SINCE inauguration of the present administration on May 29 this year, one question that has continued to agitate the minds of critical observers is: How will President Muhammadu Buhari handle the issue of human rights of Nigerians? For those conversant with the nation’s political history, it would not be a surprise that human rights will remain a major issue of public discourse in the next four years under President Buhari.
Barely four months into his administration, what many observers are watching out for is Buhari’s body language with regard to human rights of the people. The reason for this is not unconnected with the antecedents of the former military Head of State whose regime between 1983 to 1985 instilled a lot of discipline in the people but with question marks on the issue of the observance of human rights. It is little wonder that the administration of President Buhari had been on the spotlight locally and internationally as regards his anti-corruption war and probing of the immediate past administration of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.
Not long after his inauguration, President Buhari said that he would limit his probe to the immediate past government of Dr. Jonathan even as he vowed to arrest and prosecute former ministers and government officials, who looted funds and stole Nigeria’s crude oil.
But before leaving office, Jonathan had said any probe by the new government would be seen as a “witch-hunt” if it fails to go beyond his administration. The Clamour by many Nigerians, to extend the probe up to 1999 when Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s tenure began, and even down to the military era that Buhari also ruled in 1983, is premised on the fears expressed, and to test the sincerity of the probe project.
Without sounding patronising, one of the actions that has tested President Buhari’s democratic credentials was the arrest of the former National Security Adviser (NSA) under former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, Col. Sambo Dasuki.
On Thursday, July 16, 2015, on the eve of the Ed El-Fitri festival, Dasuki, was put under house arrest in a manner reminiscent of the nation’s military past, by officers of the Department of State Security (DSS). The allegation against Dasuki was that he had the presence or likely presence of criminal items in his houses in Abuja and his father’s house in Sokoto. The houses were thoroughly searched by the DSS, in spite of protests of Alhaji Ibrahim Dasuki, Snr.
But many caution that whatever the former NSA is accused of, the DSS must remember that Col. Sambo’s fundamental human rights are enshrined in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended). Section 36 (5) states that “Every person who is charged with a criminal offence shall be presumed to be innocent until he is proved guilty.”
There are so many who think that Dasuki’s experience is a witch-hunt by President Buhari, who is not happy with the role the former security adviser played in his ouster in 1985 and build up to the last presidential election. President Buhari’s actions should be devoid of whims and caprices and he should allow modernity and the constitution to influence his leadership styles and policies. That way, Nigeria will continue to support and reap the expected change programmes that his party is advocating. In 1985, when Buhari’s military government was overthrown, Col. Sambo Dasuki and three Majors reportedly arrested Gen. Buhari, on the eve of Ed El-Fitri! Many are wondering whether this is a pay-back time and whether as a civilian Head of State, Buhari is taking a revenge on one of his erstwhile tormentors?
One of the school of thoughts also suggests that Dasuki’s travails may not be unconnected with a suggestion he made in London, that the 2015 elections be postponed for security reasons. Observers caution that the president should not use the DSS, like one of his predecessors used the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), to check his perceived political enemies.
The argument is that whatever may be the motives of the DSS in treating people with disregard to the rule of law, the officers should endeavour to desist from actions, such as wrongly playing the role of the police, which is a brazen usurpation of functions that may be deleterious to the nation’s democratic experiment.
It was the Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose, who captured the arrest of Dasuki perfectly when he said that the persecution of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stalwarts and others remained an ominous sign of imminent return of dictatorship and draconian rule in Nigeria.
But according to the governor, the “invasion” does not have the blessing of Muhammadu Buhari but that it is being done by some people who want to please the president.
He had said: “Democracy is already being put on trial, less than two months that President Muhammadu Buhari assumed office… Rather than invading homes of Nigerians and putting people under house arrest, the government should invade Boko Haram territories and arrest the insurgents.”
“President Buhari should rather keep Boko Haram under house arrest, not opposition party members. Those heavily armed security men that invaded Col. Dasuki’s Abuja and Sokoto homes should have been put to a better use by sending them to the Boko Haram ravaged North Eastern part of Nigeria.
“The president should keep the rising exchange rates of Dollar, Pound Sterling, Euro and other foreign currencies under house arrest. He should pay attention to governance, be guided by the rule of law and be for everyone and for nobody as he promised when he was sworn into office.”
Also in his address to journalists in Abuja, PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, said the action of the DSS was against the tenets of democracy, adding that Nigerians were becoming scared.
Metuh, who said he monitored events around the premises recounted that he was refused entry by security operatives on account that the house was under security watch.
Metuh, who lamented that those who served under former President Jonathan were being humiliated, however, explained that they were not PDP and those that served the former administration must not be seen to be guilty because the PDP lost the March 28 Presidential election.
Metuh said: “I came into Abuja because I read the situation about the invasion of the house of the former NSA and his detention and house arrest. So, I drove to his house as a personal friend to see him and to find out what was happening. Then about seven or eight security operatives came out and they said that I could not see him because the house was under security watch. And I asked them, security watch in terms of treason or terrorism? And they said they were not in a position to say.”
Source:The sun
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