62nd Anniversary Of UDHR Lecrure by Emeka Umeagbalasi

A Lecture
Delivered
By
Emeka Umeagbalasi (Chairman, BOT, Intersociety-Nigeria

Titled: 62nd Anniversary Of The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights: Political Rights Are Still Endangered By Authoritarianism & Dictatorship Around The World

Our choice of Political Rights as the theme for this year (2010)’s UDHR Anniversary is significant for some important reasons. First, Nigeria had on 1st day of October 2010 celebrated her golden jubilee or 50th anniversary as an independent nation. Secondly, Nigeria and eight other nations in Africa are preparing for their national elections to be held between 2011 and 2012. Thirdly, it is our finding that political rights are a pivot around which other community of human rights rotate. And fourthly, it is also our finding that authoritarianism, dictatorship and white-collar criminality are on the increase in Africa, Asia (Southeast Asia and Middle East), South America and former Soviet Republics and these are the deadliest rivals of political rights.

Political Rights are those parts of human rights, incorporated in the United Nation’s “International Bill of Human Rights” and enacted in 1966, which were opened for ratification in 1976 ( Nigeria ratified them in 1993). They are granted to individual citizens in realization of their political freedoms. This set of rights can also be found in other municipal, regional and international human rights instruments such as the Constitution of Nigeria 1999 and the African Charter on Human & Peoples’ Rights of 1981.

Such rights may include the right of the equality of all persons before the courts and for guarantees before the criminal and civil procedures; the right to recognition as a person before the law; the right to freedom of expression; the right of peaceful assembly and freedom of association; the right to take part in the conduct of public affairs in one’s country or society; the right to vote and be voted for; the right to equality of access to public services in one’s country or State; the right to self determination (African Charter); the right to sue and be sued (section 46 of Nigeria 1999 Constitution); and the right to non-ethnic discrimination (section 42 of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution.

In Nigeria, this important set of rights is still observed in breach in spite of its justiciability by virtue of Chapter Four (Fundamental Human Rights) of the Constitution of Nigeria 1999 and the African Charter on Human & Peoples’ Rights (Ratification & Enforcement Act of 1983) (now an Act of 2004). It is important to point out that another name for political rights is Democracy and Good Governance, which also embodies Civil, Social, Economic, Cultural and Environmental rights. These sets of rights are interwoven. Apart from the fact that political rights (democracy) are grossly disrespected in Nigeria, they also lack local contents, which conform to international standards. To do this, there is need to critically address the internal imbalances especially in revenue sharing formulae, top political appointments, allocation of federal infrastructures, and allocation and creation of States and Local Government Areas. For instance, it is totally wrong to allocate 186 LGAs to the Northwest geopolitical zone of Nigeria and give mere 95 LGAs to the entire southeast geopolitical zone. It is also wrong to allocate seven States to Northwest zone and five to Southeast. The allocations of federal infrastructures, top political appointments and federally collectible revenues are also grossly lopsided.

Another major impediment hampering the smooth operation of political rights in Nigeria is the lopsided zoning of the Nigeria’s Presidency into “North and South”. This colonially created formular is very very destructive. It has made few partners in Nigerian Project to perpetually believe that Nigeria’s Presidency is their “birth right”. The so-called “old Western Region” presently dominated by Yoruba Ethnic Group and the “Old Northern Region”, dominated by Fulani (Hausa Banza) and the Hausa Ethnic Groups are in this destructive school of thought. There are two main regional concentrations of ethnic minorities in Nigeria, those found in the Middle-belt and those in the Niger River belt, which are now accommodated in the North-central and South-south geopolitical zones respectively. The best formular that will ensure equity and credible localization of the Nigeria’s presidential zoning ought to have been predicated on the six zonal arrangements of the Southeast, South-south, Southwest, Northeast, Northwest and North-central and not the grossly lopsided “North” and “South” formular. The sad events unfolding in the Republic of Ivory Coast are examples of the lopsidedness in the presidential zoning. Therefore, the consequences of undermining the smooth operation of political rights in Nigeria are far-reaching. Because of this, Nigeria’s two main sources of survival, politics and economy are in deep crisis. Nigerian Presidency must be made to rotate among the six geopolitical zones.

Unfortunately, the mindsets of our modern-day Nigerian Civil Society Community are centered on habitual criticisms and “medicine-after-death” postures. The concept of laptop activism has compounded the problems of the Nigerian Civil Society Community. Apart from busying themselves with seminars, workshops, expert-written concept notes and proposals, many Civil Society Groups in Nigeria prefer crisis situations than peacetimes so as to attract hard currency funds for the production of solution papers and organization of conflict management and transformation seminars and workshops. The scratch-on-its-surface concept of activism in Nigeria is partly responsible for Nigeria’s socio-political doldrums or stagnancy.

