• A study reveals how vulnerable Nigerians suffer indignity from persons in authority
Nations desire the global appellation of being civilised. Yet, the civility of a nation is best appraised by the manner in which people within her territory are treated. Nigeria obviously desires being tagged as a civilised country, but is she living up to that status? Amnesty International (AI) gave a hint in the negative through Netsanet Belay, its Research and Advocacy Director in Africa in a report titled, “Welcome to hell fire: Torture and other ill-treatment in Nigeria.” Belay describes the brutality going in the land as “medieval witch-hunt.”
Through that 2014 report released in Abuja, Amnesty derided the thumping and sexual mugging that men, women and children – some as young as 12 – are being subjected to by state’s institutions of coercion, including the police and the military. The report was purportedly based on interviews and testimonies of 500 torture survivors and evidence gathered over a decade. It depicts the military and especially the police force as having institutionalised torture through designated informal torture officers in police stations and military detention camps across the country. The report further reveals that the military, since 2009 when it rose against Boko Haram, had detained not less than 5,000 persons for terrorism, with most being tortured and ill-treated. We are aware that the United Kingdom-based human rights group has over time been engaging the African Commission on human and people’s rights to investigate cases of torture by the police and the military in Nigeria.
The nation cannot afford to ignore inhuman police and military’s torture methods, including routine beatings, shootings, rape and the deployment of electric shock to extract confessions. Quite shockingly too, Amnesty reveals that several victims alleged that they were subjected to nail and tooth extractions as well as sexual violence aside from denying victims access to courts, family and lawyers.
We concur with the group on the need for criminalisation of torture as a tool of investigations by state’s institutions. This becomes pertinent in view of the fact that Nigeria currently outlawed torture and other forms of ill-treatment in its constitution and, as equally underscored by the various international human rights protocols/instruments banning the violation of rights that she was signatory to. We still wonder why previous reports of rights abuses have received cold shudder from official quarters. The promises from government to investigate such barbarity have been fostered with even greater barbarity against the right to dignity and decent treatment of Nigerians.
We cannot exculpate the Nigerian judicial system from the present debilitating human rights conditions in the country. This important arm of government has not been particularly outstanding in its protection of human rights abuses. Although the victims also shared in the blame for shying away from approaching and seeking redress in the court of law when their rights are trampled upon – partly due to high cost of litigation and poverty and; more importantly due to delay in the nation’s justice system.
Henceforth, the Nigerian government must show its readiness to discharge the nation’s obligations under international human rights law by ensuring that no detainee is subject to torture or inhuman and degrading treatment by members of the security forces. In this regard, there is the need for institutional checks to remedy these barbaric acts. We call on the federal lawmakers to ensure speedy passage of the two bills on criminalisation of torture pending before the National Assembly for over two years.
The government needs to respect its laws and other civilised legal obligations if she truly wants to be seen as belonging to the committee of civilised nations. Doing this will demonstrate commitment of purpose that the country’s systems is determined to protect the rights of the citizenry.
