A pro-democracy and non-governmental organization – HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS
ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has tasked President Muhammadu Buhari to
admit his spectacular failure in stopping the taking into hostage and
gruesome murders of some aid workers by the armed boko haram terrorists.
HURIWA said that by virtue of a plethora of municipal and international
humanitarian laws that are binding on all persons and authorities holding
such political position of a head of state and head of government,
President Muhammadu Buhari has no valid, justifiable, rational, coherent,
verifiable and cogent excuses to make for his administrations serial
failures to effectively curb the heightened sitiation of tertor attacks by
such non state actors like the armed Islamists known as boko haram
terrorists.
HURIWA quoted the 1994 declaration adopted by the United Nations as
measures to eliminate international terrorism,states are obliged to put
practical measures to ensure that their territories are not used for
terrorist installations, training camps or for the preparation of
terrorist acts against citizens even as it wondered why Sambisa forests
have yet to be totally liberated going by video evidence circulated by the
terror masterminds.
Besides, HURIWA has also asked President Muhammadu Buhari to declare as
national heroines all those girls slaughtered by boko haram terrorists
including Leah Sharibu and others still being held by the diverse factions
of the dreaded armed Islamists in the North East of Nigeria.
As part of the national declaration of those massacred by boko haram
terrorists as heroes/heroines including the aid worker Miss Hauwa Liman,
the Federal government must pay heavy compensations of not less than N50
million to the families and grant full scholarships up to university
levels to the children of those left behind by the victims of terrorists
and most especially those taken as hostages. HURIWA argues that it is the
constitutional obligation of government not to allow armed bandits and
terrorists to roam freely and abduct citizens just as it stated that the
blame for this failure lies squarely with the head of state and commander
in chief of the armed forces of Nigeria.
HURIWA stated that the capture of the three or so aid workers embedded
with the international committee of the Red cross/crescent, including Miss
Hauwa Liman and her colleagues were completely avoidable given that her
capture was reportedly recorded on the social media.
“The successes recorded by the terrorists in capturing hostages of high
value and other successes they have recorded in the recent deadly attacks
of military formations and the killings of hundreds of soldiers must have
been caused by poor intelligence gathering and failure to act when
information is relayed to the armed security forces.”
“President Buhari should stop insulting our sensibilities by claiming that
his government did all they could but never succeeded in stopping the
hostage scenarios and the consequential gruesome killings.”
“This is because that statement is a total admission that this current
government no longer has workable strategy to stop these spates of attacks
by armed terrorists. The primary duty of government legally is to protect
lives and property of Nigerians. The failure to stop the killings of
hostages by boko haram terrorists is a failure of constitutional
responsibility for which the Nigerian government was elected. Instead of
apologizing to the parents of the dead, we are regaled with the press
statement that president Buhari personally called the parents to claim
that he did his best. It means his best is not good enough.”
HURIWA recalled that expert opinion has it that although in principle
human rights can be violated by any person or group, and in fact human
rights abuses committed against the backdrop of globalization by non-state
actors (transnational corporations, organized crime, international
terrorism, guerrilla and Para-military forces and even intergovernmental
organizations) are on the increase, under present international law, only
states assume direct obligations in relation to human rights.
HURIWA stated also that: We hereby remind the President of Nigeria that:
“By becoming parties to international human rights treaties, states incur
three broad obligations: the duties to respect, to protect and to fulfill.
While the balance between these obligations or duties may vary according
to the rights involved, they apply in principle to all civil and political
rights and all economic, social and cultural rights. Moreover, states have
a duty to provide a remedy at the domestic level for human rights
violations.”
“The state ‘obligation to respect’ means that the state is obliged to
refrain from interfering. It entails the prohibition of certain acts by
Governments that may undermine the enjoyment of rights. For example, with
regard to the right to education, it means that governments must respect
the liberty of parents to establish private schools and to ensure the
religious and moral education of their children in accordance with their
own convictions.”
“The ‘obligation to protect’ requires states to protect individuals
against abuses by non-state actors. Once again, the right to education can
serve as an example. The right of children to education must be protected
by the state from interference and indoctrination by third parties,
including parents and the family, teachers and the school, religions,
sects, clans and business firms. States enjoy a broad margin of
appreciation with respect to this obligation. For instance, the right to
personal integrity and security obliges states to combat the widespread
phenomenon of domestic violence against women and children: although not
every single act of violence by a husband against his wife, or by parents
against their children, constitutes a human rights violation for which the
state may be held accountable, governments have a responsibility to take
positive measures – in the form of pertinent criminal, civil, family or
administrative laws, police and judiciary training or general awareness
raising – to reduce the incidence of domestic violence.”