The Human rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) said it has compiled for launch in December a National Governance Black Book that has listed all the poorly performing political office holders.

HURIWA has also carpeted the Federal Executive Council and the Senate of the Federal Republic "for enslaving Nigeria to neo-liberal forces in the West by the suspicious approval of a borrowing plan of $5 billion USD to service external debts even when the propaganda machinery of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration had churned out exagerated figures running into several billions of dollars as looted funds recovered by EFCC from government rogues in the last two years.”

Besides, the rights group decried the astronomical rise in the debt profile of Nigeria in the last two years which even by official estimates as released by the Debts Management Office is phenomenal.

The rights group which links the gross violations of human rights across the country as the clearest indicator of the absence of comprehensive good governance practices in Nigeria, stated that the aim of the publication is to highlight the setbacks that democracy has faced including the near total disrespect to the sanctity of human life occasioned by the serial bloody attacks by armed Fulani herdsmen, Boko Haram Islamists and a range of armed freelance killers across the country.

The Black Book of Nigerian Governance Standards, which is set for introduction on the date of World Human Rights Day on December 10, 2017 will thematically serve as a guide book for discernable Nigerians to be used as a potent weapon and knowledge – based arsenal to put their representatives and elected office holders to task to fulfill the sacred campaign promises they made which elicited the votes they secured during the 2015 general elections.

In a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, and the National Media Affairs Director, Miss Zainab Yusuf, the rights group lamented that human rights violations by President Buhari and most of the 36 state Governors have collectively reduced Nigeria to a laughing stock in the comity of nations and affirmed that from empirical data it collected whilst writing the Black Book on Nigeria show that the country is worse than Zimbabwe, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi in terms of human rights violations.

“Our effort in writing this Black Book of Governance in Nigeria is to serve as a historical records of the series of events that have happened in the last two years for the benefits of future research and documentation and to help in shaping positive directions for the future of human rights, rule of law and respect for the dignity of the human person.”

HURIWA argued further: “We devoted substantial sections of this book on the attacks of farmlands and villages all over the country by armed Fulani herdsmen and the conspiratorial silence of the relevant command and control structures of the armed forces under the direct charge of President Buhari. We also took time to document the breakdown of law and order in some parts of Nigeria including the spread of terror attacks and activities of armed Kidnappings For Ransom (KFR).”

HURIWA disclosed that it held validation events in the six geopolitical zones discreetly before the Black Book was accepted for publication under the respected imprimatur of the rights group.

It however, stated that copies of the book would be made available free of charge to Nigerians of all walks of life.

On the rising debt profile, HURIWA recalled that Nigeria’s total debt stock rose by N8 trillion between September 2015 and September 2017, according to statistics provided by the Debt Management Office.

HURIWA recalled that the DMO said the country’s total debt stock as of the end of September this year stood at N20.37 trillion, while the figure at the same period in 2015 stood at N12.36 trillion.

According to information quoted by HURIWA, the aforementioned figures means that within a period of two years, the country’s total debt exposure rose by N8.1trillion. In terms of percentage increase, the country’s total debt rose by 64.81 in the period.

HURIWA said that it is alarming that as of 2015, the external loan component of the country’s total debt stood at N2.09 trillion. However, as of September 30, 2017, the external debt component stood at N4.60 trillion. This means that the external debt component rose by N2.6 trillion or 124.4 per cent.

Besides, the rights group quoted the officials of Debt Management Office as disclosing that the domestic debt component of the total debt, on the other hand, rose from N10.27 trillion as of September 2015 to N15.68 trillion the same time this year.

HURIWA condemned the National Assembly and the Presidency for the current move to borrow $5 billion to service both local and foreign debts even as it expressed disgust that this loan would endanger the future of generations of Nigerians that are unborn.

Update news