Human rights group, Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), has scored the President Goodluck Jonathan administration low for failing to live up to the expectations of the electorate.
Addressing a news conference on the state of the nation in Lagos yesterday, CLO’s Acting President, Comrade Igho Akeregha, regretted that “the situation has become so helpless that our people, especially those of us who were in the trenches during those dark days of military authoritarianism, have begun to question why we fought the military in the first instance”.
Akeregha said: “The CLO has watched with agony, how some politicians have, without conscience, plundered our patrimony and squandered our resources. As one of the richest countries in the world, Nigeria parades some of the poorest and hungriest citizens in the world today, with lack of social services, including a persistent inability to supply basic energy and potable water.”
He noted that the insurgency in the Northeast keeps escalating everyday and worsening the security situation in the country. Akeregha said rather than addressed the menace, government functionaries have resorted to observing a minute’s silence for the victims of terrorist acts. ”Our conclusion is that our government has failed in its duty to provide adequate security for Nigerians,” he said.
The CLO leader said corruption, executive impunity and lawlessness have become the most worrisome challenges confronting the Nigerian society. “Things have gone so bad that loopholes in the Constitution are dubiously utilised to entrench lawlessness. Public officers routinely plunder the state treasuries without being brought to book.
“Nigerians have continued to experience wanton and arbitrary abuse of human rights and utter disrespect for the rule of law and due process. Citizens are frequently arrested, detained and tortured in custody without recourse to the respect for their rights. Cases of extra judicial killings, disappearances, disrespect for court orders and trafficking in human beings including lethargy by state agencies to try perpetrators of these violations and abuses have increased.”
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