The government of General Muhammadu Buhari has clocked one year in office having being sworn in on May 29, 2015; and the leadership of International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law (Intersociety) has identified at least 125 Constitutional Breaches & Regime Atrocities committed by the hostile administration in the past 365 days or one year.
The breaches and atrocities covered the process through which the administration was brought to civilian presidency to its policies and conducts in the past 365 days or one year. This simply means that in each of the past 12 months, the administration of General Muhammadu Buhari committed at least ten constitutional breaches and regime atrocities against Nigerians and the 1999 Constitution. The constitutional breaches and regime atrocities are numbered and summarized below:
Electoral Roguery & Breaches That Produced Buhari’s Presidency (Contains 15 Constitutional Breaches)
1.Gross manipulation (i.e. hoarding, defacing, diversion, destruction and non-production) of issuance and distribution of permanent voters cards with gross numerical disparity designed to favour north against the south leading to highly divisive presidential poll that brought the regime to power.
2. Deliberate and scientific exclusion from voting of 12 million registered voters dominated by southern and northern minority populations designed to produce Buhari’s Presidency at all costs, leading to its highly divisive emergence.
3. Creation of mobile voting centers for Muslim IDPs and refusal to make same or similar arrangements for IDPs of Southeast and minority nationalities’ extraction such as through voters’ cards’ transfer provided in the Electoral Act of 2010.
4. Exclusion through stringent voter registration conditions during voters’ registration exercises of at least 20 million Nigerians of voting age dominated by southerners and other minority nationalities.
5. Introduction of mal-functional card readers contrary to the Electoral Act of 2010 designed to further shut out and weaken southern voting population.
6. Massive deployment and use of millions of under-age voters in the north designed to shore up northern Muslim voting population during the referenced controversial polls.
7. Demographic and scientific manipulation of the 2015 presidential poll as opposed to all inclusive polls befitting a pluralistic and multicultural democratic society like Nigeria. 8. Resurgence through deliberate official (INEC) policies and actions of ethnic, religious and political divisions in the 2015 presidential poll and deepening of same through policies and actions by the Buhari’s Presidency.
9. Improper composition of the statutory board of INEC.
10. Non conduct and conclusion of outstanding parliamentary rerun polls across the country particularly in the opposition strongholds of the Southeast and South-south regions, over 12 months after the conduct of the country’s main polls and with particular reference to Senatorial vacancies in Anambra Central, Imo North, Kogi East and three Senatorial seats in Rivers State; nine House of Reps seats in Rivers State, two State Assembly seats in Imo State and a number of others elsewhere.
11. INEC’s whimsical and capricious refusal to perform its constitutional duties by conducting and concluding the said rerun polls, owing to its suspected parasitic control by the APC led Federal Government.
12. INEC’s deliberate refusal to revalidate and embark on continuous registration and issuance of permanent voters’ cards to all eligible Nigerian voters of all ethno-religious and gender backgrounds.
13. Retention by the commission of the policy of empowering all eligible Muslim adults with voters’ cards and disempowering of their non Muslim counterparts with acutely disproportionate number of voters’ cards.
14. The refusal by the commission to de-register millions of underage voters it criminally registered in the core north during the last general polls for the purpose of producing the Buhari’s Presidency at all costs. This is one of the constitutional breaches that demonstrate a brazen plot to continue to rig the 2019 elections.
15. Growing incompetence and incapacity of INEC to rise to its constitutional responsibilities and the possibility of the Commission scuttling electoral process and collapsing democracy in Nigeria.
Political Crime/Structural Terrorism: (Some of the most alarming constitutional breaches are listed here)
16. Emergence of perceived arch proponent of ethno-religious divisions and animosity as Nigeria’s President.
17. Resurgence and deepening of ethno-religious divisions and animosities in the country; following divisive and segregated policies and conducts of the Buhari administration since assumption of office in late May 2015.
