THE just amended National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) bill, if signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari, will boost the agency’s performance and address its longstanding funding problems, say Mr Tony Ojukwu, NHRC’s Executive Secretary.
“The signing of the bill will help to shore up Nigeria’s human rights records, given that the Commission would do more to deliver on its statutory mandate,” a statement issued on Monday by the commission quoted Mr Ojukwu as saying.
According to him, “the bill will address the issue of inadequate powers and funding that have hindered the effective operation and functioning of the Commission since its establishment in 1995.”
The NHRC Act (Repeal and Enactment) Bill 2022, which was passed by the Senate on April 5, 2022, seeks to repeal the existing NHRC Act 2004 amended in 2010. The House of Representatives is however yet to pass it before it is harmonised and forwarded to the President for final assent for it to become law.
In its statement signed by NHRC’s Public Affairs Officer, Fatimah Agwai-Mohammed, Mr Ojukwu was quoted as imploring President Buhari to expedite the signing of the bill into law.
Mr Ojukwu said signing of the bill “by the President will be one of the giant achievements of the present administration in the area of human rights promotion and protection in the country.”
He added that once signed by the President, the law “will maintain Nigeria’s National Human Rights Commission’s grade ‘A’ position as rated by the Global Alliance of Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI) in recognition of its compliance with the Paris Principles.”
Although the NHRC is statutorily on the first-line charge in the national budget, insufficient funds has often hampered its operations.
The chairperson, Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, Bamidele Opeyemi, while introducing the bill for passage by the Senate on April 5, said it makes specific provisions for the establishment of the National Human Rights Fund to fund the operations of the commission. The bill also provides for effective means of sustaining contributions to the fund.
He noted that the idea behind it was to reposition and streamline the institutional framework of NHRC for improved performance. “A virile and enduring democratic value system cannot be fully entrenched in Nigeria if we do not have an independent and incorruptible human rights institution with adequate funding mechanisms free from unnecessary interference from the Government,” Mr Opeyemi said.
