Obo Effanga
This year’s Human Rights Day on December 10 has a very interesting theme. It is simply, “Human Rights 365”, recognising that every day is for upholding, protecting and preserving human rights. According to the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, it recognises that the full range of human rights belongs to everyone, everywhere and every time.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights encapsulates the globally-recognised set of human rights every state party, Nigeria inclusive, is obliged to uphold, protect and fulfil. Although all those rights are routinely abused every day and everywhere across the world, that shouldn’t stop citizens from demanding their recognition and protection.
One of such rights regularly abused in Nigeria is the right to participate in the government. By Article 21 of the UDHR, “(1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives: (2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country; (3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.”
For us in Nigeria, this is very germane at this time as political parties and politicians jostle to “capture” the political space. The starting point to the fulfilment of the above human right is for the electoral management body, the Independent National Electoral Commission, to ensure that every citizen entitled to vote is registered and allowed unfettered access to vote. Unfortunately, everything points to the fact that INEC has failed and is failing to register all qualified citizens despite strenuous efforts by the citizens to present themselves for registration.
Even after registration, the society needs to ensure that potential voters can easily exercise their rights to vote. Voting day procedures need to be such as would allow everyone, including those with disability a fair chance to exercise their franchise. And very importantly, every vote must count and have equal weight, if our right to democratic participation in government is to be fulfilled.
Even more important is the provision, under this human right, for every citizen to participate in government personally. It means that citizens should have the right to stand election. But the present manner of politicking in Nigeria seems to have shut many people out of such right. It starts with the hijacking of the electoral space by cabals inside and outside the political parties. This is why many active citizens have stressed the need for electoral reforms. Unfortunately, those who have taken it upon themselves the profession of politics and who ought to be interested in such reforms, more often scorn such demands by the civil society. They do so, on the false belief that since they are currently benefiting from a skewed electoral system, all is well and would continue to be so with them. But they perpetually fail to learn from history. And so, as the primary elections of the political parties continue and many erstwhile powerful politicians get bloodied out of contention by the very undemocratic system they themselves created and benefited from in yesteryears, we can only welcome them to the reality of majority of citizens – rights abuse!
One hopes that rather than whine, like many of them are doing, they will join the rest of the civil society to now champion the cause of this human right to citizens’ participation in government.
The right to citizen’s participation also includes the right to be regularly consulted by their representatives in government and to make demands of them by asking critical questions about how government business is carried out. It is our right therefore to question the government and be critical of the actions of those who manage our affairs.
Nobody should dare see it as effrontery when we question government. After all, as citizens, we are the boss. We are entitled to hire, query and fire our employees – the government officials. That we can do every day and anytime; for that is what Human Rights 365 means!
Effanga wrote from Abuja