18. Disregard with reckless abandon and abuse of the provisions of the 1999 Constitution as well as the principles of the rule of law.
19. Massive deployment and reckless use of state coercive establishments particularly the DSS to haunt, hurt and harm vocal citizens and members of the nonviolent opposition contrary to their constitutional rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, personal liberty and movement.
20. Promotion and institutionalization of government of vendetta or vindictiveness in the past 365 days.
21. Deployment and use of deadly or excessive state force or violence in response to the ventilated angers of the civil populace concerning regime decadence, anomalies and failures.
22. Spiral increase in citizens’ insecurity and other unsafe conditions occasioned by regime incompetence, incapacity and violent approaches to issues and challenges of public governance.
23. Vicariously and personally responsible for the regime murder of over 1000 nonviolent and unarmed citizens in the past 365 days.
24. Proxy killing of over 1000 nonviolent and unarmed citizens using the Fulani Janjaweed.25. Killing of over 3000 citizens by violent non-State entities like Boko Haram and Fulani insurgents occasioned by regime incompetence and incapacity.
26. Promotion and running of governance policies of exclusion, segregation and sectional domination.
Corruption Of Anti Corruption:
27. Promotion through nepotism and favoritism of corruption and abuse of office contrary to Section 15 (5) of the 1999 Constitution (abolition of State corrupt practices and abuse of office).
28. Manipulation and bastardization of the anti corruption policy whereby only members of the opposition are labeled corrupt or charged for corruption whereas morally dirty and indicted members of the ruling party including those that funded the election campaigns of the Buhari’s Presidency are shielded or protected.
29.Masquerading anti corruption campaign and using same to seek international attention and support.
30. Rampancy of corruption and other corrupt practices in most, if not all federal public institutions including the Nigeria Police Force and the Nigerian Custom Service by way of open extortion, bribery, kick-backs, contract inflation, over-invoicing, favouritism, nepotism, etc.
31. Using corruption to fight corruption and mainstreaming fake anti corruption for the purpose of confusing Nigerians and misleading the international community.
32. Promotion and encouragement of all dimensions of corruption: morale corruption, political corruption, economic corruption, institutional or bureaucratic corruption and statutory corruption.
33. Massive deployment of State propaganda and falsehood to further deceive and mislead the populace and the international community concerning the true state of the regime’s so called “anti corruption campaign”.
34. Bandying of non-existent figures or amounts in billions of dollars as looted funds recovered so far from “the looters” when little or nothing has been practically recovered.
35. Corrupting Nigerians and the international community with non-existent amounts in billions of dollars as “saved amounts” from TSA, ghost workers, etc; whereas loans amounting to billions of dollars are still being sourced from right, left and center.
Bastardization Of Secularity Status & Federal Character Principle:
36. Gross violation of constitutional provisions of fair and non-dominant geopolitical distribution of public office appointments and resources.
37. Unconstitutional concentration of 99% of top security and civil appointments in the Northwest, Northeast and the North-central zones with the Northwest and the Northeast geopolitical zones of the country taking 80%.
38. Near-total and vindictive exclusion of the people of the Southeast zone in federal governance policies and actions in the past 365 days.
39. Steadily threatening of the secular and pluralistic composition of Nigeria through segregated and exclusionist policies, actions and utterances.
40. Gross violation of non-State religion provision in Section 10 of the 1999 Constitution.
41. Promotion of Northernization and Islamization agendas to the national policy and interest and adoption of Boko Haram’s Islamization and conquest agenda as new integrated national governance policy.
41. Adoption of “Miyatti Allah” livestock policy as a national policy leading to executive nationalization of Fulani Animal Husbandry.
42. Unconstitutional and undemocratic presidential policy and directive for filling of all top federal establishments vacancies with northern Muslim citizens in line with northern Islamization agenda and without recourse to constitutionalism and pluralistic composition of Nigeria.
