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The Role Of The Military In Internal Security Operations And Human Right In Nigeria
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Human rights are the fundamental features of any true democratic setting
because the essence of democracy itself is based on the idea of human
rights. Human rights are mostly viewed as the inalienable rights of
people (Enebe, 2008). They are the legal entitlements which every
citizen could enjoy without fear of the government or its fellow
citizens. To Kaluge (2013), Human rights are those rights which cannot
be said to have been given to man by man but are earned by man for being
a human because these are necessary for his continuous happy existence
with himself, his fellow man and for participation in a complex society
(P.4). On a wider perspective, basic issues involved in fundamental
human rights are (a) freedom rights – freedom from oppression in its
various forms, (b) participation rights – in the decision making
processes in various sphere of life, (c) benefits right – to food, work,
medical care, education, etc (Ndifon, 2013). In a study of the
development and evolution of human rights (Enebe, 2008; Nwaofor, 2010;
Kaluge, 2013; Ndifon, 2013) classified the stages in the growth of human
rights into three generations, viz: civil and political rights;
economic, social and cultural rights; and solidarity or community
rights. Hornby (2000) in the Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary (6th
Edition) defined abuse as unfair, cruel or violent treatment of
somebody. Along the same view, Longman Dictionary of Contemporary
English described it as the act of using something in a way that it
should not be used. Human right abuse is a violation of human right. It
also means denying human his fundamental human rights as it involves
treating man in a cruel, unfair and violent way or less human. In the
recent past, human rights violations and abuses in Nigeria had held
people down and devalued the nation‟s cherished values (Nnochiri, 2013).
1.2 Statement of the problem
This
human right violation is mostly found in torture and extra-judicial
killings by government security operatives. For instance, Ero (2009)
reported that over 20,000 civilians were massacred with other 50,000
displaced from their homes as a result of the brutal handling of the
Niger – Delta crises by the Joint Military Task Force (JTF). Earlier,
the death of about 50 persons on 25th February, 2008 was caused by the
Nigerian police in Ogaminana outskirt of Okene in Kogi State. Akhaine
and Chizea (2011) reported that 17 people were shot dead by security
forces during a protest in Kaduna state on 17th April and another 118
killed on 27th April in the same state with several houses burnt. Abbah
(2013) and Adetayo (2013) further observed that over 300 people were
killed in the Fulani/Farmers clashes that lasted for 5 months in
Nigeria. Reuters (2012) noted the brutal killing of more than 700 lives
in Bauchi, Maiduguri and Damaturu as a result of the Boko Haram rootless
attack on the civilians. Furthermore, in a latest report on Boko Haram
activities, Osun Defender (2014) submitted that civilians in Nigeria are
paying heavy prices as „cycle of human rights violations and reprisals
gather momentum‟ because according to the 2014 Amnesty International
report, “more than 1,500 deaths in three months indicate an alarming
deteriorations…in the face of extra-judicial executions, attacks on
civilians and other crimes committed on a mass scale†(p.1). Even
though, the Amnesty report observed the rising number of Boko Haram
attacks as “truly shocking†but it also noted the reaction of Nigerian
security forces as “brutal†with both serving as acts that may
constitute “war crimes and crimes against humanity†calling for
immediate investigation and prosecutions (Amnesty, 2014).
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