Since 2015, when Muhammadu Buhari became president, several appeals have been made to him, by well meaning Nigerians, including human rights lawyers and activists to constitute the board of the National Human Rights Commission, as it used to be before he became president, but these appeals yielded no results.
The reasons for these appeals are not farfetched. President Buhari should understand that it in only a well constituted board that has the mandate to resolve cases of human abuse and there are lots of them pending before the Commission. Most of these cases are from the South-South and Southeast. The president needs to understand that these cases cannot be handled by only the Executive Secretary he has appointed.
Most of these cases pending before the commission could have been disposed of if he had constituted the board not long after he came to power. It is generally understood that justice delayed is justice denied. I urge that the President should no longer hesitate to constitute the board of the commission. By not appointing the board of NHRC, the president has stifled the full operations NHRC as the secretary cannot take certain decisions alone.
• Festus S. K Jack wrote from Port Harcourt, Rivers State.