Date Published: 01/06/10

LEGISLATORS, HUMAN RIGHTS AND THEIR POCKETS By Emmanuel Onwubiko 

I am one of those who admire some beautiful contents and provisions enshrined in the extant constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria especially the chapter four. But I am also one of those that strongly believe that it could be better if relevant amendments or alterations are effected especially to bring chapter two in consonance with chapter four and explicitly provide a section stating that the denial of socio-economic rights of Nigerians by the government can be challenged in the competent court of law as is embodied in chapter four of the 1999 Constitution.  

Like most analysts, I do believe that it is a huge contradiction to make chapter four which embody some civil-political rights and other fundamental rights like freedom of expression explicitly enforceable by the court whereas the application or denial of socio-economic rights provisions in chapter two are left to the whims and caprices of the political office holders. Both chapters should be enforceable because all human rights are equal and universal.    

This is among the salient reasons why most patriots are genuinely apprehensive that the National Assembly legislators since the inception of the democratic dispensation in 1999 have dilly dallied and continue to play politics with the all-important issue of altering certain relevant sections of the constitution to reflect the democratic aspirations of the electorate who in the first place were denied the opportunity of participating in the process of drafting the constitution.  

But one institution that if properly run as an independent body is capable of protecting, promoting and nurturing the human rights of Nigerians is the National Human Rights Commission created by an enabling Act which came into existence during one of Nigeria’s most brutal military regimes- that of late General Sani Abacha in 1996. The National Human Rights Commission Act was enacted in 1995 but came into being in 1996 and like most laws made during the defunct military regimes is seen as an Act of the National Assembly. 

But the enabling Act is deficient in several aspects because it does not clearly provide that the Nigerian National Human Rights Commission ought to be independent in compliance with the principles relating to the status of National Institutions for the protection of Human Rights also called Paris Principles.   

An important aspect of the Paris Principle which is not explicitly embodied in the enabling Act of the Nigerian National Human Rights Commission is the composition and guarantee of independence and pluralism. 

Although I must quickly state without equivocation, that the extant law setting up the Rights Commission provide some form of legal protection of the tenure of the governing council and the office of the executive secretary but successive administrations including the current president Yar’adua’s have flouted these provisions with impunity. The Rights Commission has seen the proliferation or high turn over of several persons appointed and removed as Executive Secretary. The current administration also illegally dissolved the governing council of the Rights Commission with more than one year to expiration of tenure. 

The Paris principle was adopted by the UN General Assembly resolution 48/134 of 20 th December 1993. The immediate past government began the illegality when the then President Olusegun Obasanjo sacked the then executive secretary Buhari Bello for allegedly criticizing the third term plots by the then president. Mrs. Kehinde Ajoni who was appointed illegally by the then president to replace Bello was again sacked by the president Umaru Musa Yar’adua’s-led administration for presenting what it considered as unfriendly human rights report of Nigeria to the United Nations Human Rights Council. Roland Ewubare was appointed to become the third executive secretary in less than two years even when the enabling law specifies five- year -tenure for serving executive secretary and four- year-tenure for governing council members of the commission. 

On January 25 th 2004, the then executive secretary Buhari Bello told The Guardian newspaper that three years after the rights body sent an amendment bill to the National Assembly; the legislators were yet to pass the amendments which by and large should give some form of autonomy operationally and financially to the rights commission.  

If the body statutorily set up to promote the human rights of citizens is allowed to continue to operate as a mere agency under the federal ministry of Justice, it means that the indigent Nigerians whose rights are daily violated substantially by government agencies like the police has no where else to go and secure redress especially when it is clear that the Nigerian Court system is both cumbersome and expensive and therefore out of the reach of most Nigerians. 

The question to be asked is; what is the essence of democracy if the citizenry most of whom are impoverished do not have any independent institution to run to and seek redress for violations of their human rights? 

It is disheartening that nearly eight years after the first amendment bill was sent to the National Assembly, the National legislators have shown by their actions that they do not care a hoot about how the human rights of Nigerians are protected. 

The first and second National Assembly sessions came and lapsed in 2007 without the members passing the amendments to the enabling statute setting up the National Human Rights Commission of Nigeria to make the body independent enough to prosecute rights violators. 

Again, the current National Assembly session will pack up next year June, and yet the executive bill re-introduced by the executive arm of government to the National Assembly for amendments of the Rights Commission’s enabling law have not received any serious attention. The impression being created is that once promoters of any bill in the National Assembly do not bribe their way, such amendments will not see the light of the day. If this is so then it is despicable. 

A draft copy of the proposed amendments to the Rights Commission’s enabling law obtained by me while serving as a Federal commissioner and Governing council member showed that when passed into law, the body would be empowered to institute prosecution of alleged human Rights violators; “Where it considers it appropriate, with the leave of the court hearing the proceedings and subject to any conditions imposed by the court, intervene in any human rights proceedings.” 

Besides, in the draft Act when passed into law the Rights Commission shall have power under section 6(1) to “conduct its investigations and inquires in such manner as it considers appropriate. 

Section 6(1) (b) noted also that Rights commission shall have power to “institute any civil action on any manner it deems fit in relation to the exercise of its functions under this Act. 
 

The commission in the new Act when passed will also enjoy autonomy thus; “in exercising its functions and powers under this Act the commission shall not be subject to the direction or control of any other authority or person.”    

Section 13(2) of the draft Act said: “No suit shall lie or be initiated in any court against any member of the council, the Director General or any other officer or employee of the commission for any act done in pursuance or execution of this Act or other law and enactment.”    

I am aware that there is now a harmonized version in the National Assembly of the proposed amendments to the enabling statute of the National Human Rights Commission of Nigeria and it is the prayer of millions of Nigerians that the law makers should make hay while the sun shines by passing the relevant amendments to empower the rights commission to protect the human rights of citizens effectively,   
 

* Onwubiko heads Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria.