Human rights activist and lawyer, Deji Adeyanju, has said President Bola Tinubu can’t change the hardship in Nigeria even if he remains in power for 300 years.
Adeyanju maintained that the hardship in Nigeria will continue under Tinubu’s administration because he has no solution to the current challenges.
He disclosed this in an interview with journalists while speaking on other sundry issues like the arraignment of EndBadGovernanceInNigeria protesters, as well as Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi’s presidential moves.
Excerpts……..
What is your perception of the current situation in the country?
This nation, as currently constituted, can be akin to a concentration camp where citizens are forced to stay. And if you doubt me, if you think that Nigeria is not a concentration camp, let’s run a social experiment.
Let the United States of America alone make their country visa-free to Nigerians, and let’s count how many of us will remain.
So that is what best describes this nation—a nation where the rich are not paying for doing business, for buying private jets.
But the poor are taxed to pay triple the price, and now quadruple the price of petrol cannot be said to be a nation for poor people. This nation is anti-poor; by and large, it’s an anti-poor people’s nation, so that is my take. In terms of the economics, in terms of the polity, it does not favor the average Nigerian in any way.
So, a nation where minors are being arraigned for terrorism, for saying, “We are hungry; this is the reason why we are protesting; please, government should help us, government should stop insecurity.”
In response, the government says, “Come on, lock them up for 93 days without food, starve them,” and above all, slams them with treasonable felony charges and parades them like common criminals.
And this is a nation where police chiefs are hustling to take pictures with bandits in Zamfara. They organize an elaborate ceremony, according to them, to integrate Boko Haram members into society. Then you arraign minors in the society for terrorism and treasonable felony charges, so our nation is an irony.
What did those minors tell you about how they were arrested?
Well, from day one when they came to Abuja, we started speaking to them, even before they arrived and were arraigned, we started speaking with their parents. Many of the minors were just in front of their homes when police came to raid.
It was a joint task force of police, SSS, and others that came to raid. Anybody seen on-site was arrested.
One of the minors, whose mother still called me even yesterday, said he was just sitting in front of where they were playing football. So immediately they heard police, everybody started running. You know it’s a Nigerian thing.
And while they were running, police arrested both the adults and the minors—anybody they just saw on-site, they arrested. And subsequently, we started tracing where they were. Where had they been taken to? They said they were taken to Kaduna; some said Abuja.
So we kept going back and forth between Force CID, Force headquarters, and the notorious Abattoir, where there is now IRT and the anti-kidnapping unit, and that was where we eventually found them.
There is nobody in this country that we did not meet, except maybe, just maybe, the president and the vice that we didn’t beg to release these children to us.
We kept at this for over two months; when it became obvious and clear to us that everyone was saying, “We had orders not to release them,” we had to go to court to force their arraignment.
And if not for our actions—filing fundamental rights proceedings against the government and putting pressure on ensuring that the kids were arraigned—I can assure you that the kids would not have been arraigned 93 days later. We had gone to Justice Nwite’s court on three occasions to move applications, and the police intentionally would not come.
And it was at the last adjourned date that we told the court that if the police do not come, the children must be set free.
Only for us to be told that the police had just filed charges against the children and other protesters arrested in Kaduna and Kano. So, that was what led to the arraignment of the kids and the international embarrassment we saw in the open court on the day of the arraignment.
With the recent arraignment of those minors and their eventual release, don’t you think the Tinubu government is a joke?
Their government is not just a joke; it’s a tyrannical regime. That’s the only way to define the government.
You know, the irreducible minimum in a democracy is that the rights of citizens be respected. How can a protest be equated to a treasonable felony when bandits killed a traditional ruler in Sokoto and other parts of the country?
Have you seen any of them being arraigned in any court? Not one person since Tinubu has come on board—not one bandit has been put on trial, not one Boko Haram member is facing charges—but because he’s a chief protester himself, you know, he does not want any form of dissent or criticism; he does not want any form of opposition or protest.
They feel that by slamming treasonable charges and trivializing the offense of treasonable felony, they will be able to scare people from protesting. We just finished protesting today in Abuja. How many treasonable felony charges can one government file in its 4-year term?
The aim was not to prosecute the kids; the aim was to deter people from protesting. They want to send a clear message that if you try it, we will detain you for 93 days. If we can detain children, who are you that we will not detain? We will detain you, dehumanize you, and starve you.
They denied us access to the children several times. They denied us legal representation in contravention of the constitution, and they denied their families and parents access to see them on numerous occasions.
What else could be worse when it comes to the issue of torture? That’s torture. Denied them from feeding; that’s torture, simplicita. The government is just a huge joke; the government is no different from a military regime. There’s no difference.
Tell me, even Abacha did not arrest or arraign children in open court. This president (Tinubu) fled the country when Abacha was looking for him, he didn’t want to be arrested. Today, he is the one arresting children and putting them on trial for treasonable felony while bandits roam freely across
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Daily Post Nigeria
Daily Post Nigeria
NewsHardship in Nigeria won’t end even if Tinubu remains in power for 300 years – Deji AdeyanjuPublished on November 9, 2024By Seun Opejobi
Human rights activist and lawyer, Deji Adeyanju, has said President Bola Tinubu can’t change the hardship in Nigeria even if he remains in power for 300 years.
Adeyanju maintained that the hardship in Nigeria will continue under Tinubu’s administration because he has no solution to the current challenges.
