Human Rights Problem

On May 21, 1999, a topical anaesthetic road construction company, Dumez Limited, attacked a group of peaceful protesters with clubs, daggers, axes, machetes, and other dangerous weapons. Tension began to renegade when on April 26, 1999 the company began destroying newly planted crops of local farmers in the Ogoni kingdom of Gokana. They did so without paying comme il faut compensation for the crops or carrying out an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the road project, as required by international environmental standards. On May 8, 1998, a Human Rights Defender, Olisa Agbakoba, was arrested at Murtala planetary Airport in Lagos.The arresting officers were members of the Security Force, an agency of the Nigerian giving medication. No reason for his arrest was given. This arrest was preceded by an forward encounter in March 1998 where he was attacked and arrested by members of the Nigerian Police when he tried to utter at a pro-democracy rally in Yaba, Lagos. On January 8 th and March 23rd of 1998, Batom Mitee and Barileresi Mitee who are brothers of genus Ledum Mitee, President of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), were arrested. No charges were ever given for their arrests.Batum Mitee was kept detained for several weeks without having entry to his lawyers, his family, or a doctor. On January 18, 1998 he was brought before a judge who state that the case was not inwardly his competence because of its political character. Mitee was later transferred to a military hospital because of the beatings and ill treatment inflicted by the military. These incidents of brutality and badgering are just a few examples of the abuse by members of the police, security forces, and Nigerian government and how it remains to be a persistent valet being rights problem.There are numerous cardinal factors that contribute to the problem of human rights in Nigeria. One the major factors is that of religion. Religious differences often correspond to regional and social differences. For example, the northern region is overwhelmingly Muslim, as are the large Hausa and Fulani ethnic groups of that area. Many southerly ethnic groups are paramountly Christian. About half the commonwealths population practice Islam and rough 40% practice Christianity.Approximately 10% practice exclusively traditional indigenous religions or no religion at all. Many persons practice both elements of Christianity or Islam and elements of an indigenous traditional religion. Consequently, it is difficult to nock religious discrimination from ethnic and regional discrimination, which is pervasive. Although the government has never outlawed proselytizing, it continues to discourage and criticize it in public because it believes that it stimulates religious tensions.Both Christian and Muslim organizations allege that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Immigration Department cut back the entry into the country of certain religious practitione rs, particularly persons suspected of intending to proselytize. Consequently, Nigerias constitution prohibits state and local governments from adopting an official religion. Though Nigerian law prohibits religious discrimination, it is common for government officials to discriminate against persons who practice a religion different from their own, notably in hiring or awarding contracts.There slang been documented reports of harassment of Christian bangs by local government officials in predominantly Islamic regions. In April and again in August 1998, the local council of Lafia, in Nasarawa State, reportedly ordered the closure of a Protestant Christian mission church in connection with a dispute most the missions title to the land. In March 1998, State Security Service officers detained and interrogated the missions pastor. The mission sought to convert members of the broadly Islamic Kambari ethnic group.The lack of annoying for the environment and the quite a little that it affects has also been a major concern in the struggle for human rights. Since 1958, fossil oil companies such as Shell exact exploited oil wealth in the region of the Ogoni people. As a consequence, they have suffered extreme economic deprivation and the environmental devastation of their land. Since Shell began drilling in Nigerias Niger Delta, it has spilled oil on farmland and in peeing sources, bulldozed across farms and flared gas just meters from Ogoni villages.The people of Ogoniland suffer extreme health problems from the air and water pollution. The Nigerian military has played a significant role in the continued persecution of the Ogoni. When the Ogoni began to demand environmental justice, villages were attacked, villagers were killed and their attractor was executed by the judgment of a military court. Shell has even admitted to paying the military, which brutally silences voices weeping for justice from the government of Nigeria and Shell, along with other multinat ional oil corporations.Shell is only one of galore(postnominal) multinational oil corporations operating in Nigeria. Mobil, Chevron, and Texaco are also found in Nigeria, operating as partners of the Nigerian government, as required by Nigerian law. Shell is certainly not the only embrocate Corporation that abuses its money, power, and feeling of superiority over the people of Nigeria. The countrys population of about great hundred million is ethnically diverse, comprising more than 250 ethnic groups, many of which speak distinct primary languages and are difficult geographically.There is no majority ethnic group. The three largest ethnic groups are the Hausa-Fulani of the north, Yoruba of the southwest, and Igbos of the southeast, who together make up about two-thirds of the population. The fourth largest group, the Ijaw, has a population of approximately 12 million. Societal discrimination on the primer of ethnicity is widely practiced by members of all ethnic groups and is apparent(a) in private sector hiring patterns, de facto ethnic segregation of urban neighborhoods and a continuing paucity of marriage across major ethnic and regional lines. There is a long history of tension among diverse ethnic groups.Although the countrys ensuant constitutions all have prohibited ethnic discrimination by the State, northerners and particularly Hausas have long been predominant in the national government, including the military officer corps. Tradition continued to impose sum upable pressure on individual government officials to favor their own ethnic groups and ethnic favoritism persisted.Resentment of northern subordination of the Government