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From Okwe Obi, Abuja
The International Human Rights Commission (IHRC) has said that the rights of Nigerians are serially abused given the high rate of poverty, dilapidated roads, epileptic power supply, and high cost of living among others.
IHRC observed that the situation had pushed so many vibrant youths into seeking greener pastures abroad, a situation that has led to a brain drain in the country.
IHRC Ambassador at Large Dr Duru Hezekiah, who spoke during the 2022 universal declaration of Human Rights in Abuja, wondered why a country like Kenya could be enjoying constant power and Nigeria is groping in the dark despite its sufficient natural resources.
Hezekiah, who applauded the government for its remarkable giant strides, noted that efforts of the government in providing good governance had not yielded the desired results.
“We are here to see if we can bring back that right that God gave to us. And thank God the world has agreed on it.
“So many people have been delivered from unjust people. So many people have been delivered from prosecution.
“But it is still not perfect. We still have a yearning gap. It is not sustained and that is why we are here. We are not here to fight the government.
“We are here to help the government. We are here to advise the government. There are so many rights that we are not enjoying.
“In fact, if you look at the United Nations Charter of 2015, it is said that development in infrastructure is part of our rights. If development is not sustained it is insufficient.
“When people are not enjoying the development and it is not impacting our lives, it does not make sense.
“And that is why they say that development must be sustainable. Development must be the right of the people.
“And that is why we want to tell our government of so many things that are going bad. Yes, we must commend the government that it is doing a lot.
“Each time you hear our president he makes one comment or the other telling us how he wants the country to grow. But we can see that what they are doing is not enough.
“You can imagine in a country like Nigeria up till now we cannot enjoy 24 hours light. I was in Kenya last month, Kenya had light all over.
“And Nigeria is the giant of Africa. So, what is the issue? The Nigerian government has good intentions. They are doing well.
“But we are not feeling their efforts. Our president should do more. He might not know what is happening. We still have bad roads.
“People are suffering. I saw a pyramid of rice. But today one bag of 50kg is over N50, 000. And yet we celebrated the rice pyramid.
“Our youths are running abroad. Our girls have become sex toys. When they finish abroad they will come back and become a nuisance and add to the sufferings of Nigerians.
“Let us reason together. If we do not reason together we will go back to square one,” he said.
