children go abroad for education because the Nigerian health care delivery and education systems are in ruin. If access to health care and education is considered a human right, who is considered human enough to have that right? Our leaders must give to every citizen every right that they claim for themselves. We are not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of people who believe they are our god. We want the full menu of rights.
The most effective way to restrict democracy is to transfer decision-making from the public arena to unaccountable institutions: kings and princes, priestly castes, military juntas, party dictatorships, or modern corporations.
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My dear compatriots, most of us are opposed to the system of society in which we live today, not because we lack the natural equipment to make a living but because we are not satisfied to make ourselves comfortable knowing that there are millions of our fellow citizens who suffer for the barest necessities of life. We were taught under the old ethic that man's business on this earth was to look out for himself. That was the ethic of the jungle; the ethic of the wild beast. Take care of yourself, no matter what may become of your fellow man. Thousands of years ago the question was asked; ''Am I my brother's keeper?'' That question has never yet been answered in a way that is satisfactory to civilized society.
Yes, we are our brother's keeper. We are under a moral obligation by divine inspiration, not by any maudlin sentimentality but by a higher duty we owe ourselves. What would the heavens and the earth think of us if we were capable of seating ourselves at a high table and overfeeding ourselves with food and saw around us the children of our fellow citizens starving to death?
It has long been recognized that an essential element in protecting human rights was a widespread knowledge among the population of what their rights are and how they can be defended. Silence never won rights. They are not handed down from above; they are forced by pressures from below.
So arise my fellow compatriots, Nigeria must realize her potentials. We must end the oppression. All that tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent. We must not be silent. An injustice committed against anyone is a threat to everyone. The only thing necessary for the persistence of evil is for enough good people to do nothing. Civil society has not lost the ability to influence the government and force them to change their policy. That is why we believe in your voice and your help.
Silence in the face of injustice is complicity with the oppressor. Washing one's hands off the conflict between the oppressor and the oppressed means to side with the oppressor, not to be neutral. It means a great deal to those who are oppressed to know that they are not alone. Let our story not be like that of Pastor Niemoeler, a victim of the Nazis who said “First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out - because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the communist and I did not speak out - because I was not a communist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out - because I was not a trade unionists. Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak out for me."
We say Nigeria is bad. We have forgotten that states are not moral agents but people are, and the people are responsible for exacting moral standards on states. No great nation fell from the sky. Great nations were built by the sweat, tears and sometimes blood of its citizens. We all hope that violence will not be required for Nigeria to be great but I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice and also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.
Let us look forward confidently to the day when all who work for a living will be one with no thought to their separateness as Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba or any other distinctions. This will be the day when we bring into full realization a truly great Nigeria - a vision yet unfulfilled. A vision of equality of opportunity, of privilege and property widely distributed; a vision of a land where people will not take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few; a vision of a land where people will not argue that the tribe of a person or what name a person attributes to the Creator; determines the content of his/her character; a vision of a nation where all our gifts and resources are held not for ourselves alone, but as instruments of service for the rest of Africa and the world; the vision of a country where every person will respect the dignity and worth of the human life.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE KNOW YOUR RIGHTS PROJECT
VISIT:WWW.ILOVENIGERIA.ORG/KNOWYOURRIGHTS
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