Activists Decry Worsening Human Rights Situation

 

Activists Decry Worsening Human Rights Situation

Human rights activists have expressed deep concern about the deteriorating state of human rights in Nigeria, warning that legal and institutional safeguards are either weak or poorly enforced.

They lamented that many of the country’s most dedicated advocates for women, children, and young people are left to fill the gap where the state fails—often struggling to protect vulnerable groups, demand justice for survivors of abuse, and challenge systemic exclusion.

“Yet these defenders encounter constant intimidation—from mobs, from laws misapplied against activists, and from the reflex of official silence,” the group observed. “The result is a chilling effect: fewer voices and fewer programmes reaching those in need, and a civic space that continues to shrink when it should be expanding.”

Rights activist Ekong Bassey criticised the government’s persistent failure to tackle violations, warning that impunity has become entrenched.

“Whenever wrongdoing goes unpunished, it is bound to be repeated. Nigeria has ignored impunity for years, and the consequences are now plain to see,” he said.

Bassey cited the case of women’s rights campaigner Dorothy Njemanze, who, alongside three others, won a landmark judgment at the ECOWAS Court in 2017 following arbitrary arrests and abuse by authorities who profiled them as sex workers.

The court ruled that Nigeria had violated their rights and ordered systemic reforms, including police training, creation of specialised units, and meaningful enforcement.

“Nearly eight years on, that judgment still reads like an unfinished to-do list. Survivors continue to face harassment, and impunity remains firmly in place. When activists must spend years re-litigating settled principles, valuable time and energy are wasted,” Bassey lamented.

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