By Simeon Mpamugoh

The Dogs And The Baboons: The Human Rights Revolution Nigeria Needs, is eloquent and breezy prose from Dr Allwell Uwazuruike, a human rights expert. The coterie of pertinent issues raised in the book are well woven in a hilarious style.
The 235-page book published by Afritondo Media And Publishing, Great Britain, in 2022, mirrors government in human rights violations on one hand, and the citizens on the other, all contributing to the abysmal levels of human rights consciousness in Nigeria. Uwazuruike avails the reader of the book who is trapped in human rights abuses the opportunity to learn, relearn and unlearn about strategies for the upliftment, education, and human rights protection.
It explores the near total absence of human rights protection in Nigeria and canvasses for a “human rights revolution” as the starting point to reforming the country.
Written in an informal style with a conscious effort to jettison formality in favour of a conversational style of writing, the book mixes humour, street language, legal experiences, and news reports, in covering a breadth of subjects. In the main, it covers the observance of a variety of recognised human rights, borrowing from the author’s legal experiences. It discusses ingrained practices and topics such as mob violence, police brutality, servitude, religious intolerance, poverty, and corruption amongst others in addition to explaining how a national human rights acculturation could curtail and ultimately eradicate these challenges.
Set in Nigeria, the reader can paint by every word, the eyesore human rights unconsciousness can create. Surely engaging, the chuckles elicited from the beginning of the book to the end, through the descriptive skill of the author is indeed heart-warming. For example, where the author narrates the story of a common joke in Nigeria about the recycling of old leaders. One comedian remarks that, as a kid, his teachers used to tell him he was a ‘leader of tomorrow’ and that now, well into his thirties, he finds that the man who was Head of State back when he was a kid is still his president.
“How am I a leader of tomorrow when Obasanjo, who was Head of State in 1974, is still the president in 2007…,” he quips, to rapturous laughter and applause. The author’s legal expertise from which he shares his experience as a young lawyer growing up in Nigeria and undergoing tutelage with Festus Keyamo (SAN) dots pages of the book. It drips of excerpts from social media characters fated to live in a country where human rights abuse is boundless. “Nigerian politicians make their lofty promises and manifestoes, but do not think about human rights. They talk about electricity, roads, education, hospitals and security etc., and only mention human rights in passing. Of course, if these areas are fixed, the country would be a much better place but they are not…,” the author echoes.
Whilst government flagrantly disregard decisions of the courts and thus promotes culture of impunity by cracking down on citizens whose voices are powerful, the citizens are conversely lynching and clubbing fellow citizens to death over allegations of petty thefts, without recourse to the rule of law. This situation, the author contends, counters national and international legal democratic order.
The 235-page book is partitioned into two. It x-rays civil and political rights, economic, social and cultural rights; group rights, as well as abuses by the State, and Non-State actors through mobsters who have no respect for competent courts of jurisdiction. Pages 1-37 dwell on the beginning, second introduction, and the last of the three introductions. It advocates a sort of human rights that the citizens and government will see as principles, culture, way of life and religion. It equally denounces the sad culture of jungle justice and low level of human rights awareness amongst the citizens who regrettably do not even know what human rights are, let alone know that they are entitled to them.
As a lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN), United kingdom and editor of Afritondo Media And Publishing, a platform that won the Brittle Paper’s 2022 Literary Platform of the year, Uwazuruike describes civil and political rights as some of the basic rights we know like; the right to life, freedom from torture, right to liberty, security etc., while socioeconomic rights are referred to those rights that addressed the economic, social and cultural needs of the individual or group such as rights to health, education, work, food, housing, social security etc. He notes that group rights are collective such as right to self-determination. “When we talk about human rights, we are saying that the state has either violated a right or failed in its duty to stop an individual from violating their rights,” he writes. In addressing some of the key civil and political rights, the author uses recent news stories in Nigeria with an aim to showcase what we have done wrong, how we got them wrong, and how we can remedy the situation. He shares his human rights journey and first-hand experience of corruption in the Nigeria’s judiciary as well as killings by vicious government under what he labels as ‘floating Shadow’ which derives from the fact that the killings were not accounted for and there was no official inquests and punishment to deter others. “Except the Aluu Four ‘Killing’ which got encouraging public condemnation, Nigeria’s horrific lynching and savage killings never got the deserved public attention and cautions,” he notes. There are a total of 12 civil rights, 6 socioeconomic rights and 5 group rights highlighted in the book, all of which are routinely violated in Nigeria. It wonders why no one is seeing the violations from human rights angle, and no one is doing anything about it.
