The Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, CDHR, has passed a vote of no confidence on President Muhammadu Buhari, saying not only has he failed woefully he has also shown that the State under his leadership cannot meet the fundamental purpose for which it was established – to uphold the security and welfare of the Nigerian people.
This is part of the Communique released at the end of the meeting of its National Executive Council held on Saturday, 13th February, 2021 in Lagos.
“CDHR agrees with the National Assembly that no other evidence is required in proof that the Nigerian State under President Muhammadu Buhari has not only failed woefully, but has shown through a combination of lackluster performance characterized by incompetence and indifference, that the State under Buhari leadership cannot meet the fundamental purpose for which it was established- to uphold the security and welfare of the Nigerian people,” the communique, signed by DR. Osagie Obayuwana, National President, CDHR, said.
The CDHR passed the vote of no confidence against the backdrop of large-scale insecurity in the country and the continual impoverishment of Nigerians through anti- people policies such as the recent increase in the price of fuel, the hike in electricity charges, the resumption of protests, the pervasive insecurity nationwide and threat to national cohesion and unity.
“NEC observed that even without a formal announcement, it has noticed that the pump price of petrol has been increased to between N168 and N170 per litre. The CDHR condemns in the strongest terms this insensitive step in view of the spiral nature of the adverse consequences that will follow it, particularly on the standard of living of the average family in Nigeria.
“It is doubly tragic that this increase comes simultaneously with another hike in the tariff payable for electricity. Within the past few months, NEC observed that the charges payable for electricity for the CDHR National Secretariat has more than doubled, from an average of N22,000 per month to N49,000.
The CDHR said it found no justification for those increases other than the quest for profit maximization by those who control the national economy and the lives of Nigerians, adding that the logic of passing the so-called increase in the cost of production to consumers is unacceptable, as it is a recipe for perpetual pauperization of the Nigerian people.
The CDHR also condemned the attempt at intimidating the Nigerian people by the unnecessary show of force by men of the Nigerian police particularly at the Lekki Toll Gate area during the #End SARS protest and the arrest of 38 persons in non-violent protests. It also demanded the immediate and unconditional release of all those arrested.
“We remind the Federal Government that the #EndSars Protests in the last quarter of 2020 were preconditioned by the same insensitive increases in the price of fuel and electricity charges.
“We affirm that the economic policies of the Buhari government by pauperizing the masses on an ongoing basis directly and indirectly fuel insecurity, as they engender acts of desperation on the part of the unemployed and impoverished teeming population of youths, the pretences at insignificant palliatives notwithstanding.
Commenting on the current heating up of the polity and threat to national cohesion and unity, the CDHR put the blame on the Buhari administration, “whose six-year tenure has so far promoted want and deprivation across board for the teeming masses of Nigeria on the one hand and wealth accumulation for a few on the other.”
“General Buhari has through appointment and body language encouraged the thinking that his tenure in office is to promote the ethnic hegemony of the Fulani Stock; some hawks amongst whom who now openly talk of the consummation of the Uthman Dan Fodio Jihad of conquering the entirety of the land mass called Nigeria.
“President Buhari, being an owner of herds of cattle himself, obviously cannot rise above his entanglement in conflict of interest in the Herdsmen/Farmers faceoff. We are not surprised that after the rejection of his Ruga Proposal, he has retreated into subterfuge in shadowy manoeuvres.”
The CDHR also decried the infringement of the fundamental human rights of Nigerians which comes in the form of insecurity, the rise in the incidence of kidnapping, armed robbery, assassinations, the herders/farmers clash, banditry and the scourge of Boko Haram terrorism.
“At the heart of these challenges is the failure of the Buhari government to facilitate and guarantee the enjoyment of social, economic and cultural rights, of all the People of Nigeria, as he is constitutionally mandated to do. The Buhari government has failed woefully to uphold the template of equal opportunity and equal obligations and freedom from discrimination for all individuals and groups without exception in Nigeria.
“The teeming mass of idle youth in Nigeria are vested with rights: the right to education, the right to a job, the right to housing, the right to healthcare, the right to found a family and the right to aspire to the good things of life in an atmosphere where their right to dignity is also intact. Similarly, the herdsman has rights to found and sustain a family and to have children who are also entitled to education and to be equipped with skills with which to serve Nigeria. The herdsman is entitled to the fruits of science and modern and newer ways of doing things, and the right to live in comfort as a matter of constitutional right.”
On the way forward, the CDHR called on the Buhari government to provide opportunities to all the idle hands in the country by embarking on an expanded public works and sanitation program, nationwide.
“This, to the CDHR is the most eloquent and practical way of addressing the issues of insecurity and banditry, and also paying tribute to the legacy of Alhaji Lateef Jakande, whose performance while in office for a little over four years as Governor of Lagos State remains outstanding.”