Gross Disrespect To Rule Of Law & Constitutional Liberties: (The constitutional breaches here are a grave danger to Nigeria’s democracy)
43. Steady suppression of socially cohesive voices or forces and promotion of divisive forces in Nigeria.
44. Promotion of triggers of constitutional dictatorship and muzzling of opposition forces.
45. Quieting and silencing of former mainstream, independent and credible rights based civil society organizations in the Southwest region.
46. Disruption of the unity of the organized labour bodies in Nigeria and infiltration of their ranks and hijacking of their leaderships with government moles and apologists.
47. Gross disrespect to the principles of the rule of law particularly fair hearing and fair trial.
48. Gross breaches of the fundamental provisions of the 1999 Constitution including its fundamental human rights and custodial liberties.
49. Detention of citizens over alleged corruption and political crimes far above periods constitutionally allowed.
50. Denial of detained citizens of their rights to legal representation and judicial bails.
51. Threatening lawyers who offer to defend the accused citizens and cooking up trumped up charges against them.
52. Blackmailing the judiciary as being “uncooperative” in the so called “fight against corruption” and stampeding and threatening its constitutional independence.
53. Threatening judges and forcing them to make judicial pronouncements against those the State tags “State enemies”.
54. Using the anti graft agencies to threaten judges who go against the state interest knowing fully that most, if not all public office holders in Nigeria including the Presidency live far above their statutory emoluments through bureaucratic corruption and other corrupt practices.
55.Indiscriminate and reckless presidential utterances considered hostile and prejudicial to fair hearing and fair trial for those facing court trials and bails.
Gross Administrative Misconducts:
56. Running the federal government without a Federal Executive Council or Government or Council of Ministers for 150 days or five months (May 29 to October 29, 2015).
57. Grounding of major government activities or businesses to a halt for 150 days owing to absence of Federal Executive Council.
58. Making appointments into constitutionally and statutorily created federal executive bodies and offices in manners clearly incoherent with and unknown to the 1999 Constitution and the Civil Service Rules of the Federation.
59.Grossly breaching the Federal Character Principles in making such appointments.
60. Running, some say, a “Tinubu/Miyatti Allah” oligarchic government as opposed to presidential democracy founded on constitutionalism and pluralistic democracy.
61. Gross bastardization and corruption of constitutional democracy and democratic pluralism.
62. Relegation of the 1999 Constitution to the background and governing the Federal Republic of Nigeria with “party supremacy and personal initiatives”.
63. Promotion of parliamentary parasitism.
64. Non recourse to parliamentarianism in matters of sensitive multilateral and bilateral importance.
65. Forming a government cabinet dominated by “the profiteers of the Nigerian woes of the recent past” and failed public office administrators.
Economic Policy Blunders & Failures:
66. Grounding Nigerian economy to a total halt following 150 days without government or ministerial cabinet.
67. Grounding to a halt for 150 days of major activities of all federal educational institutions including all federal universities, colleges of education, polytechnics, special schools as well as newly established federal universities, owing to none release of statutory funds for 150 days.
68. Zero awards of public interest projects in the areas of roads, education, health, rail, aviation, water, agriculture, etc following the absence of government or ministerial cabinet for 150 days.
69. Suspension or stalling till date of public interest projects awarded by the past administration (i.e. 2nd Niger Bridge Project).
70. Abandonment for 150 days of maintenance policy implementation on key public infrastructures like roads, etc leading to their gross decay resulting in untold hardships experienced by the masses.
71. Collection from the Federation Account of at least N900 billion ($4.5 Billion) as the Federal Government share of the federal revenues for 150 days or five months without a Federal Executive Council or Cabinet.
72. Absence of clearly defined economic policy direction for Nigeria that is tailored in international best standards as well as continued leprous reliance on crude oil or petrol dollar economy.
73. Introduction of deliberate and harmful fiscal policy till date aimed at crashing and crushing trade and commerce in which the Igbos who control at least 60% of same are the sole target.
