State institutions failing to protect Nigerians’ rights – HURIWA

The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has accused state authorities and institutions of failing in their mandate to protect citizens from abuses ranging from extrajudicial killings to unlawful detentions and widespread impunity. The organisation made the claim in its 2025 Human Rights Day message, themed “Human Rights: Our Everyday Essentials.” HURIWA said the […]

The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has accused state authorities and institutions of failing in their mandate to protect citizens from abuses ranging from extrajudicial killings to unlawful detentions and widespread impunity.

The organisation made the claim in its 2025 Human Rights Day message, themed “Human Rights: Our Everyday Essentials.”

HURIWA said the theme, adopted by the United Nations Human Rights Council, underscores the urgency of reconnecting ordinary citizens with the fundamental freedoms that shape daily life but are now under severe threat in Nigeria.

HURIWA’s National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, said Chapter 4 of the 1999 Constitution establishes Nigeria’s commitment to universal rights such as freedom of expression, movement, dignity, and the right to life, but these guarantees “increasingly exist only in theory.”

Onwubiko said despite being a constitutional democracy with a longstanding human rights architecture, including the NHRC, founded during the military era of General Sani Abacha, the country has regressed sharply.

“Today, Nigerians are going through grave cases of mass killings, extra-legal killings by security forces, and all kinds of abuses by armed non-state actors, but the National Human Rights Commission is missing in action,” he said.