"The Other Side of Human Rights"

by

Saro Wiwa

15 Dec. 1985 column (probably from the *Vanguard*). Appears in the collection *Nigeria: The Brink of Disaster* (Port Harcourt: Saros, 1991)

General Babangida prides himself on his human rights record. This record is based primarily on his release of citizens held in detention during the Buhari regime. This action has been welcomed only in part. Nigerians hated to see men like Ebenezer Babatope, Haroun Adamu and Balarabe Musa in detention. But they wanted all those who contributed, by acts of omission or commission, to the current disgrace of the nation to face the full rigours of the law. And because the judiciary, as it exists in today's Nigeria, was, and remains, suspect in the public eye, the method adopted in ascertaining guilt or innocence by the ruling military was not considered outrageous. It is in fact instructive that, to date, General Babangida has not been able to empty the detention cells.

Be that as it may, the interpretation of human rights to mean the release of some persons held in detention is as limited as it is unjustifiable. However, it is exhilarating to find a Head of Government who assumes office on a public plank of safeguarding human rights. At no time in the life of the Nigerian nation was it more necessary to ensure the dignity of all Nigerians and their full participation on an equal basis in the life of the nation. [...]

The ethnic minorities stretch throughout the length and breadth of Nigeria. They suffer very severe disabilities at this moment. They are brutalized at State and Federal levels. These acts of brutalization taken together add to a denial of human rights not too far from the situation in South Africa -- the only difference being that it is not racially inspired, and is not being practised by the minority against the majority.

We submit to General Babangida that the single most important task before him is the opening of the doors of the prisons in which Nigeria's minorities have been locked politically, economically and socially.

The other side of the human rights coin is the re-instatement of the pride and dignity of Nigeria's minority ethnic communities and the restoration to them of a fair share of the wealth which they produce.