Credible elections are fundamental human rights, not privilege — NHRC boss

From Godwin Tsa, Abuja 

The Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Dr. Tony Ojukwu (SAN), has declared that credible elections constitute a fundamental human right and not a privilege, as Nigeria marks the June 12 Democracy Day.

Ojukwu said the commission commemorates June 12 as a reminder that free, fair, and transparent polls are achievable when institutions respect the will of the people, citing the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election as the clearest proof.

He noted that Prof. Humphrey Nwosu’s Option A4 and the Modified Open Ballot System demonstrated that electoral integrity was attainable through the sincerity of the electoral management body, openness, and strict fidelity to the law.

Ojukwu anchored the right to participate in government through free elections on Section 39 of the 1999 Constitution and Article 13 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, stressing that these provisions make electoral participation a legally enforceable entitlement.

He warned that voter suppression, vote buying, electoral violence, and result manipulation were not mere procedural infractions but direct violations of citizens’ civil and political rights violations that, three decades after 1993, continue to undermine public trust, weaken accountability, and erode the dignity of Nigerian voters.

“When elections lack integrity, the rights to expression, association, participation, and peaceful assembly are also threatened,” Ojukwu said.

Ojukwu concluded that institutionalising electoral integrity was essential to realising the right to free and fair elections in Nigeria, pledging that the NHRC stood ready to work with government and all stakeholders to make credible elections a lived reality for every citizen.