|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The Nigerian government was happy to announce the invitation extended President Buhari by US president, Donald Trump, to the White House, April 30, to discuss bilateral issues such as fighting terrorism and economic growth. “President Trump looks forward to discussing ways to enhance our strategic partnership and advance our shared priorities: promoting economic growth and reforms, fighting terrorism and other threats to peace and security, and building on Nigeria’s role as a democratic leader in the region,” the White House said in a statement.
But the meeting may turn out to be an unhappy one for President Buhari and his handlers if the recent report release by the United States Department titled “Nigeria 2017 Human Rights Report” detailing human rights infractions, abuse of power, extrajudicial killings, corruption and transparency issues in Nigeria since 2015, will form part of the discussions.
The report affirmed that human rights generally remained appalling in Nigeria. it listed significant human right issues in Nigeria in the period under review to include: extrajudicial and arbitrary killings; disappearances and arbitrary detentions; torture, particularly in detention facilities, including sexual exploitation and abuse; use of children by some security elements, looting, and destruction of property; civilian detentions in military facilities, often based on flimsy evidence; denial of fair public trial; executive influence on the judiciary; infringement on citizens’ privacy rights; restrictions on freedoms of speech, press, assembly, and movement; official corruption; lack of accountability in cases involving violence against women and children, including female genital mutilation/cutting and sexual exploitation of children; trafficking in persons; early and forced marriages; criminalization of status and same-sex sexual conduct based on sexual orientation and gender identity; and forced and bonded labor.”
In support of its damning verdict and as evidence of the impunity with which the Nigerian government operates, the report noted that the Nigerian government does not take steps to hold to account officials who perpetuated impunity whether in the security forces or in civil society. The report cited atrocities committed in the Northeast by members of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF), the army, police and officials who systematically abuse inmates in the various Internally Displaced People’s camps scattered across the region. It also cited the case of the extra-judicial murder of over 348 Shia group Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) and other civilians by Nigerian armed forces in Zaria, Kaduna State and the current unlawful detention of its leader even after the courts have ordered him released. It also cited the extrajudicial killings of members of the secessionist group, IPOB, the continued unlawful detention of Sambo Dasuki and many other such infractions.
The report also took aim at the government’s supposed war on corruption. It avers that “although the law provides criminal penalties for conviction of official corruption, the government did not implement the law effectively, and officials frequently engaged in corrupt practices with impunity. Massive, widespread, and pervasive corruption affected all levels of government and the security services.”
The report presents an unflattering picture of Nigeria under Buhari, puncturing virtually all the supposed achievements of the administration especially in the war against corruption and insecurity and lays bare the series of abuses, impunity, corruption and disregard for the rights and freedoms of Nigerians. The country-specific annual human rights report, which must be produced by the US executive, is a statutory requirement of Congress since the 1970s to know the exact state of human rights situations in the countries they are dealing with and will determine the kind and nature of the foreign, security and trade assistance the US can offer Nigeria and agreements to be reached.
Given Nigeria’s size and population and its status as the largest black nation in the world, the United States has always held the hope that Nigeria will play a leadership role not only in Africa but in the world. Sadly the failure of Nigeria to meet this expectation, held by the United States since Nigeria emerged as an independent country in 1960, has been a source of disappointment and sometimes irritation to Washington and has dogged US-Nigeria relations over the years.
Although the White House couched the agenda of the meetings in diplomatic language, it is obvious the US is worried about the escalating security situation in the country, particularly the killings across many states in Nigeria by Fulani pastoralists and the government’s seeming inability to stop the killings or bring the perpetrators to justice. Worse is that the governors of the most affected states of Benue and Taraba have variously accused the federal government of refusal to act to stop the killings even when they give the government credible intelligence. Much more worrisome is the allegation of complicity in the killings.
The US is also worried about the inability of the government to secure the release of the remaining Chibok girls and how, in that context, the security agencies allowed the Boko Haram terrorists to drive hundreds of kilometres into Dachi in Yobe state to kidnap another batch of 115 girls from their school. Although the government has secured the release of the girls, there are lingering fears about the capability, competences and or collusion of the security forces in the fight against terrorism.
The US is also concerned about the alarm raised by a former Chief of Army Staff, Defence Minister and one of the most respected military general in Nigeria about the non-neutrality of the armed forces. “Our armed forces are not neutral. They collude with the bandits to kill people, kill Nigerians. The armed forces guide their movements; they cover them. If you depend on the armed forces to stop the killings, you will all die one by one. ” Danjuma said.
Christopher Akor
