CDHR seeks urgent measures to tackle declining state of nation

The Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) has urged government at all levels to address the downward trend in the management of public affairs in the country.

The group gave the advice, yesterday, at the end of its yearly general conference in Lagos, with the theme, “Periodic Elections in Nigeria, Civil Society and the Struggle for Socio-economic Rights.”

In a statement signed by its National President, Dr. Osagie Obayuwana and National Publicity Secretary, Idris Olayinka, CDHR said it was concerned about the deterioration in security and alarmed by the ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor, as well as concentration of wealth in the hands of a minute minority of the populace.

It also said it was embarrassed by the scale of theft of Nigerian oil on a continuing basis, non-functioning of all the refineries in Nigeria and the perpetuation of the subsidy scam derivable therefrom.

“We are further saddened by the resort to illegality by governments in the claimed enforcement of the law, perplexed by non-participatory nature of the budget-making process and disgraced by the arrogance of power on the part of public officers. We are anxious over the terrible consequences of all of the above on the enjoyment of social and economic rights by the vast majority of the Nigerian people.

“We, therefore, pass the following resolutions: That the Federal Government should demonstrate its appreciation of the linkages between the pervasiveness of poverty and its induced frustration and discontent, on the widespread nature of insecurity across the land.

“CDHR calls on the federal and state governments to adopt social and economic measures that would bring reliefs to the teeming populace as a panacea to insecurity, insurgency, banditry, kidnapping and armed robbery.”

The group further stated: “CDHR calls on government to adopt policies designed to address the over 20 million out-of-school children in Nigeria, who by law are guaranteed the right to education.

“CDHR demands proactive steps in the combat of flooding and realisation of the goals for which the Ecological Fund was set up. CDHR demands a thorough audit of the fund to bring to book all those who may have partaken in the looting of the funds since it was established.”

“To CDHR, the calamity that befall numerous communities in different parts of the country on account of the recent flooding is directly traceable to negligence on the part of the Federal Government. CDHR, therefore, demands that immediate equitable compensation be paid to all the families that lost their loved ones, homes and means of livelihood. It is the hope of the CDHR that the Federal Government would heed this call and save itself of the rigours of litigation.”