Today, we will be exploring on the evolution of
human Right and we will do this by critically looking at the different phases
these rights have gone in cause of its development and recognition in the most
populous black nation in the world known as Nigeria, the purpose of which is to
expand and broaden our minds on how human right have fared. As earlier stated,
this will be done succinctly in phases
·
Pre Colonialism
·
Pre independence
·
Post independence.
We hope that at the end of this presentation you
must have been able to gather enough knowledge on the historical development of
Human Right in Nigeria.
Evolution, as define by the Collins
dictionary, Is the gradual change of a pattern formed by a series of movement;
The Oxford dictionary defines it as the gradual development of something
while the Webster dictionary defines it as a process of change in a certain
direction.
Human Rights on the other hand are those rights
and privileges a person has as a result or by the virtue of the fact of being a
human being. Professor U.O UMOZURIKE defines it as those rights which the
international community recognizes as belonging to all individuals by the very
fact of their humanity. Undeniably, it is safe to say that Human rights are
Natural, inborn and inalienable; The BIG question is how has these Rights being
protected and promoted?
First, let’s look at the time before the colonial
masters came, it is note worthy that the present day Nigeria is a product of
colonialism, the present day Nigeria was ruled in tribes without a political
Union. Was there anything like the concept of Human Right in traditional
African society? Dankwa declared that
long before the advent of colonialism, Africans had a notion of Human Rights.
Bello, another African writer echoed that human rights were not alien to the
African society. The difficulties were that there was no documentary
information. Sir Osita Eze maintained that though there were human rights in
Nigeria they were limited and not universal as compared to that attainable in
the western world.
It is often said that culture remains an elastic
but virtually an indestructible convey bills through which basic values are fed
to its product, consequently, by virtue of this, we had our chiefs who were
democratic because decisions were made by kings in council, before a person
could be punish for any crime, the person must have been heard, if a decision
is taken all members of the community will be informed through the “town crier”
there was freedom of speech and respect for one another. There was freedom of
association, right to life etc .However, there were gross denial and violation
of Human right in traditional Nigeria society, take for instance the killing of
twins ,practice of slavery, the use of Human beings to make sacrifices in the
name of appeasing the gods, through the Osu caste system. Even the 1789 world
declaration of human rights did not stop these barbaric acts.
Secondly, Human Right also suffered unbelievably
even with the advent of colonialism, there was economic, political and social
domination of the colonial masters, they were also oppressive discriminating
and repressive. Read, captured this in his words “colonial rule was essentially
authoritarian and even the introduction of English law as the basis for local
legal system did not result in the colonial subjects enjoying the full rights
of liberty”. Sir Eze said, “the colonial rule was racist and authoritarian in
spite of declaration to the contrary”. It is no denial of the fact that freedom
of speech, association, press were denied to silence critical opinions.
However, during this period Human right gained a significant improvement
because the killing of twins and killing of humans for sacrifices was brought
to an end, they also introduced some fine human right principles like the
abolition of repugnant laws e.g. slave
trading , which led to the abolition of slave trade treaty 1956 , The
convention relating to refugees 1967 was another success recorded during the
colonial era, and the Convention on political rights of women 1953 which
abolished the discrimination of women in politics, trial by ordeal and the
ridiculous belief of witchcraft.
Third, by 1960 Nigeria was no longer under
colonial rule, at becoming a republic in 1963, Nigeria, was first ruled by a
Governor–General and a Prime Minister in persons of Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe and Sir
Tafewa Belewa respectively. It is worthy to mention that before then, Nigeria
was already a signatory to the 1948 Universal declaration of human rights. By
the 1960 independence constitution and 1963 republic constitution The
principles of human right were all contained in it and procedure for
enforcement and promotion were also enshrined, this led to the establishment of
Human Right commission, for the promotion and enforcement of it thereof, also
in the constitution there was a frame work for preserving human dignity,
division of powers, rights and obligation of citizens. However , the
intervention of Military Rule in 1966 led to a government of force and
suppression, most fundamental human rights were suspended by way of decrees and
edicts, from The Era of Generals Murtala Mohammed to Olusegun Obasanjo,
Mohammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Bababginda , Sani Abacha , the military no matter who
ruled had one characteristic, compulsory retirement of civil servants without
due process, Buharis regime was the hall mark, he practically suspended all
human rights, Abachas was the worst.
