Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has counselled the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led federal government to stop the attempt at criminalising peaceful protests and other peaceful civic actions aimed at advocating for accountability, transparency and good governance.
This was as HURIWA condemned in strong term what it described as the “unnecessary shenanigans and unsubstantiated” allegations against the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 election Mr. Peter Obi, by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy.
HURIWA in a statement on Sunday, July 21, 2024, noted that both the Labour Party and Mr. Peter Obi’s media office have rubbished the wild allegations by Onanuga, stressing that the statement by the presidential aide amounted to a reckless, careless, ruthlessly lawless rumour mongering overheating the public space unduly.
The statement by Emmanuel Onwubiko, National Coordinator of HURIWA, therefore urged President Tinubu to call Onanuga to order and caution him to stop behaving and speaking like a fascist since only in fascism or totalitarianism is peaceful assembly by the citizens to agitate for good governance criminalised.
According to HURIWA; “Democracy thrives on hearing the positions of all sides and any democracy that doesn’t allow peaceful protest is sick”.
The rights group condemned and described as unconstitutional and illegal, the call by Onanuga for nation’s security services for the arrest and arbitrary detention of Mr. Junaidu ‘Abusalma’ Abdullahi, a Kano-based TikToker, for mobilising mass protests over the country’s widespread hunger.
HURIWA said it completely backed Amnesty International in demanding the immediate release of Mr Abdullahi, accusing the Nigerian government of punishing him for exercising his fundamental rights.
It said; “The Nigerian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release social media activist Junaidu Abdullahi (Abusalma), who was imprisoned in Kano for posting a viral TikTok video calling for a peaceful protest against widespread hunger across the country”.
HURIWA said peaceful demonstrations are legitimate and legally recognised means of passing on a message from the citizens to the government on the way forward in the area of framing and implementation of economic, socio-political policies that would culminate in the enthronement of good governance and the strict adherence to the democratic and constitutional principles of transparency and accountability by government officials.
The group said; “It is shameful that someone who claims to be speaking for a democratically constituted central government headed by Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a tested civil society leader known to have organised, funded and participated in several pro-democracy protests in the past, is now pontificating like a tyrant in his opposition of civil protests.
“It is equally shameful to even recall that Mr. Bayo Onanuga is a trained journalist and yet, he is the person who is deploying incendiary and unprintable terms in denunciation and repudiation of peaceful protests. Such a crying shame!
“It is a fact that the costs of living crisis has become highly combustible and most Nigerians are approaching the points of deaths. Why is this government driving people to their early grave with poor economic policies but yet doesn’t want the dying people to protest?
“This is wickedness at an unprecedented rate. This is absolutely reprehensible and despicable,” it said.
HURIWA warned that if the government doesn’t want people to protest peacefully, then it is directly telling the hungry and dying population to do their worst which might result in very unpredictable and unpleasant turn of events
It urged the Federal Government to chase after the black goat now that it is still daytime.