He exemplifies some of the human rights abuses that dot the country’s landscape; the social media platforms as well as the reactions of the citizens to them in comparison to saner climes, while providing histories of government malfeasance in human rights protection and suggests ways to enable the emergence of true leaders of tomorrow with strong background on human rights principles. The author points out how “year after year, individuals at the helms of Nigerian policies have treated the rule of law and human rights as inconvenient detraction,” adding “they simply do not believe in them hence the well-being and human rights of citizens always take backstage…,”
Pages 45-181 present the kernel of the book by identifying various rights and examining them one after the other in what the author subtitles: “These human rights sef. How we go take know them?” In providing the answer, he cites chapter IV, section 33 of the constitution which is in tandem with article 2 of the European Convention in Human Rights to support his claim that right to life is top of the list. Uwazuruike unfurls key threats to right to life which include: ‘The executive executioners, presidential directive, positive duties under the right to life, the dogs and the baboons, and suffer not the witch to live. He urges Nigerian government to wake up. “Nigerian people should sit up. Enough of blood, baboons, and dogs. We need to change our mentality towards human life. We should do away with dog and baboon mentality. We need puppies; cute little puppies,” he states in flowery style. He equally cites section 34 of Nigerian constitution in treating human dignity in page 80 which prohibits practices such as torture, slavery and forced Labour.
On how to fight the engrained mentality of violence especially during elections, Uwazuruike postulates. “First, we unlearn those principles and make a decision to foster the dignity of human beings. The National Assembly must go to work by amending laws that permit corporal punishment such as Article 9 of the children and Young Persons laws, and Articles 17 and 18 of the criminal code all of which permit whipping and other corporal punishment.
The book commends the National Assembly for adopting the Child’s Rights Act, which provides in section 221, that “no child shall be ordered to be subjected to corporal punishment….” “The ministry of education and relevant NGOs should make periodic visits to schools to reinforce these principles and law. Schools should be made to submit periodic reports on their implementation of relevant provision of the Act. “Under the ‘human dignity,’ “The Rich and Powerful Lord,’ is a subtitle that denote an unspoken belief amongst the rich and powerful in Nigeria that the poor and weak have no rights or human dignity. Intertwine with that, is torture in which the author declares; “We torture or treat people in a degrading manner only when we do not attach any worth or dignity to them as no one tortures someone he/she loves.
The author examines the use of torture by Nigerian security forces in a subtitle; “King of Torture.” In it he uncovers the use of a technique called ‘Tabay’ which involves binding detainees in a crude and painful fashion despite the existence of Nigeria Anti Torture Act 2017, which is designed to deal with the spate of police torture in Nigeria. Read it up by getting a copy of the book; “the deposed kings of torture; soldier come, soldier go”, “slavery: the kind we are mostly guilty of; liberty, security, fair trial, thought, conscience, religion, freedom of assembly and association, discrimination, and periodic festival of blood,” which X-rays our political rights to vote every four year and its attendant electoral violence.
In the book is also the issue of patriotism where he declares. “I can hardly think of a country whose citizens denigrate its name and identify as much as Nigerians. Nigerians are known to hail actions that citizens of other countries would find unpatriotic….”He goes on to suggest, “…for the government to elicit commitment and patriotism from the people, it has to treat them better. The Nigerian State and its machinery, including the police and civil service, need to have the principle of respect of human dignity as the foundation of their policies.” The second part of the book is where the reader will find both the “Beautiful and Unbeautiful.” In it the author examines the socioeconomic rights, contemporary socioeconomic benefits and welfare of citizens. He maintains that government needs to evince change by eliminating corruption, police brutality, self-aggrandizement and poor management of the nation’s resources while the people (citizens) need to eliminate or at least, drastically reduce the culture of violence, crime, jungle justice, corruption, indolence, corruption and tribalism. He proposes human rights acculturation, enforcement and entrenchment as path to deal with the leadership trouble with Nigeria.
He notes in the “Only Conclusion,” that to make real progress, Nigeria must adopt human rights approach to governance and development. “The government and people must work hand in hand to make this a reality not fight like dogs and baboons…..” To curtail corruption, the author advocates a special “Appreciation Fund” to be initiated and supported by the citizens. He sums up by saying that everything should not start and end with protecting civil and political rights, the government must guarantee socioeconomic rights to health, food, education, and work.
With quality print, a common thread runs through the book; Nigeria is under human rights threat. The book is recommended for every Nigerian who can read and write especially NGOs, legal practitioners and government agencies.