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Buhari, Boko Haram and human rights

By Mausi Segun
06 April 2015   |   12:06 am
In elections in 2011, at least 800 people died as a result of violent protests and riots sparked by the rejection of the results. So far, such carnage has been avoided. Goodluck Jonathan ceded victory to his opponent Muhammadu Buhari, who is now the president-elect.

AGAINST the odds, Nigeria has succeeded in carrying out a mostly peaceful presidential election. The campaign was marked by bitter, divisive and sometimes hateful rhetoric which left little hope that the contest would end without violence.

In elections in 2011, at least 800 people died as a result of violent protests and riots sparked by the rejection of the results. So far, such carnage has been avoided. Goodluck Jonathan ceded victory to his opponent Muhammadu Buhari, who is now the president-elect.

This good news should not obliterate the deep problems that bedevil Nigeria, including the Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast that is spilling across Nigeria’s borders, communal violence, corruption and impunity for crimes by Nigerian security forces.

The test for Buhari will be to address these challenges in full respect of human rights. Buhari comes to power with questionable human rights credentials. He was the head of a military government that toppled the civilian administration of President Shehu Shagari in December 1983. His previous period as leader was marked by arbitrary arrests, restrictions on freedom of expression and the press, and retroactive criminal laws.

One of the surest ways for Buhari to demonstrate his evolution from a military ruler to a democratically elected president is to place respect for human rights at the centre of his administration’s agenda.

He should start by making respect for human rights and humanitarian law a central pillar of military operations against Boko Haram. During his election campaign, Buhari vowed to defeat the Boko Haram threat. Standing with victims and holding Boko Haram to account for its brutal crimes is important but not a sufficient answer to the crisis. Nigerian security forces also need to be reined in.

According to witness interviews and media monitoring by Human Rights Watch, Boko Haram attacks are believed to have left at least 8,000 civilians dead since 2009 and more than one million people displaced. In response to Boko Haram attacks, Nigerian security forces have often used excessive force. Hundreds of men and boys have been rounded up, detained in inhumane conditions, and in some cases physically abused because they were suspected of supporting Boko Haram. Some were executed. Many others have disappeared, and security forces have burned civilian homes. Buhari should immediately stop such abuses by Nigerian security forces, ensure future operations comply with human rights and humanitarian law, order credible investigations of past crimes, and ensure that those responsible, including commanders, are held to account.

Let’s hope the peaceful start to Buhari’s presidency is accompanied by a new respect for human rights in Nigeria.

Segun wrote this as Press Despatch from Human Rights Watch, New York, United States.

2 Comments

  • Author’s gravatar

    What has this balderdash contributed to the discussion other than a recycling of boring diatribes. And they all write as if there was not much more criminality under several military regimes in Nigeria – be it under Obasanjo, Gowon, Babangida, Abacha, and all, including even under the so-called edemocratic regime of Goodluck Jonathan himself. We are all either old enough to remember what happened under Buhari-Idiagbon regime or literate enough to have read and understood what military regimes are like and their templates for rulership and governance. Were all decisions about Decrees by which military junters rule the sole decision of the leader? has any of the members of the relevant Supreme Military Councils been interviewed on those decisions? How flexible are these regimes in terms of leadership decisions or on bjections to collective sentiments and bow? Come on! Admittedly, the buck stops at the desk of the Head of State, and Buhari had accepted responsibility as he stated in several interviews. But we all know that under such regimes, majority carries the day or you expect internal rumbles leading to another coup withing the ruling council. How many times did this happen under military dispensations in Nigeria? You answer the question. Repeatedly painting Buhari as a devil, a demon, and a bolood hound who needs improper and repeated advert and condemnation by all Nigerias with regard to human Right is clear demonstration of stupidity and ignorance. Or is it a deceitful way of creating problems before he even starts ruling? Mind you, somebody remain President until May 29. Direct all commands such as “should immediately stop such abuses by Nigerian security forces’ which the author identifiedd as exisitent to the man on the hour. Buhari has litlle to do with that now, but thank you for your measured advice. Meanwhile, leave the issue of probe of past crimes to the in-coming government that we hope, and that is the best we can do now, that those opponents of Buhari, I mean the tribal jingoists and rouble ropusers with and without, will allow to happen.

    • Author’s gravatar

      leave the writer alone..”it’s a black man’s burden”. I think the writer should have
      focused his witting on how the ”dysfunctional system” should work, as the maxim goes
      ‘’the problem with man is man himself’’and it’s a sort of attitude problem we
      have.