The United States Government has accused Nigerian state and local governments of allegedly inspiring ethnic discrimination among the citizens, thereby putting the country in a tensed situation.
The US Department of States disclosed this in a report titled “2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Nigeria” and dated March 30.
Recall that there have been pockets of farmers/herders’ clashes in parts of the country, as well as tensions weaved around alleged ethnic dominance and marginalization of some ethnic groups by another.
Advertisement
But Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari, had during the 12th Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu Colloquium on Monday, said that irrespective of occasional inter-ethnic tensions in the nation’s history, “it seems to me that we have all agreed on one point that, notwithstanding our diversity of ethnicity, culture, language and religion, Nigerians are better together; even stronger together.”
However, the US government claimed that state governments in Nigeria and the LGA councils were not mindful of their rhetoric and actions, when addressing issues bordering on ethnicity.
It frowned at governors who ordered a people from a particular ethnic group to relocate to their state of origin, thereby putting them under threat.
The U.S. stressed that the behavior of these sub-national authorities have further put citizens at variance with one another.
“All citizens have the right to live in any part of the country, but state and local governments frequently discriminated against ethnic groups not indigenous to their areas, occasionally compelling individuals to return to a region where their ethnic group originated but where they no longer had ties.
“State and local governments sometimes compelled nonindigenous persons to move by threats, discrimination in hiring and employment, or destruction of their homes. Those who chose to stay sometimes experienced further discrimination, including denial of scholarships and exclusion from employment in the civil service, police, and military. For example, in Plateau State the predominantly Muslim and nonindigenous Hausa and Fulani faced significant discrimination from the local government in land ownership, jobs, access to education, scholarships, and government representation,” it stated.
As for the farmer/herder clash, the US stated that it was rooted in, “land disputes, competition over dwindling resources, ethnic differences, and settler-indigene tensions” while also adding that ethnocultural and religious affiliation played a role in certain conflicts across the country.
Meanwhile, it also observed that human rights violation by security operatives were still significant in Nigeria.
THE WHISTLER reported that many Nigerians had trooped out to protest police brutality across the country in October, 2020.
Unsavory incidents were said to have also happened between protesters and soldiers at the Lekki Toll Gate Lagos and in other places of which panels of inquiries were set up to investigate.
According to the report, security agents sometimes used force on protesters, but it added that current information about killings at the toll gate were inaccurate.
It also faulted state and federal panels of inquiry for hiding their findings whenever it had to do with suspicious deaths by security forces.
“Police forces engaging in crowd-control operations generally attempted to disperse crowds using nonlethal tactics, such as firing tear gas, before escalating their use of force.
“On October 20, members of the security forces enforced curfew by firing shots into the air to disperse protesters, who had gathered at the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos to protest abusive practices by the Nigerian Police Force’s Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).
“Accurate information on fatalities resulting from the shooting was not available at year’s end. Amnesty International reported 10 persons died during the event, but the government disputed Amnesty’s report, and no other organization was able to verify the claim.
“The government reported two deaths connected to the event. One body from the toll gate showed signs of blunt force trauma. A second body from another location in Lagos State had bullet wounds. The government acknowledged that soldiers armed with live ammunition were present at the Lekki Toll Gate. At year’s end the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry and Restitution continued to hear testimony and investigate the shooting at Lekki Toll Gate,” it stated.