? May report Nigeria?s Federal Government to the International Criminal Court at The Hague, Netherlands

INTRODUCTION

The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, in very clear and unambiguous terms, stated that the primary duty of government is to ensure the security and welfare of its citizens. This provision comes under the general caption of Fundamental Objective and Directive Principle of State Policy, section 14(2) of Chapter II of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It states that power belongs to the people of Nigeria from whom government through the Constitution derives all its powers and authority, and the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.

It is common knowledge that the Constitution is the grund norm or Fundamental Law of the country and any other law that contradicts it, or any part thereof, becomes void to the extent of its inconsistency with it. It follows, therefore, that any government that reneges on any one of these sacred duties has unquestionably lost its legitimacy and, in actual fact, has no justification to continue to exist.

The president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, in his capacity as the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, has the exclusive prerogative to make operational use of the Armed Forces, as per Section 218(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This means that he has all the powers to use the military might of the country, to quell any insurgency in any part of the country.

It is, therefore, incumbent on the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, who at this point in time is His Excellency, Senator. Bola Ahmed Tinubu (GCFR), to exercise the enormous powers under his control, to swiftly and effectively bring to an immediate halt, the ongoing genocidal killings, currently taking place particularly in Benue and Plateau states and in virtually every other part of the country. His inability to do so, which will be either, due to incompetence on his part and / or unwillingness to act. Whichever is the case, this constitutes an impeachable offence, for which the National Assembly should swing into action and do the needful by impeaching and removing him from office, without further ado!

Despite the trillions of naira that is being budgeted every year by the federal governments as national security and defence budgets both at the federal and state levels, people are wantonly been slaughtered all over the country by criminals disguised as Fulani herdsmen, bandits, kidnappers etc., with the governments at all levels doing practically nothing to stem the tide. The killers invade various communities at will, rape women, kill the resident indigenes and in some cases as in Benue and Plateau states, sack whole villages and occupy the ?conquered? territories, without qualms, with the security agencies and the federal and state governments looking the other way. Shamefully, the National assembly that ought to compel the service chiefs to be accountable, has gone to bed and doesn't care about the incessant attacks and killings of citizens.

According to the Take It Back Movement, over 2218 persons have been killed in Plateau state alone, since the inception of the present president Tinubu administration and governor Caleb Muftwang in 2023.

Right to Life

The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, stresses the fact that every Nigerian has an inalienable right to life and provides under Chapter 4, titled Fundamental Rights, as follows; Every person has a right to life and no one shall be deprived intentionally of his right to life, save in the execution of the sentence of a Court of Law, in respect of an offense of which he has been found guilty.

At both the local and international levels, the right to life is legally protected in line with the Constitution and relevant international treaties, Here in Nigeria, section 316 of the Criminal Code which criminalizes the unlawful taking of the life of another, defines murder, as the unlawful killing of a person under certain specific circumstances such as;

Intention to cause death or serious bodily harm.

Acts done in the prosecution of an unlawful purpose that are likely to endanger human life.

Administering stupefying substance to facilitate the commission of an unlawful act.

Willfully stopping the breath of another person.

Section 319 of the aforementioned Criminal Code, prescribes death by hanging as the punishment for the offense of murder.

Does Nigeria have a law against Genocide?

Yes, there is a law against genocide in Nigeria, although the specifics are scattered in various legal frameworks. Whilst there may not be a single comprehensive law on the subject matter of genocide, the concept is recognized and addressed through different legislations, including the Armed Forces Act and the International Criminal Court Act. For instance, the Armed Forces Act, under sections 56 and 57, deems Orders to commit genocide, as unlawful. The crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide and related bills are currently at various stages of deliberations in Nigeria, as of today.

Nigeria has ratified the Treaty of Rome, which defines genocide, and makes provision for the prosecution of offenders at the International Criminal Court.

The judicature in Nigeria, under the Constitution, is therefore expected to uphold International Laws, including the prohibition of genocide. In reality therefore, the jus cogens norms, relating to prohibition of war crimes, prohibition of genocide, tortures, slavery and punishments and sanctions thereof, are operative, within the Nigerian legal Order, even in the absence of national legislation relating to the said norms. Again, the Fundamental Enforcement Procedure Rules 2009 which govern Fundamental Human Rights enforcement frameworks, incorporate instruments, including those related to genocide.

The International Dimension: The Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. (The Treaty of Rome).

The Treaty of Rome was entered into in pursuance of the United Nations General Assembly Resolution, 26 A (III) of 9th December 1948, which came into force on 12th January 1951 in line with Article XIII of the said Treaty. By this Treaty of 1948, the act of genocide was codified as an independent crime in that year and by the year 2022, it had been ratified by 153 countries worldwide, including Nigeria.

Under Article 1 of this treaty, ? ? the contracting parties, confirm that genocide whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and punish?. It then went on to define genocide under Article 2 in the following terms. ?Any act with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group such as;

Killing members of the group.

Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group.

Deliberately inflicting on members of the group, conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction, in whole or in part.

Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.

Forcibly transferring children of one group to another group.

Under Article III of the Treaty, the following acts shall be punishable namely;

Genocide.

Conspiracy to commit genocide.

Direct and public incitement to commit genocide.

Attempt to commit genocide.

Complicity in genocide.

There is no iota of doubt whatsoever that what is going on in Nigeria today, the epicenter of which currently appears to be the Benue and Plateau state axis, are clear cases of genocide for which president Bola Tinubu ought to have acted decisively to stem the ugly tide. Here is the same man who for very flimsy or no excuse at all, declared a state of emergency in a relatively stable and peaceful Rivers state, dismantling all the democratic structures there, in the process, yet is for inexplicable reasons, unable and / or unwilling to act, in a situation where decisive military action is needed to act to swiftly and effectively stop the unnecessary bloodletting, forthwith.

According to Greg Stanton, the founding president of Genocide Watch, since 2015, when Mohammadu Buhari became Nigeria?s president, militias from his Fulani group, have been carrying out ?genocidal massacres?, financed by large Fulani cattle owners, with the active support of the Fulani in the Nigeria Army. Just like Boko haram massacres, the killings by so called Fulani herdsmen, are both intentional and an organized systematic pattern. They now operate in cahoots with Boko Haram BH, and Islamic State of West Africa Province, ISWAP. They use AK47 rifles and arrive in trucks with 100 or more armed killers. They burn and depopulate whole villages and the emptied villages are declared Fulani Emirates and the land ownership is transferred for Fulani cattle grazing.

The then Benue State governor?s order that prohibited open grazing via a duly passed legislation of the state house of assembly, was ignored by the cattle rearers and was effectively overturned by the then president Buhari.

The unfortunate aspect of this whole tragedy is that even with the coming into office of President Tinubu, a non-Fulani, the carnage by the murderous so called cattle has continued unabated. This is indeed a national embarrassment that has to be stopped forthwith. HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) is currently in consultation with our affiliates so we look at ways and means of dragging the federal government of Nigeria to the ICC for failing to put to an end the massive and persistent crimes against humanity and genocide.

? Bring text of a statement issued on Thursday by HURIWA and signed by the National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko.

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