The Country Director of Amnesty International, Isa Sanusi, has said Nigeria’s human rights record is bad, gloomy and unfortunate.
Isa Sanusi said human rights record in Nigeria was not improving. He noted that Nigeria’s human rights record has been going from bad to worse under the current government.
He stated this on Tuesday in an interview with News Central. Sanusi decried the government’s weaponization of the Cybercrime Act to hunt journalists and human rights activists.
“The state of human rights in Nigeria is bad, is gloomy, and unfortunate. We have been going down the hill from bad to worse because things are not improving.
“All efforts done by the civil society and activists to make sure that Nigeria is reasonably human rights compliant is not working because we are witnessing increasing threats to freedom of expression, to the weaponization of the Cyber Crimes Act, and weaponization of defamation accusations, and the attempts to guard journalists and the media,” he said.
Amnesty International Country Director also slammed the government on the economic hardship and continuous rising inflation. He said nothing changed in conflicts in the North in 561 days of the current administration.
He also claimed that Nigerians cannot exercise their rights to protest against the current hardship because the government has no regard for human rights.
“The conflict in the northern part of the country in 561 days we are still where we are. The problems have continued. The removal of pure subsidy I have to mention and I had very dreadfully that our inflation level is now 34.7 percent.
“There was a country where the inflation level was seven percent and they are protesting every day. Our own is 34 points something, therefore human rights is not improving. Things are not getting better and we try every year when a new government comes in to present a human rights agenda for them,” he stated.
Sanusi continued, “We are not saying that they have to do what we are doing but we are giving them the encouragement, the guidance to do the right thing.
“Unfortunately, they always look the other way. It is only when they leave power then they start talking about human rights and which is very very important.”