It may be correct to say that the nowadays Civil Society Community in Nigeria has moved from non-profitable ventures to profitable ventures. Some professional NGO Leaders in Nigeria are reportedly richer than some successful business persons. The operational pace of these NGOs is dictated by where Whiteman’s dollar goes (area of interest). If the interests are in the areas of animal rights, lesbianism, homosexuality and abortion, these NGOs will rush to the Corporate Affairs Commission with amendments in their articles of incorporation so as to accommodate these new areas of interest. In Nigeria today, it may be correct to say that there are “billionaire-pastors”, “billionaire-judges” and “billionaire NGO EDs” (Executive Directors). The universal concept of the Non-Governmental Organization is to work assiduously for a better society. This is done through effective checks on government and individual conducts and partnership with government where necessary. The notion of NGO is not to be in a state of war with government. Today, there are a lot of government agencies such as British Council, USAID, DFID, Norwegian Council, etc, through which the activities of NGOs are funded, but in Nigeria, there are none established for the operations of Nigerian NGOs.

Therefore, our concept must change. We must constructively engage the powers that be by challenging their anti-public policies and proffering better solutions. The time of sitting on the fence and allow electoral armed robbers to shoot their way to top elective offices before criticizing them habitually is over. We must start from the beginning by ensuring that people with electoral values are allowed access through the consent of the voters. Human Rights fare better under credibly elected political leaderships than the contrary. Human Rights Defenders also feel less threatened under the same atmosphere.

It is an incontestable fact that the deadliest rivals of political rights are authoritarianism and dictatorship which are accompanied by corruption and poverty. A dictator is an absolute ruler of a land whose source of emergence is other than the right to vote or be voted for exercised by majority of eligible/registered voters. An autocrat is a ruler with unlimited power and authority. An authoritarian ruler is one who ensures by force that the ruled obey authority and rules, even when such authority and rules are unfair and even if it means that they lose their personal freedoms. Globally, Africa has the highest concentration of authoritarian and dictatorial regimes, followed by Asia (Middle-east and ASEAN), former Soviet Republics and the South America. Europe (west), North America and Oceania are most democratic. There are three main forms of democratic leaderships that are universally accepted. These are: those with minimum tenure of office of 3 to 5 years (single term) and those with maximum tenure of 6 to 10 years (two tenures). The third one is where a ceremonial monarch or president with executive powers exercised by the parliament that is product of periodic credible elections. Where a monarch or a president assumes executive powers and hires and fires his or her prime minister, he or she is deemed a dictator or an authoritarian except he or she is strictly regulated by a credible tenure of office within a minimum of 3 to 5 years and maximum of 6 to 10 years. Another exception is where a legislator is credibly found irreplaceable so long as his or her tenure is strictly regulated by periodic credible elections. Such practices could be found in USA, UK, Canada, and Botswana etc.

Africa’s current dictatorial and authoritarian rulers:
1. Colonel Muammar el-Ghaddafi of Libya is the longest serving president in Africa (since September 1969) 41 years, 2. Edwardo Dos Santos of Angola (second longest serving president in Africa since 1979) 31 years, 3. Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea (third longest serving president in Africa) 31 years, 4. Robert Gabriel Mugabe of Zimbabwe (fourth longest serving president in Africa since 1980) 30 years, 5. Hosni Mubarak of Egypt (fifth longest serving president in Africa since 1981) 29 years, 6. Paul Biya of Cameroun (sixth longest serving president in Africa since 1982) 28 years, 7. Denis Sassou Ngueso of Congo Republic (seventh longest serving president in Africa who ruled between 1979 and 1992 and came back again in 1997 till this date) 26 years, 8. Yoweri Museveni of Uganda (eighth longest serving President in Africa since 1986) 24 years, 9. Zine al-Abidine ben Ali of Tunisia (ninth longest serving president in Africa since 1987) 23 years, 10. Blaise Compoare of Burkina Faso (tenth longest serving president in Africa since 1987) 23 years.

Others are: 11. King Mswati III of Swaziland (absolute monarch since 1986 when he succeeded his father, the late Sobhuza II) ( he is the longest serving African absolute monarch) 24 years, 12. Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan (eleventh longest serving president in Africa since 1989) 21 years, 13. Idris Deby of Chad (thirteen longest serving president in Africa since 1990) 20 years, 14. Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia (fourteen longest serving president in Africa since 1991) 18 years, 15. Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea (fifteen longest serving president in Africa since 1993) 17 years. 16. Yahya Jammeh of Gambia (sixteen longest serving president in Africa since 1994) 16 years, 17. Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria (seventeenth longest serving president in Africa since 1999) 11years, 18. Ishmael Omar Guelleh (eighteenth longest serving president in Africa since 1999 when he took over from his uncle, Hassan Gouled Aptidon) 11 years, 19. Paul Kagame of Rwanda (nineteenth longest serving president in Africa (officially since 2000, having been vice-president & defense minister since 1994) 10 years (officially). Other newly emerged dictators/authoritarians are Presidents Laurent Gbagbo of Ivory Coast (10 years), Abdouleye Wade of Senegal (10 years) and Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo (9 years).

