Forty-two days after the Nigerian president, Umaru Yar'Adua, left Nigerian for medical treatment in Saudi Arabia, a group has petitioned the United Nations to hold an emergency session on Nigeria.
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) on Sunday, December 3, asked the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) to hold a special session on the non-compliance by the Nigerian government with its obligations in relation to the realisation of economic, social and cultural rights for its citizens.
A legal responsibility
The petition, signed by SERAP's executive director, Adetokunbo Mumuni, asked the HRC "to urgently consider the deteriorating economic and social rights situation in Nigeria due to President Umaru Yar'Adua's prolonged absence from duty, and his failure to empower the vice president to act as president to sign and effectively implement the 2009 supplementary budget, and the budget for 2010." The organisation argued that Nigeria, as a state party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, "has a legal responsibility to use the mechanism of the budget to allocate and spend maximum available resources to ensure the full enjoyment of the rights to health, education, food, water and housing by millions of Nigerians who continue to live in extreme poverty, with barely enough to eat.
"The present situation in Nigeria is also contributing to the violation of the fundamental principle of non-discrimination and equality, which is essential to the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights," Mr. Mumuni said.
The body contends that extreme poverty has resulted in pervasive discrimination, stigmatisation and negative stereotyping of millions of marginalised Nigerians, "denying them access to the same quality of education and health care as others, as well as to public places."
It also adds that, "the Nigerian government has a responsibility to ensure that, through its budgetary allocations, strategies, policies and plans of action are in place and implemented in order to address discrimination in the area of the Covenant rights."
Starving projects
The organisation said Mr. Yar'Adua's absence and failure to empower the vice president to act as president, since his departure, as dictated by the section 145 of 1999 Constitution, is obstructing the effective implementation of the 2009 supplementary budget and the 2010 budget.
Mr. Mumuni claims that with this stated anomalies "at the beginning of 2010, retrogression in the realisation of these rights is apparent."
Quoting Section 145 of the Constitution, SERAP argues that the president has so far failed to empower the vice president as required by the constitution, "thereby starving critical projects such as education and health important funds and precipitating unnecessary delay in addressing the deplorable conditions of our roads, and worsening the security situation in the Niger Delta.
"This situation is also undermining the effective utilisation of a $300million World Bank (obtained from the International Development Association, an arm of the World Bank) facility for gas to meet the 6,000 Megawatts target," he said.
SERAP claims that the petition meets the requirements of the new procedure, and raises issues of importance justifying the holding of a special session on Nigeria."
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