2022 Democracy Day: Nothing to celebrate under Buhari, says HURIWA

Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), on the occasion of the 2022 Democracy Day on Sunday, said there is nothing to celebrate under the oppressive regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).

HURIWA, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, said Nigerians have nothing to celebrate with 1$ now exchanging for N600 at the parallel market, rising unemployment rate and many other myriad of problems confronting the country.

The group said the report card of Buhari in the last one year was nothing to write home about. It stated this while reacting to events lined up for the celebration of this year’s Democracy Day on June 12 and the declaration of a public holiday on June 13 by the Federal Government.

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The Buhari regime had in 2018 declared the 12th of June every year as Democracy Day, in honour of the late presumed winner of the annulled June 12, 1993 election, Moshood Abiola.

But HURIWA said the actions, inactions and socio-economic realities of the Buhari regime in the last one year and in the last seven years do not represent democratic values and dividends.

The group said economically, Nigerians have not gained any dividend of democracy despite being in the 23rd year of unbroken practice of democracy since May 1999. Nigeria is groping under 16.82 per cent inflation rate that has eroded the value of the naira, with the minimum wage as paltry as N30,000 per month. Today, the cost of living has shot up and the poor are now poorer and infrastructural projects are collapsing rapidly.

HURIWA said Nigeria’s unemployment rate continued to rise under Buhari and now at 33.3 per cent, according to statistics by the National Bureau of Statistics, translating to 23.19 million unemployed people.

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HURIWA’s Onwubiko said, “Also, Nigerians do not feel the dividend of democracy in terms of the security of their lives and property. In a report released by a socioeconomic research firm, SBM Intelligence, 10,366 persons were reportedly killed in Nigeria in 2021 in attacks by Boko Haram, killer herdsmen, kidnappers and bloodthirsty terrorists, making it over 28 Nigerians killed daily, a figure that surpasses the number of civilians reportedly killed in the first month of Russia-Ukraine war.

“Between last year’s June 12 Day Celebrations and today, Buhari has committed some of the most unbelievable human rights violations internationally with the mid night Gestapo raid on the residence of Yoruba Nation activist, Sunday Adeyemo aka Sunday Igboho on July 1, 2021, killing two of his aides and imprisoning 12 others for months before their release without any charge.

“In the last one year, the Buhari regime clamped down on free speech which is a cardinal part of democratic tenets, Microblogging platform, Twitter, was banned by the Buhari regime for over seven months between June 5, 2021 and January 13, 2022 after about N546.5 billion economic loss. The reason for the ban is as autocratic and despotic as the regime.

“Buhari has demonstrated a heightened level of incompetence, nepotism, tolerance of large scale corruption by top officials including his suspended Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, for his alleged involvement in a N174 billion fraud; his suspended head of Police Intelligence Response Team, Abba Kyari, indicted in Internet scam involving international fraudster, Ramon Abass aka Hushpuppi; former acting Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu, sacked for alleged graft-related reasons and alleged abuse of office; amongst others.