It is to be noted that the leaderships presently in place in Niger Republic, Togo, Burundi, Central African Republic, Madagascar, Kenya, Somalia (failed State), and Gabon totally fall short of universally acceptable democratic norms. These countries are either ruled by the military juntas or father-to-son-generated oligarchies which try to legitimize their roguish leaderships through shambled elections. Nigeria falls under consociation democracy. The kingdoms of Lesotho, Swaziland and Morocco are the only surviving monarchies in Africa, which can be described as modified absolute monarchies, whereby the executive powers are retained by them with appendage parliamentarianism.

Happily, Botswana is the most democratic and freest nation in Africa, followed by Ghana, South Africa and Mauritius. Benin Republic, Malawi, Lesotho, Swaziland, Tanzania, Namibia and Mozambique have stabilized politically. In the area of political rights, Malawi, Namibia and Mozambique have fared appreciably. The Great Lakes Region of Africa remains the most turbulent on the Continent. All the five northern African Countries of Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria are dictatorial and authoritarian, whereas the Southern African Region with the exception of Zimbabwe and Angola, are the most democratic, stabilized and relatively free. The East Africa or Great Lakes Region are the most dictatorial, authoritarian and unstable, followed by North Africa (interms of dictatorship and authoritarianism), then followed by West and Central African Regions interms of dictatorship/authoritarianism and political instability.

Internationally, the world longest serving presidential leadership is the Castro Family leadership in Cuba (South America) (Fidel and Raul) who came to power in January 1959, a period of 51 years. Sultan Haji Hassan al-Bolkiah Muizzaddin Waddaulah of Brunei (Asia) is the world longest serving monarch/maximum ruler. He ascended to the throne in August 1968, a period of 42 years. Mr. Ali Abdallah Salih of Yemen (Middle-east (Asia), is the longest serving maximum ruler in Asia. He came to power in July 1978, period of 32 years. Other authoritarian and dictatorial rulers in Asia are King Qaboos bin Said Al-Said of Oman, who deposed his father in July 1970 (40 years), Senior General Than Shwe of Burma (Myanmar) ( military-April 1992)18 years, Lt. General Choummaly Sayasone of Laos (military-March 2006), President Bashar al-Assad of Syria (July 2000) 10 years, and President Kim Jong-il of North Korea, who succeeded his father in 1994 (16 years). North Korea is one of the most secretive, militarized and brutish countries in the world.

In former Soviet Republics, the following rulers are dictatorial and authoritarian: Islam Abdughanievich Karimov of Uzbekistan (since March 1990) 20 years, Nursultan Nazarbaev of Kazakhstan (since April 1990) 20 years, Emomalli Rahman of Tajikistan (since November 1994) 16 years, Alexsandr Lukashenko of Belarus (since July 1994) 16 years, and Liham Aliyev of Azerbaijan (since 2003, he recently won another shambled election). Bahrain, Quarter, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Iraq, Jordan, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan and Pakistan still operate far below the international norms guiding the exercise of civil and political rights as well as ECOSOC rights.
Newly elected leaders of free countries:
However, the following newly elected Presidents and Prime Ministers are congratulated for passing the litmus test of political rights in the course of their elections between 2009 and 2010: Mr. Alpha Conte (president of Guinea, November 7, 2010), Madam Vana Rousseff (president of Brazil, Oct. 31, 2010), Mr. Freundel Stuat (prime minister of Barbados, Oct. 23, 2010), Mr. Gerrit Schotte (prime minister of Curacao, Oct. 10, 2010), Mrs. Sarah Wescot-Williams (prime minister of St. Martin, Oct.10,2010), Mr. Desi Bouterse(president of Suriname, August 3, 2010), Mr. Bronislaw Komorowski (president of Poland, July 4, 2010), Mr. Benigno S. Aquino III (president of Philippines, June 30, 2010), Mr. Pai Schmitt (president of Hungary, June 29, 2010), Mrs. Julia Gillard (prime minister of Australia, June 24, 2010), Mrs. Mari Kiviniemi (prime minister of Finland, June 22, 2010), Mrs. Rosa Otunbayeva (president of Kyrgyzstan, May 9, 2010), Mr. Naoto Kan ( prime minister of Japan, June 8, 2010), Mr. David Cameron (prime minister of UK, May 11, 2010).

