Violating citizens' rights doesn't mean government is strong - Shehu Sani
The lawmaker who represented Kaduna Central senatorial district in the eighth Senate on Tuesday, December 10, said that Nigeria's human rights record is appalling.
Shehu Sani while marking the end of the 16 Days of Activism 2019 against human rights across the world said Nigeria has become a graveyard for human rights and a mortuary for the rule of law. The former lawmaker who also serves as the executive director of the African Centre for Peace and Development said Nigeria and its people cannot aspire to be a moral power in Africa and the world when the pages of the Books of her laws and constitution misused. Noting that is in the interest of those in power to respect the fundamental human rights of their citizens, Sani said it will be their only protection or defence in the aftermath of transient power. He warned that individuals or groups who currently support or encourage the ills of a government in persecuting others or abuse power will never avail themselves to defend such legacies of their principals when he is out of power. Sani said: "It was the Media and the Civil Society Organizations that stood for the president when he was treated like a leper by the very political class who claimed to be his adherents today." "Violating rights does not portray the image of the government as being strong but demeans and criminalizes it as being crude and brutal. A government that derives its legitimacy from the Constitution must wholeheartedly respect that very constitution," he concluded.
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