2023: Tinubu, Atiku, Obi Absent As Presidential Candidates Lament Human Rights Violations At NHRC Town Hall

To mark the 2022 International Human Rights Day, the National Human Rights Commission in collaboration with the United Nations on Saturday held a Town Hall for the 18 Presidential Candidates of political parties contending at the 2023 General Elections.

An Invitation was sent out to all the candidates, Hillary Ogbonna, an official of the NHRC, said to the audience while announcing the presence of 6 out of the 18 presidential candidates.

Honoring the invitation were Omoyele Sowore ( African Action Congress), Adewole Adebayo (Social Democratic Party), Retd General Hamza Almustapha (Action Alliance), Prof. Christopher Imomulen (Accord Party), Sani Yusuf ( Action Democratic Party), while Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party was represented by J.C. Ifemere.

The event which held at the NAF Conference Centre, Abuja, was aimed at hearing from the candidates about their perception of human rights as well as making them realize why promoting and protecting the rights of Nigerians as enshrined in the 1999 constitution and as captured in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights will be their biggest achievement in office and a win-win for the nation.

Each of the candidates was given 10 minutes to speak on their manifestoes in relation to human rights.

Chris Imomulen of the Accord Party said that the recent statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics that revealed 133 million Nigerians were poor is proof that human rights violation in Nigeria is germane.

He promised to replicate his educational exploits as a private citizen in government if given the opportunity to lead the country.

“I gave 500,000 scholarships, built three universities at 39, became a professor at 39 outside politics,” he said.

For Hamza Almustapha(Action Alliance), he lamented that he was persecuted, tortured, and detained for 15 years, vowing to create different prisons for convicts and those awaiting trial.

He said if he becomes president, he would remove investigation from the role of the Nigeria Police Force and strictly restrict it to law enforcement, arguing that engaging in the two issues is making operatives violate people’s fundamental rights.

Omoyele Sowore, candidate for the African Action Congress said what is killing the nation is “regimes of impunity.”

“DSS seized my phones, the government of Nigeria restricted me to Abuja for three years,” he said vowing to discard the 1999 constitution and create a new document that will reflect the will of Nigerians.

Prof Peter Umeadi of APGA said his manifesto captures the protection of human rights while Adewole Adebayo (Social Democratic Party) maintained that human rights is largely a cultural issue.

The program ended without the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party, All Progressive Congress, Labour party and others showing up.

Recall that the LP candidate Peter Obi had through his campaign Director-General, Doyin Okupe, said he would no more attend any town hall meeting where Bola Tinubu of the APC or PDP’s Atiku Abubakar does not physically attend.

Our correspondent gathered that the PDP held a rally in Abuja on Saturday.

Also, the PDP, LP and APC candidates and the rest did sent a representative to the town hall.

THE WHISTLER could not independently verify why they did not honor the invitation from NHRC or send a representative.

But an NHRC Governing Council member told the audience that the Commission will review the manifestos and campaigns of all the candidates and forward their findings to each of them, pointing out their alignment or otherwise, to human rights values.