He disclosed this in an interview with DAILY POST while speaking on other sundry issues like the arraignment of EndBadGovernanceInNigeria protesters, as well as Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi’s presidential moves.
Excerpt below…
What is your perception of the current situation in the country?
This nation, as currently constituted, can be akin to a concentration camp where citizens are forced to stay. And if you doubt me, if you think that Nigeria is not a concentration camp, let’s run a social experiment.
Let the United States of America alone make their country visa-free to Nigerians, and let’s count how many of us will remain.
So that is what best describes this nation—a nation where the rich are not paying for doing business, for buying private jets.
But the poor are taxed to pay triple the price, and now quadruple the price of petrol cannot be said to be a nation for poor people. This nation is anti-poor; by and large, it’s an anti-poor people’s nation, so that is my take. In terms of the economics, in terms of the polity, it does not favor the average Nigerian in any way.
So, a nation where minors are being arraigned for terrorism, for saying, “We are hungry; this is the reason why we are protesting; please, government should help us, government should stop insecurity.”
In response, the government says, “Come on, lock them up for 93 days without food, starve them,” and above all, slams them with treasonable felony charges and parades them like common criminals.
And this is a nation where police chiefs are hustling to take pictures with bandits in Zamfara. They organize an elaborate ceremony, according to them, to integrate Boko Haram members into society. Then you arraign minors in the society for terrorism and treasonable felony charges, so our nation is an irony.
What did those minors tell you about how they were arrested?
Well, from day one when they came to Abuja, we started speaking to them, even before they arrived and were arraigned, we started speaking with their parents. Many of the minors were just in front of their homes when police came to raid.
It was a joint task force of police, SSS, and others that came to raid. Anybody seen on-site was arrested.
One of the minors, whose mother still called me even yesterday, said he was just sitting in front of where they were playing football. So immediately they heard police, everybody started running. You know it’s a Nigerian thing.
And while they were running, police arrested both the adults and the minors—anybody they just saw on-site, they arrested. And subsequently, we started tracing where they were. Where had they been taken to? They said they were taken to Kaduna; some said Abuja.
So we kept going back and forth between Force CID, Force headquarters, and the notorious Abattoir, where there is now IRT and the anti-kidnapping unit, and that was where we eventually found them.
There is nobody in this country that we did not meet, except maybe, just maybe, the president and the vice that we didn’t beg to release these children to us.
We kept at this for over two months; when it became obvious and clear to us that everyone was saying, “We had orders not to release them,” we had to go to court to force their arraignment.
And if not for our actions—filing fundamental rights proceedings against the government and putting pressure on ensuring that the kids were arraigned—I can assure you that the kids would not have been arraigned 93 days later. We had gone to Justice Nwite’s court on three occasions to move applications, and the police intentionally would not come.
And it was at the last adjourned date that we told the court that if the police do not come, the children must be set free.
Only for us to be told that the police had just filed charges against the children and other protesters arrested in Kaduna and Kano. So, that was what led to the arraignment of the kids and the international embarrassment we saw in the open court on the day of the arraignment.
With the recent arraignment of those minors and their eventual release, don’t you think the Tinubu government is a joke?
Their government is not just a joke; it’s a tyrannical regime. That’s the only way to define the government.
You know, the irreducible minimum in a democracy is that the rights of citizens be respected. How can a protest be equated to a treasonable felony when bandits killed a traditional ruler in Sokoto and other parts of the country?
Have you seen any of them being arraigned in any court? Not one person since Tinubu has come on board—not one bandit has been put on trial, not one Boko Haram member is facing charges—but because he’s a chief protester himself, you know, he does not want any form of dissent or criticism; he does not want any form of opposition or protest.
They feel that by slamming treasonable charges and trivializing the offense of treasonable felony, they will be able to scare people from protesting. We just finished protesting today in Abuja. How many treasonable felony charges can one government file in its 4-year term?
The aim was not to prosecute the kids; the aim was to deter people from protesting. They want to send a clear message that if you try it, we will detain you for 93 days. If we can detain children, who are you that we will not detain? We will detain you, dehumanize you, and starve you.
They denied us access to the children several times. They denied us legal representation in contravention of the constitution, and they denied their families and parents access to see them on numerous occasions.
What else could be worse when it comes to the issue of torture? That’s torture. Denied them from feeding; that’s torture, simplicita. The government is just a huge joke; the government is no different from a military regime. There’s no difference.
Tell me, even Abacha did not arrest or arraign children in open court. This president (Tinubu) fled the country when Abacha was looking for him, he didn’t want to be arrested. Today, he is the one arresting children and putting them on trial for treasonable felony while bandits roam freely across the country. Bandits operate for 7, 8 hours unchallenged in most parts of the country.
Look at Kaduna; they’ve ceded most parts of Kaduna to bandits. Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara, all have been ceded to bandits. Kidnappers are having a field day in the country. Yet, these kids cannot protest bad governance.
Kids protest bad governance, you arrest them, imprison them, starve them, and slam them with treasonable felony charges, then parade them in front of the camera before the whole world.”
Who do we blame for the arraignment of those minors?
The president (Tinubu) is the person to blame and nobody else, because the buck stops at his table. Every day, the president gets security reports, so you want to tell me that for 93 days the president did not get any report that minors were arrested from Kano or Kaduna?
The president wants to feign ignorance that when the first protesters were arraigned before Justice Nwite, he did not know? With all the noise we kept making that minors were in custody, will the president say he did not know? Of course, the president is to blame because he gave the order for people to be arrested during the protest.