Others are: Mrs. Laura Chinchilla Miranda (president of Costa Rica, May 8, 2010), Mr. Goodluck Jonathan (president of Nigeria via Doctrine of Necessity, May 6, 2010), Mr. David Eroglu (president of Northern Cyprus, April 23, 2010), Sir Arthur Foulkes (Governor-General of Bahamas, April 14, 2010), Mr. Sebastian Pinera (president of Chile, March 11, 2010), Mr. Victor Yanukovych (president of Ukraine, February 7, 2010), Mr. Ivor Josipovich (president of Croatia, January 18, 2010),Mr. George Papandrou (prime minister of Greece, October 6, 2009), Mr. Ricardo Martinelli (president of Panama, July 1, 2009), Mr. Mauricio Fumes (president of El Salvador, June 1, 2009), Mr. Madhau Kumar Nepal (prime minister of Nepal, May 25, 2009), Mr. Jacob Zuma ( a tainted personality) (president of South Africa, May 9, 2009), Mr. Najib Razak (prime minister of Malaysia, April 13, 2009) and Malam Becai Sanha (president of Guinea-Bissau, September 8, 2009).

Conclusion:
It is an incontrovertible fact that societies with credible culture of political rights fare far better than the closed and turbulent societies. Such positive societies are economically, socially, culturally and politically stable than those on the left side. In Africa for instance, over twenty, out of her 53-member States are under dictatorship and authoritarianism and over half of her members are politically and economically unstable. In most of the Asian countries, political rights are given the back bench. Similar situation applies in the former Soviet Republics.

However, political rights have appreciated in South American Continent, which used to be the hotbed of dictatorship in the 70s, 80s and even 90s. Political rights have also taken root in a number of former Eastern European countries and have been fully consolidated in Western Europe, North America and Oceania. The Caribbean societies still prefer to live in poverty with dignity than to trade off their political rights in return for bountiful economy under a super-power colonialism.

African dictators and authoritarians must quit! Military intervention in politics is an aberration, but where it is used to dethrone a dictator or a maximum ruler in order to restore credible constitutional and electoral order such as in Guinea, it may be a better option. The sad events unfolding in Ivory Coast where the country now has two Presidents, two Prime Ministers and possibly two sets of Ambassadors, may require the Guinean option other than September 2009 mass-killing of 157 innocent persons and crack down on dissent voices. African intellectuals must no longer be involved in conspiracy of silence. There must be institutionalization of pen-militancy on the Continent so as to dethrone the Continent’s dictators and authoritarians, who have held Africa to ransom and frustrated her from toeing the path of prosperity and openness. We must no longer wait for these leaders to die in office before positive political changes could come.

As Nigeria prepares for her important general elections in April 2011, every indication points to the fact that enemies of democracy are hell bent in truncating the important exercise through judicial and legislative iniquities. The National Assembly of Nigeria has been fingered in some quarters as a leading force that wants to truncate this historic exercise.

Apart from the fact that about 319 mainly public-oriented bills are lying un-passed before them, their ongoing appeal over the status of the amended Constitution is suspect. They are seen by many Nigerians as the promoters of parliamentary irresponsibility. It may be correct to say that they are legislatively idle, collecting bountiful pay packages without any commensurate justification. We also fear that the Nigerian Judiciary may fall in line if care is not taken. She must watch her back; otherwise, her Hallowed Temple may be used by the forces of darkness and enemies of Nigerian democracy to scuttle the electoral processes and the elections proper. Recent court pronouncements on issues affecting the preparations for the said polls are clear cases in point.

There is need to inculcate the culture of citizen vigilantism among the adult Nigerian population so as to ward off any attempts to manipulate the January 2011 voters’ registration and the April 2011 elections proper. INEC must be extremely careful so as not to repeat the electoral tragedies that befell the Republic of Ivory Coast recently. The Ivorian Electoral Commission announced the results of the presidential run-off after mandatory three days and the country’s Constitutional Council arbitrarily annulled the results in Alassane Quattara’s strongholds to give Laurent Gbagbo the so-called “51% lead”. Nigerians, especially the eligible voters must turn out en-masse to be registered to vote. The time of sitting on the fence is over! We must all rise up and vote out most of those occupying Nigeria’s 13,700 elective public offices who found their way to the Hallowed Offices through the backdoor in the last general elections.


Thank You Very Much For Your Attention

Delivered
By
Emeka Umeagbalasi (Chairman, Board of Trustees, International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law)
&
Guest Speaker At A Forum Organized to Mark the 2010 62nd UDHR Anniversary by the Human Rights Club of Legal Research, Resource & Development Centre, Lagos (Anambra State Branch)

Dated: Friday, 10th day of December 2010
Contact:+2348033601078