74. Promotion and proliferation of hard currency black markets and hard currency smuggling cartels following ban placed on international currency exchanges by commercial banks, etc.
75. Resurgence and proliferation of illicit or black market mobile hard currency trade dominated by Hausa couriers as was the case in 80s and 90s during the military era
76. Composition of a federal governance cabinet of bread and butter in place of a government of soil and oil.
77. Retention of reckless public borrowing and high public governance cost policies that darkened the administration of the Goodluck Jonathan and grossly impoverished Nigeria and Nigerians.
78. Seventy-percent (70%) official devaluation of the local currency from the Jonathan era rate of N155 per $US to the present N250 per $US.
79. One hundred & twenty-percent (120%) of unofficial devaluation of the local currency from the Jonathan era-N160.00-N170.00 per $US to the present N350.00 –N360.00 per $US.
80. Sixty-percent (60%) fuel price increase from the Jonathan era N97.00 per litre to the present N145.00 per litre.
81. Hyper-inflation and quadruple increases in prices of foodstuffs and domestic appliances and other industrial uses.
82. Similar price increases in automobiles and their accessories and all industrial materials, health products, etc.
83.Near-total abandonment of awards, construction, maintenance and expansion of capital projects in Nigeria since late May 2015.
84. Over reliance till date on imported goods and services to the tune of 95% or more.
85. Zero industrial outputs and non-industrialization of Nigeria’s 33 solid mineral deposits.
86. Reckless borrowings from local and international sources and their channelization into recurrent and non productive sectors.
87. Retention of astronomical costs of governance especially in the areas of office holders’ allowances and overheads.
88. Drawing and drying of Nigeria’s scarce resources using “monthly security votes”, office overheads, bloated allowances and cabinet sizes and nepotistic projects. 89. Rampancy of bureaucratic corruption in government institutions and businesses.
90. Sorry state and irreparable dilapidation of public infrastructures maintained by Federal Government.
91. Horrible state of Federal roads, railway and airports in Nigeria particularly in the Southeast.
92.Absence of revolutionary industrial policy or policy direction for Nigeria compounded by incurable energy sector crisis in the country.
Judicial Interference & Threats To Rule Of Law:
93. Continued domination of federal judiciary by northern Muslims (I.e. Chief Justice of Nigeria, President of the Court of Appeal, Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, etc).
94. Gross executive interference in the affairs of the judiciary particularly by the President’s use of DSS to invite, quiz, intimidate, harass and threaten judges handling high profile cases including election petition cases (i.e. case of Hon Justice Pindigi over River State Governorship matter).
95.Gross and reckless executive interference using DSS and Police in the judicial proceedings and non criminal administrative conducts (i.e. recent ordeal of some INEC officials in the hands of the DSS in Akwa Ibom and Rivers States gubernatorial poll cases).
96. Executive interference and influencing of electoral court proceedings and judgments using DSS (i.e. Hon Justice Pindigi’s public account on how he was threatened, intimidated, harassed and invited for a nocturnal meeting in Kaduna State by the DSS with intent to be bribed).
97. Use of judiciary by the executive as an instrument of vendetta and intimidation against members of the opposition and dissenting community.
98. Use of judiciary to perpetrate and perpetuate long detention without bail of the vocal citizens (i.e. continued detention of Citizens Nnamdi Kanu, Sambo Dasuki, Ibrahim Zaky El-Zaki, etc).
99. Use of judiciary to effect extra judicial and pre-trial detention of citizens merely accused of bureaucratic corruption, leading to them detained far above periods constitutionally allowed; in bailable misdemeanour matters.
100. Use of constitutionally incoherent penal laws to judicially threaten and intimidate dissenting citizens for the purpose of their custodial arrest, detention, torture and dumping in awaiting trial or criminal incarceration.
101. Re-introduction through backdoor of Decrees No. 2 and No. 4 of 1984 by presidentially detaining citizens outside the provisions and processes of the 1999 Constitution.