aggravated by the suspension of federal decentralization under the Abacha regime and resentment of Igbo victor in private commerce, have contributed to ethnic and regional tensions. Possibly the most controversial issue within Nigeria is that of the political structure of the government. Since Nigeria received its ind ependence from Britain, in 1960, there has been conflict in regards to the military and peremptory system of government that existed.The citizens of Nigeria have longed for a antiauthoritarian system of government that included themselves as participating proponents. Nigeria became a Republic in 1963 and Nnamdi Azikiwe was made the President of the Federal Republic. In January of 1966, some Igbo army officials re- become a coup detat to overthrow the government, who were primarily Hausa, because they objected to the population census. They felt it over estimated that number of people in the northern region thereby giving them a larger representation in the federal parliament.They succeeded in killing many of the senior officers but Azikiwe was not harmed. As a result of the move coup, the government promised a progressive course of study, a return to civilian rule determined by elections, and vowed to stump out corruption and violence. Though idealistic in theory, these promi ses were never realized. Instead, it became the common practice of the government to consider democracy, but continue to practice authoritarian rule. Nigeria would bear witness to numerous coup attempts over the nigh three decades, most involving the transition to democracy.It wasnt until the death of Sani Abacha, possibly the most famous President of Nigeria, in June 1998 that civilian rule would be realized. A new transition program was established that would lead the country back to democracy by Abdulsalam Abubakar, the man chosen to replace Abacha. After a series of elections, Olusegun Obasanjo was declared the new and current, democratically elected president on May 29, 1999. At the end of May 1999, Nigeria complete its transition from authoritarian rule to a formal democracy.A number of Nigerian groups have managed to create strong institutional structures, with narrowly defined mandates and internal staff structures as well as program plans. While there are still growing pai ns within many of these groups, this type of intend process has resulted in the Nigerian human rights communitys being far ahead of its anglophone neighbors in putting human rights institutions into place. The Center for Advanced Social Sciences (CASS) was formed in 1992 and is based in sort Harcourt, Nigeria. CASS is a think tank concerned with improving management and public policy in Africa.It has a Board of Trustees and is governed by an international Board of Directors. The Civil Liberties Organization (CLO), established in 1987, is one of Nigerias largest human rights organizations. The CLO is a non-governmental organization set up for the defense and expansion of human rights and civil liberties. It investigates human rights abuses and campaigns through litigation, publications, and communications with the government on behalf of people whose rights have been abused. Another human rights advocate is the constituent(a) Rights Project (CRP) that was set up in 1990.Their aim s are to ensure that Nigerian legislation conforms to international standards, reminder institutions whose activity impact on the rights of citizens, and to provide legal assistance to victims of human rights abuses. The cry for human rights cleanse in Nigeria hasnt fallen on deaf ears from those of the international community. On November 12, 1998 the 53rd session of the General hookup of the United Nations (UN) met to discuss the situation of human rights in Nigeria. The General Assembly reaffirmed that Nigeria is a party to the International Covenant on Human Rights and thereby making it a Member State.All Member States have an obligation to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms. The Nigerian government was strongly encouraged that the organic law and strengthening of national structures and institutions in the field of human rights are of the utmost importance for the promotion and justification of human rights in Nigeria. The sanctions imposed on Nigeri an government by the European Union, the Commonwealth and the government of the United States of America were to be lifted in light of the progress made towards the restoration of democratic government and respect for human rights.The Nigerian government in its transition to democracy was applauded for its establishment of the unaffiliated National Electoral Commission and the issuance of a detailed timetable for the election process. Overall, the UN General Assembly was fulfil with the progress of the Nigerian government in its transition to democracy. Nigeria has seen some very turbulent times in its history as it relates to democracy and human rights.Democracy consolidation, which appears to be the most immediate challenge for the human rights movement in post transition Nigeria, will require forward thinking and cohesive challenge on the part of the human rights community. It has been clearly demonstrated that in Africa relatively free and fair elections ascertained by intern ational monitor and elaborate handing over ceremonies will not necessarily bring about genuine democracy and a human rights culture. Civil society organizations will have to work in stages to expand the democratic space and rebuild the institutions of civil society.The long years of military dictatorship have decimated these institutions and virtually erased the rule of law according to AFRONET Reports. Though politicians glibly vocalize democratic jargon, it is still evident that democratic values and military capabilitys are not yet commonplace in the political class. Also, among ordinary Nigerians, normal mentalities need to change the people have become accustomed to not expecting anything but the worst from their leadership in terms of political leadership, economic management and respect for civil liberties and human dignity.The average Nigerian has been driven by economic hardship to adopt a survivalist mode of life in which he or she is preoccupied with access to the bar e necessities of life and does not demand or expect responsibility or respect for human rights from their leaders. The Nigerian government, though its history is not favorable, is making sincere efforts to overwrite its history. But unless the human rights community and the people they represent adopt a more positive attitude towards its government, change can not be realized.