Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has accused President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration of mouthing her commitments towards promotion and protection of the human rights of the citizens but in actuality, the government has rapidly become the most notorious human rights abuser with cocktails of oppressive and suppressive tendencies.

It accused the government of emasculating human rights and ride roughshod on the constitutional freedoms of the citizens.

HURIWA said the clearest sign that President Buhari is not committed to the human rights obligations of the government towards the people is his continuous refusal to reconstitute the governing council of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) for five years which makes all his claims to do all within his power to protect human rights and rule of law as hypocritical and spurious.

The rights group lamented that cases of domestic violence, sexual violations of children and incessant applications of torture on suspects by the Police demonstrate that it is imperative that the NHRC must be clothed with the powers enshrined in the enabling Act for a group of distinguished commissioners to be constituted as the board of governors to independently provide the kind of leadership in the rights commission that will energize it to be much more committed practically to combat the rising cases of human rights abuses all over Nigeria.

“The President has on one hand made verbal commitment to allow for the transparent and accountable proceedings at the judicial panel set up by the NHRC on the allegations of police brutality and gross human rights violations by the members of the now defunct special anti-robbery squads of the Nigerian Police, but on the other hand President Buhari has for five years refused to reconstitute the governing council of the NHRC which renders the entire media shows of running the Police brutality investigative panel transparently as a dramatic deceit at best and a political hypocrisy.”

HURIWA recalled that the NHRC (Amendment) Act, 2010 has conferred on the Commission additional independence and strengthened the commission’s power with respect to promotion and protection of human rights, investigation of alleged violation of human rights and enforcement of decisions.

The Amendment Act has also widened the scope of the commission’s mandate to include vetting of legislations at all levels to ensure their compliance with human rights norms.

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