I remembered how we were made to memorize and recite fundamental human rights when I was in primary school. I have a clear memory of how pupils who don't know it all were been beaten and made to pick waste in the school compound.
With the importance placed on fundamental human rights by the school, one would think that as citizens of Nigeria; we had the right to these things. Being kids, we held these rights not just in our heads but in our hearts as well and it took lots of years before we realized that those rights are absolutely not what our teachers made them look like.
The only thing that is expected to hinder someone from enjoying these rights is when an individual breaks the law or commits a crime but that's not the case in my part of the world. People's rights are been trampled on it and it would interest you to know that even some well-known and influential criminals get to enjoy the privileges a man who thinks he is free should enjoy.
A lot of things are messed up in the world and human right happens to be just among them.
I have gotten into this discussion with people and it makes me really angry when people speak about the effectiveness of human rights.
As long as the culprits of what happened at the Lekki toll gate back on the 20th of October 2020, weren't brought to justice, there is nothing like the fundamental human right in my part of the world. It is different in every country but people abroad won't deny the fact that their rights are been trampled on even though not often like we see in Africa.
We all saw how George Floyd was murdered, that man had the right to live but where is he today? These things happen every day and we end up keeping our mouths shut just to save our heads.
If we truly had freedom of speech aren't we suppose to keep demanding justice for the youths that were massacred at the Lekki toll gate?
Some of the people who led the protest demanding justice lost their lives and only the grace of God helped some get out of police custody where they were kept like slaves. Protesting is part of our rights, but we dare not go out there. It wouldn't take many minutes before gas and bullets started flying in the air.
The youth took the war against bad governance to social media and we were banned from using Twitter so tell me where or how we are exercising our fundamental human rights.
I have been a victim twice and I have shared the stories on Hive so I will share a friend's experience where he went through so much brutality even though he knew his right.
We were on holiday at school so we left the hostel. One of my friends lived on the same route as me so we journeyed together. We got to Oshodi late in the night after using over 3hrs on a journey that shouldn't be more than 45 minutes.
On our arrival at Oshodi, we started walking around trying to get a bus. We finally got one and surprisingly my friend discovered his purse was missing, they could have taken his phone if he wasn't holding it.
It was the first time I experienced such at Oshodi even though the place was to known to be the dungeon of pickpockets.
We decided to use the money on me for transport which wouldn't be enough. The plan was to trek when we exhaust the money I had on me and unfortunately, transport fare was high that night.
I alighted first because my bus stop was before his and my friend still had to travel for about 20 minutes before reaching his bus stop.
I was still trekking when he called me that he had reached his bus stop, and was about to start trekking too.
I told him I was going to call when I got home which I did but his lines weren't going through.
I tried reaching him all night but his line was switched off. It was the same the next morning and I became worried, he is not the type that wouldn't say hi to me in 6hrs. Two days passed and I started asking around for his address.
He lived with his friend after Sango, I got there and no one knew his whereabouts. His friend didn't know he was coming home that night and we all started searching for him.
Four days passed, and we involved the police and local security. Everyone was looking for him and on the fifth day, he called.
He said he was arrested by some police officers so we went there.
They put it among criminals for nothing but he couldn't speak at the station, those who arrested him weren't there but the officer we met said my friend was into internet fraud.
All because he has a laptop on him and he didn't have his school ids to prove that he was a computer science student.
We bailed him and when we left the place, he narrated what happened.
He was picked up by the police while trekking home, he resisted them when they tried to search him, and that was what led to the whole problem. One of the police officers said he will pay for struggling with them which he did.
No freedom of movement, and he was denied freedom of speech. Imagine a situation where you can't speak the truth in police custody because of what evil the police are capable of doing.
A lot of youth have lost their lives while exercising their rights and this is one of the many reasons why people surrender easily to the police today. It is better to be robbed by them than lose one's life.
I don't believe human right is accessible for/ by everyone, there is a level of citizens that enjoy those privileges and when you haven't reached that height, just guard your head even when your rights are trampled on. We live to fight another day, the people up there do not care about what right you have or not.