The decision of the United States’ Government to offer immediate but short term military assistance to rescue the abducted schoolgirls in Chibok in Borno State has been described as too late in coming even though it is worthwhile.
This was the position of the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, which also restated its clarion call for Nigeria to enter into comprehensive military pact with the United States of America or the United Kingdom to fortify its capacity to protect its territorial integrity.
Besides, HURIWA has carpeted the Federal Government for occasioning unforeseen inconveniences and total denial of right to freedom of movement of most Nigerians doing legitimate business in Abuja by the blanket security lock down of the Central Business District of the Federal Capital Territory just so that the less than 2,000 local and international visitors attending the three days World Economic Forum for Africa in Abuja can have easy access to the venue of this business jamboree.
HURIWA asked in a statement jointly signed by the National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, and the National Media Affairs Director, Zainab Yusuf: “Why will the commercial interest of the Swiss based independent body known as World Economic Forum supersede the fundamental economic and constitutional freedoms of Nigerians who are not remotely involved in the forum for Africa?”
The Rights group said it was illegal and unconstitutional for the government to arbitrarily shut down a major part of the Federal Capital Territory, thereby denying hundreds of thousands of Nigerians their sources of livelihood as private individuals.
The group said this was done without the Nigerian state making any contingency arrangement to compensate these Nigerians for the economic loses they will inevitably suffer while their business premises remained closed for three days.
The closure and unnecessary security cordons thrown around significant segments of the business district of the nation’s capital amounted to serious violations of the fundamental human rights of Nigerians as enshrined in chapter four of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria of 1999 [as amended], it added.
Rather than arbitrarily close down a chunk of the major business areas without sufficient notice to private business owners by the government, HURIWA averred that the Federal Government would have worked out a more effective alternative venue for the participants of the World Economic Forum for Africa with minimal inconvenience to ordinary Nigerians.
It said in the event that government is bent on hosting the event in the Central Business District, then it would have simply cordon off a few of the roads leading to the venue of the event without necessarily shutting down both public and private economic activities of Nigerians living in Abuja.
The statement added: “Even the closure of government schools amounts to total negation of the right to education of the Nigerian children because these educational activities are also paid for by parents and guardians of these children now forced to stay at home for three whole days just for being students in Abuja even when others outside of the Federal Capital are in school. This is discriminatory and unjust.”
HURIWA stated that the unilateral closure of significant portions of the nation’s capital for the hosting of an independent commercial event like the World Economic Forum for Africa is like a return to the arbitrariness and dictatorial tendencies of the defunct military regimes.
The group said that the closure would occasion huge economic loses to private business owners even as it warned government that such decisions in the future may face a deluge of court cases, which may cost the tax payers huge loses.
On the offer of military assistance by the government of President Barack Obama of the United States of America, HURIWA said the foreign military assistance should cover not just the recovery of the abducted 234 girls being held hostage by Boko Haram, it should be extended to crushing the uprising of the armed terrorists.
The Rights group said the military assistance should include a range of sustainable and significant military presence of the United States Special Forces along the porous borders of Nigeria by the building of joint Nigerian/US military bases and the signing of a mutual military pact on the long term basis.
HURIWA stated thus: “We have consistently called on the Nigerian Government to enter into a military pact with the World’s best known military force which is the United States of America so the Nigerian troops can benefit enormously from the training and other capacity building measures that would follow such military partnership. We salute the United States Government for coming to our assistance but the Nigerian Government should go further and farther by signing military pact. The Nigerian Government must also conduct forensic audit to determine how the huge budgets released to the defense and police sectors have been stolen substantially which is why freelance armed hoodlums have almost toppled the armed forces of Nigeria in their ongoing campaign of terror and crimes against humanity because the Nigerian military is reportedly under equipped and less motivated.”
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