DEALING WITH HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSE IN NIGERIA: GENERAL ABACHA ONSLAUGHT 1994-1997

Abstract

This paper analyses human rights abuses in Nigeria during General Sanni Abacha’s regime, the return of Nigeria to democratic rule in 1999, appraised many decades of military rule and its consequent human rights violations. The widespread demand for accountability occasioned by the rebirth of civil society organisations in Nigeria facilitated the formation of the Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission to demand for justice and put a check on abuse of power by those in political authority. The victims’ cry for justice led to an epoch-making announcement on June 14, 1999, by President Olusegun Obasanjo who constituted the Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission popularly known as the Oputa Panel. This study examined the Reconciliation and Justice panel as an antidote to impunity and abuse of power by authorities in post-independent Nigeria. The paper reveals that human rights records remained dismal during the military regime of Abacha because of extrajudicial killings, regular harassments of regime critics, use of excessive force to quell anti-government riots, and infringement on rights of citizens by agents of the state. The Oputa Panel was established to heal the wounds inflicted by military administrations and investigate all incidents of gross human rights misconducts during the Abacha regime. The paper underlines the numerous challenges of truth commission as a tool for transitional justice with specific reflections on the Oputa Panel. The study employed primary and secondary sources to elicit information on the complexity surrounding the operation of the panel. The primary sources involved in-depth interviews and structured questionnaires. Secondary data were sourced through text books and journal articles to complement data from primary sources. Data collected were analysed using historical method.