By Toye Olori
LAGOS, May 30 2000 (IPS)

Nigeria celebrated its first anniversary of democratic governance this month with a focus on the human rights record of the Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration.

The issue of human rights is an important one especially since during the five year regime of the late General Sani Abacha, which ended in June 1998, the rights of Nigerians were often trampled upon leading to the declaration of the country as a pariah nation.

Many prominent citizens fled the country to escape from the oppressive junta, while many of those who remained behind were either put in detention without trial or assassinated.

However, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, who became head of state following the sudden death of Abacha, restored some dignity to the country when he released several political prisoners, including Obasanjo, who was serving a life term for the alleged involvement in a coup attempt.

The upholding of the fundamental rights of citizens is, therefore, expected from Obasanjo, who was sworn-in as a democratically elected president on May 29, last year, after a successful one-year transition programme of General Abubakar.

President Obasanjo, according to analysts here, is likely to score his government high on human rights record due to the relative freedom now being enjoyed in the country.

Added to this is Nigeria’s recent accreditation by the United Nations International Co-ordinating Committee of Human Rights Institutions (ICCHRI) which met in April in Rabat, Morocco.

The accreditation at governmental level means that Nigeria, as a democratic nation, can henceforth sit with other countries to discuss, assess and pass judgment on Human Rights cases within the committee of nations.

The ordinary Nigerians who are living witnesses to frequent harassment, arrests, detention, judicial killings, phantom coups and assassinations of prominent citizens during military regimes, believe the one year of democracy brought about some improvement in the human rights situation in their country.

“Frequent intimidation by the police, state security personnel and hired assassins in the name of the “strike force” which planted bombs and killed prominent politicians like Kudirat Abiola and Pa Alfred Rewane during Abacha’s regime have disappeared,” says Lanre Johnson, a civil servant here.

“President Obasanjo’s administration has, in the last one year, ensured the safety of persons and freedom of movement and expression which were absent during the military regime,” Johnson told IPS.

However, members of the civil society argue that the human rights situation is not so different now from what it was during the military regimes.

“The difference is that late General Sani Abacha hounded prominent Nigerians into detention without trial, caused other prominent politicians to be assassinated but today underdogs who do not know how to get redress and who do not know how to reach human rights groups are being arrested or assassinated almost on a regular basis in Nigeria,” says Sina Loremikan, of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR).

“Prisons which were decongested by General Abdulsalami Abubakar, who released prominent opposition leaders, including President Obasanjo, have now been congested through the frequent arrests and detention of innocent citizens,” he told IPS.

He noted that more than 302 members of the Pan-Yoruba group, Oduaa Peoples Congress (OPC) are in prison custody today for the alleged murder of a police officer in Lagos early this year.

He also listed a number of other Nigerians arrested and detained by security agents without trial, despite democratic rule in the country.

“The arrested OPC members were charged by a Magistrate Court just to deceive the world that they are being tried, but I know that in Nigeria murder cases are not heard by the Magistrate Courts,” the human rights activist said.

“Our own assessment of human rights record is that this administration has not improved the human rights situation during the past year. It has done nothing to improve it. Up till today, we have not had any normal interaction with the President who was released from prison through the efforts and activities of the civil society.”

“Extra-Judicial killings are still being carried out by the police. For example, a young graduate was recently shot and killed by a policeman on the escort of the Deputy Governor of Lagos State…any innocent citizens have been murdered in the last one year,” Loremikan charged.

He also cited the military actions in the Niger-Delta region where indigens are agitating for better conditions and improvement in their environment, but who have been repressed by soldiers deployed to the region by the Obasanjo administration.

“The destruction of Odi, a village of more than 30,000 inhabitants, because of the death of seven policemen in the area, on the orders of President Obasanjo is another example of how bad the human rights record of this regime is. A whole village was never destroyed by soldiers during the inglorious regime of General Abacha.”

Over 3,000 houses in Odi village in the oil-rich Bayelsa state, were destroyed during the military operation in the community. Left untouched are a church, a bank and a health center.

Samson Bako, Director of Publications, Constitutional Rights Project (CRP), a human rights group here agrees with Loremikan.

“One can say with the coming of Obasanjo as an elected civilian president, we have witnessed what can be called an air of freedom because the atmosphere has changed in terms of tension, people now realise that they can freely move around, they can express themselves and they can criticise without being put in detention for it,” Bako said.

“However, it is not to say that with the return of democracy, one would say no abuses had been committed. Most of the institutions that abused human rights during military regimes – the law enforcement agency, the judiciary and the prisons, are still made up of the same people who served the military”

Tarila Tebepah, chair of Odi rehabilitation committee, has described the situation in Odi as a pathetic one stating that no community had been so willfully devastated in the history of the country.

Bako has also faulted the Nigerian constitution which, he says, does not protect the average Nigerian.

“We have seen people being persecuted. For example the amputation of a thief in Zamfara state is unconstitutional but the state government sees it as constitutional because the national constitution is ambiguous over the issue of Sharia, says Bako.”

The CRP activist warns that no effort should be spared in the fight to recognise and respect human rights by all concerned in Nigeria.

“The pressure will continue. We will not rest until we attain zero level in human rights abuses,” Bako says.

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