NHRC Explains How Slavery Is Thriving In Nigeria As UN Admits Darkest Chapters In Human History

In commemoration of the International Day of Remembrance of Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade (IDRSVTST) on Thursday, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) says that the effect of the age-long humanitarian crisis was still finding expression in so many ways in Nigeria and around the world.

The Commission said that aside from human trafficking, ethnicity is being put forward rather than humanity, hence the dominion of one over another was forming the discourse in Nigeria.

The views of the Executive Secretary of the NHRC, Tony Ojukwu Esq, was captured in a statement issued by the Commission’s Deputy Director, Public Affairs, Fatimah Agwai Mohammed, and made available to our correspondent.

Ojukwu said until people begin to see themselves as one, the feeling of disadvantage will continue to thrive.

“These are discriminations based on the perception that a certain group of people are different and superior to others and this results in a kind of treatment or attitude that makes the disadvantaged group feel inferior or persecuted just like persons who were captured and sold as slaves between the 16th and 17th century.

“And back home in Nigeria we have active discrimination by people who consider themselves as original inhabitants of their region against settlers from other states, (Indigene and non-indigene syndrome)” he added.

According to a United Nations report, “For over 400 years, more than 15 million men, women and children were the victims of the tragic transatlantic slave trade, one of the darkest chapters in human history.”

The outcome, according to the UN, was why over 200 million people overseas now see themselves as being descendants of Africans.

On his part, the UN Secretary, Antonio Gurettes, said there would not have been slave trade if not for the idea of white supremacy.

He said that member states must end racism as part of the measures to bring healing.

“The transatlantic slave trade ended more than 200 years ago, but the idea of white supremacy that underpinned it remains alive.

” must end the legacy of this racist lie and address the pernicious and persistent consequences of slavery,” he said on Thursday.