Insecurity & Other Unsafe Conditions:
102. Death of over 4000 citizens in the hands of the Federal Government, the Islamist Boko Haram and the Fulani insurgents in the past 365 days.
103. Continued adoption of counter terror and insurgency measures that are incoherent with modern intra State counter violence methods leading to gross breaches of human rights and the Geneva Conventions of 1949.
104. Retention of the out-fashioned and out-dated national policy on security adopted in 1979 or 37 years ago.
105. Feeling and perception of insecurity by most, if not all Nigerians occasioned by woeful failure of the present Buhari administration to rise to its constitutional securitization responsibilities as contained in Section 14 (2) (b) of the 1999 Constitution (duty of the State to ensure at all times citizens security and welfare).
106. Failure to protect, safeguard and preserve Nigeria’s oil facilities occasioned by the government militant and hostile policies and failed security intelligence networks.
107.Over reliance on AK-47 driven securitization and promotion of failed security intelligence.
108. Gross failure of the Nigeria Police with its large numerical strength and huge public costs to effectively take charge of the country’s internal security owing to obsolete policing and rapacious corruption.
109.Concentration of the country’s security policy planning and enforcement on gun culture and militancy approaches and gross failure to civilianize policing security through the all inclusive concept of human security formulated by UNDP for municipal use in 1994.
110. Total exclusion of the Southeast zone from the membership of Service Chiefs and steady promotion of triggers of a divided society and laying of landmines for sectional animosities capable of snowballing into regional tensions and violent conflicts of unquenchable magnitudes.
111. Promotion of favouritism and nepotism in the country’s security industry and elimination of merit and integrity.
112. Promotion of ethnic cleansing against the Igbo Ethnic Nationality in the Nigeria Police Force and other strategic securitization bodies whereby in few years to come, no officer of the Southeast extraction will occupy the rank and position of Commissioner of Police, Assistant Inspector General of Police, Deputy Inspector General of Police or Inspector General of Police.
113. Promotion of ethnic and religious divisions and tensions across the country.
114. Promotion of militancy and gun culture at communal, tribal, inter-group and inter-personal levels.
115. Promotion of governance hostility, intolerance and confrontational approaches to governance issues and challenges.
116. Forcing the citizens to resort to self-help and self-arming to safeguard their lives, liberties, interests, cultural norms and values considered threatened by the present Federal Government and its proxy violent entities.
117.Steady flooding of Nigeria with small arms and light weapons occasioned by government combatant approaches and threats to ethnic existence and identities.
118. Acute absence of Human Security, comprising food security, health security, environmental security, community or communal security, physical security, economic security and political security.
119. High rates of unemployment and under-employment.
120. Spiral increase in social deviance and code crimes occasioned by regime and governance failures.
Fundamental Breaches Of International Obligations:
121.Gross violation of Nigeria’s regional obligations like African Charter on Human & Peoples Rights of 1981.
122. Breach of Nigeria’s international obligations like International Covenants on Civil & Political Rights, Economic, Social & Cultural Rights, Convention Against Torture, Child Rights Convention, etc.
123. Breach of Nigeria’s international customary obligations like the International Customary Laws and the Purposes and Principles of the United Nations.
124. Breach of Nigeria’s international humanitarian obligations like the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Protocols.
125. Failure by the Presidency and the National Assembly to domestic outstanding strategic international rights and humanitarian treaties in accordance with Section 12 of the 1999 Constitution.
Signed:
For: International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law
Emeka Umeagbalasi, Board Chairman
Mobile Line: +2348174090052
Email: info@intersociety-ng.org, emekaumeagbalasi@yahoo.co.uk
Barr Obianuju Igboeli, Head, Civil Liberties & Rule of Law Program
Mobile Line: +2348034186332
Barr Chinwe Umeche, Head, Democracy & Good Governance Program
Mobile Line: +2347013238673
Website: www.intersociety-ng.org
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