Nonetheless, the people never relented in advocating for their rights,
there was the Civil Liberty Organization led by the Young lawyer (as of then)
Olisa Agbakobe, other groups such as
NANS , NBA, NLC where unwavering in their criticisms of the violations of human
rights by these military Juntas , Individuals such as Wole Soyinka, Rotimi
Williams , Gani Fawhenmi, Ransome Kuti et al made sure their voices were heard,
during the military era, we had the celebrated cases of WILLIAMS V.
MAJEKODUMI ; where the plaintiff a legal Adviser to the then Action Group
(AG) had his movement restricted to a radius of two miles from his house , the
court was on the rescue to hold that such acts amounts to a violation of human
right. Also in the case of SHUGABA DARMAIN V. MINISTER OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS,
The applicant a Senator of the federal republic was forcefully extradited from
Nigeria to Chad, ostensibly for political reasons, the court living to its name
as the last hope of the common man held that such acts is gross and amounts to
a total violation of human right.
You will want to agree with me that the best form
of government is civilian government specifically in a democratic setting.
Constitutional democracy is often described as the best form of government
which can guarantee the protection and promotion of human right.
Consequently, the various constitutions from the 1960 independence
constitution, to the republican constitution, the second and third republic
constitution of 1979 and 1989 respectively, all had elaborate sections on human
rights. Nigeria showed and kept on showing its commitment to the advancement of
human right by been party to several International human right treaties, these
treaties have been adopted and domesticated, some of which are, The convention
relating to refugees 1967, Convention on political rights of women 1953,
convention on abolition of slave trade 1956 , the African charter on peoples and human rights
1981, among others.
The most recent Authority which provides for
human rights is the 1999 constitution of Nigeria (as amended), this
constitution details out the requirement for human dignity and amplifies the
scope of human rights, and this is provided for in chapter 2 and chapter 4 of
the 1999 constitution. Chapter 4 specifically talks of FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHTS
from section 33 to section 46. Also, the concept of representative Government,
separation of powers, checks and balance, reasonable distribution of the
Nations common wealth are all laid down in the 1999 constitutions, this is believed
that it will help prevent abuse of man’s right. It is to be noted here that
human rights are not absolute hence there are limitations and can also be
derogated, the aspect of derogation is base on the principle “salus populis ex
suprema lex”, derogation can be done in terms of emergency as enshrined in
section 45 of the 1999 constitution, although there are key human rights that
cannot be derogated ( 1. Right to Life 2. prohibition of torture and inhumane
degrading treatment 3.Prohibition of slavery and forced labor . 4 Non
retro activity of the law.
However, the beauty of the aforesaid
notwithstanding, there have being large cases of human right abuse and
violations, with extra judicial killing, the 1999 massacre of Odi community in
Bayelsa state by the government of Olusegun Obasanjo, the carnage of February
25th 2008 in Ogadinama Kogi state, the November 27th bombardment of Jos, Plateau state are all
popular cases , the police and the Military are not left out, more often than
not we hear of cases of gross abuse of human rights, the United Nations Report
of 2008 at Geneva accused the police, army , vigilante of abuse of human, the
recent menace of Boko Haram in the North East is another cause for worry with
the kidnapping of over 200 school girls and incessant killings of innocent
citizens daily .
In conclusion, though the road to a better human
right protection and promotion had been murky, Nigeria continues to be on the
right steps towards Human right development.
REFFERENCES:
Introduction to international law; U.O Umozurike
The History of Nigeria; Falola ,Toyin & Mathew Heaton (2008)
Human Right perspective in Nigeria;
Senator Chukwumerize
Collins English dictionary. (Desktop edition)
Bauer gretchen and scoth D TAYLOR
politics in AFRICA ,LYNNE RIENNER
PUBLISHERS PP 104
RESEARCHED AND COMPILED BY:
IWARISO
ZINAMI F. &
KIRIKAREYE .E. TONY
For: lawfaqs.blogspot.com
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