….says Human Rights Watch acting opposition’s script
The Coalition for Human Rights Groups in Nigeria (CHRGN) has claimed that there’s an ongoing campaign by some foreign civil society groups to desperately discredit President Muhammadu Buhari’s 100 days in office.
The group came to the conclusion that the Human Rights Watch (HRW) is in the forefront of this nefarious plot after extensively studying a report set to be released to the media.
In a statement signed by Executive Director, Maxwell Gowon, on Tuesday, the Coalition revealed that the Human Rights Watch took this shameful path after receiving humongous amounts of monies from the opposition.
According to the group, the HRW’s recently released “mischievous” report was no coincidence with the President’s 100 days in office as it was meant to paint his administration in the negative light.
The Coalition, therefore, advised the Human Rights Watch and its allies in the business of misleading the general public to desist from such nefarious actions in the interest of peace and stability of the nation.
Read full statement below:
It further revealed that the Human Rights Watch as an organization is “not credible enough to issue a report on the state of affairs in Nigeria because there have been unanswered questions regarding its methodologies and presence in Nigeria and other climes it is operating from”.
The Coalition of Human Rights Groups in Nigeria is in receipt of a grand plot by some agents masquerading under cover of civil society organizations to discredit the laudable strides of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Coalition of Human Rights Groups in Nigeria having extensively studied the intended report slated for release to the media in Nigeria wishes to state that the Human Rights Watch (HRW) is in the vanguard of the nefarious plot after huge amounts of monies have exchanged hands.
The Human Rights Watch a supposedly Human Rights Organisation in a news release titled ‘Nigeria’s Military: Holding Children as Boko Haram suspects” attempted to ingloriously portray a scenario that smacks of mischief by stating that the Nigerian Military has detained children without charge for months or years in squalid and severely overcrowded military barracks, with no contact with the outside world.’
While it is expedient to put the records in proper perspective for the discerning minds to make their informed decisions, the Coalition for Human Rights groups in Nigeria wishes to state that the report by the Human Rights Watch is indeed an attempt at discrediting the laudable initiatives of the Muhummadu Buhari led administration.
As a start, the Human Rights Watch as an organization is not credible enough to issue a report on the state of affairs in Nigeria because there have been unanswered questions regarding its methodologies and presence in Nigeria and other climes it is operating from.
It is also on record that in times past, some members of the opposition in Nigeria paid hefty sums of monies to the organization for it to release or to commission false reports on the state of affairs in the country to paint a picture of gloom and despair before the local and international community.
The recent report titled ‘Nigeria’s Military: Holding Children as Boko Haram suspects’ is one of those numerous attempts aimed at causing disaffection in the polity. It is also instructive to state that the report, is intended for mischief purposes as there are no tangibles that suggest that the Nigerian Military would hound women and children into cells in Giwa Barracks in Borno state.
The Human Rights Watch as an organization is one that has a history replete with mischief and activities geared towards achieving pecuniary gains. This is evident in the postulations that the Nigerian Military has indiscriminately hounded young children in detention on fictitious allegations.
In the words of the Human Rights Watch, Children are being detained in horrific conditions for years with little or no involvement with Boko Haram terrorist is at best the fiction of their imaginations. This is expedient of the fact that the Coalition of Human Rights Groups in Nigeria has followed the activities of the Nigerian Military in North-East Nigeria with keen attention, and there has been no instance where cases of indiscriminate arrests were made in North-East Nigeria. Also, to think that the Human Rights Watch could make such bogus assertions defeats common sense.
The Coalition of Human Rights Groups in Nigeria is aware of the grand plot to discredit the Muhammadu Buhari led administration, and it’s consequently appalled by such blatant disregard for the sensibilities of Nigerians and Nigeria as exhibited by the Human Rights Watch.
We are consequently constrained to state that it is too much of a coincidence for the Human Rights Watch to seek to release a mischievous report to coincide with the first 100 days in office of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The report intended for release by the Human Rights Watch is indeed an amalgamation of fictions and half-truths that do not in any way reflect the realities on the ground in Nigeria. So much so that we are tempted to ask specific questions such as in whose interest is the Human Rights Watch advancing? The interest of the over 180 million Nigerians or the interest of a select few that are hell-bent on changing the narrative in Nigeria by calling a dog a bad name to hang it?
The Coalition of Human Rights Groups in Nigeria views such attempt as derogatory and inimical to the overall interest of Nigeria, as well as an insult to our sensibilities as a people, and wishes to bring to the attention of the members of the unsuspecting general public of this nefarious publication that is laced with outright mischief and a despicable attempt at pleasing their paymasters.
The Coalition of Human Rights Groups in Nigeria also wishes to state that since the unfortunate Xenophobic crisis in South Africa, the Human Rights Watch has not deemed it pertinent to condemn it in its entirety, but instead they have chosen to toe the dishonourable path of dancing to the whims and caprices of their paymasters who seem to have not gotten over their electoral failures in the last general elections in Nigeria.
This is also on the heels that since 2009, when the Boko Haram terrorist took up violence in Nigeria, there has never been any record of the Nigerian Military taking into detention children and women. Instead, the reverse has been the case with tales of how Boko Haram terrorist have exploited women and children as shields in the theatre of operations in North-East Nigeria.
The cases of the Chibok and Dapchi girls are still fresh in the minds of Nigerians and the international community, and as such, it is indeed despicable for the Human Rights Watch to attempt to change the narrative in return for a mess of porridge.
The Coalition of Human Rights Groups in Nigeria wishes to state in unequivocal terms that the report released by the Human Rights Watch is at best the height of mischief and a disservice to the advocacy for Human Rights in Nigeria and all over the world.
The Coalition of Human Rights Groups in Nigeria wishes to by this statement sound a word of caution to those that are hell-bent on misleading the general public to desist from such nefarious actions in the interest of peace and stability in Nigeria.
