Excerpt from Nigerian foreign minister's address at the 4th session of the UN committee on human rights.
•Going through the (Universal Periodic Review) reports on Nigeria, we were surprised not only by the amount of unsupported statistics and unfounded allegations, but also the quality of the language used to characterise Nigeria.
•Preposterous allegations were made against Nigeria by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) and the Christian Solidarity World-Wide (CSW).
•Nigeria’s commitment to the promotion and protection of the human rights of all its citizens is irreversible.
•The State Governments that adopted the Sharia, as a law governing Muslims in their jurisdiction have done so in line with the Constitution of Nigeria.
•In over 100 years of the application of Sharia Law in Nigeria, only one person, who refused to appeal his sentence, had his hand amputated for stealing. No person has ever been stoned to death. I am sure this information will provide succour to the delegation of the Netherlands...
• I want to stress with all the emphasis at my command that the democratically elected Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has never and will never condone a policy where members of its security forces deprive any human being of his life.
•In the very rare instances when security personnel have been found guilty of extra-judicial killings or gross misconduct, they are punished in accordance with the law.
•“No person shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman and degrading treatment,” anybody who is a victim of torture is free to seek legal redress.
•The criminal aspect relates to the action of the group calling itself the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta (MEND).For more than years, MEND has been abducting both Nigerians and foreign oil workers for ransom, and sometimes maim or kill innocent persons in the process.
•Many members of the JTF have lost their lives in operation in the Niger-Delta.
•Unfortunately, MEND keeps getting arms from foreign sources, thus escalating the crisis.
•This (the fact that child trafficking, child labour... are still being practised in Nigeria despite the domestication of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child) simply shows that it is not every human problem that can be solved overnight through legislation.
•It is the responsibility of receiving states to ensure that trafficked children are protected (from sexual exploitation)
•The first point to note is that with a capacity of 47,815 and only 40, 193 inmates, the prison system is not congested per capita.
•The relative over-crowding in our prison system is due to the large number of awaiting trial inmates.
•21 out of the 36 states in Nigeria have already passed the Child Rights Act. The Federal Government is supporting states to domesticate the (Child Rights) Act through financial assistance from the Millennium Development Goals office.
•Although, it was only in six out of the thirty six states in Nigeria that inter-religious tensions were experienced, the Federal Government is conscious of dangers sectarian crisis can cause to the stability of any Nation.
•As we have indicated in our National Report, we have no record of any group of Nigerians who have come together under the umbrella of Lesbian, Gay and Transgender group; let alone to start talking of their rights.
•During our National Consultative Forum, we went out of our way to look for the Gay, Lesbian and Transgender group, but we could not come across Nigerians with such sexuality.
•If they are an amorphous group, then the question of violence against them does not arise, let alone negotiating special rights for them.