CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

INTRODUCTION

Our focus in this chapter is to critically examine relevant literature that would assist in explaining the research problem and furthermore recognize the efforts of scholars who had previously contributed immensely to similar research. The chapter intends to deepen the understanding of the study and close the perceived gaps.

Precisely, the chapter will be considered in two sub-headings:

• Conceptual Framework
• Chapter Summary

2.1 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Corruption

The utility of corruption both as a concept and as a phenomenon is in contest. That is, it is a contested concept that takes varied forms. What is universal is that at least two (2) elements will be involved and the intent is to satisfy pecuniary or selfish interests either directly or indirectly. Corruption is a global phenomenon, and has been with all kinds of societies; be it Advanced, Primitive, Modern or Traditional, as a global scourge. It is a universal phenomenon which presents itself in different colourations and dimensions and,wide spread in terms of coverage. The concept attracts different meanings from different people particularly the social scientists. Thence, its implications for different geo-political zones of the international community constitute a moot point. Corruption like most concepts in social sciences is classified into the group of concept described by Gallie as highly contestable concepts. Thus, the definition that may be attached can be dissected and restricted. Onigu Otite defined corruption as “the perversion of integrity or affairs through bribery, favour, or moral depravity... societal impurity” (cited in Okafor, 2009). Lipset and Lenz (2000) define corruption as an “effort to secure wealth or power through illegal means for private gain at public expense” (Fagbadebo, 2007). Corruption, according to Nkom (1982) is the perversion of public affairs for private advantage. Nkom was also of the view that corruption includes bribery or the use of unauthorized rewards to influence people in position of authority either to act or refuse to act in ways beneficial to the private advantage of the giver and then that of the receiver. It includes the misappropriation of public funds and resources for private gains, nepotism etc. In a similar vein, Doig (1996) described corruption as, the use of official position, resources or facilities for personal advantage, or possible conflict of interest between public position and private benefit. This involves misconduct by public officials and usually covered by a variety of internal regulations (Public Service Rules and Extant Rules). From the above, it is common to find people referring to corruption as the perversion of public affairs for private advancement. Therefore, corruption in this sense includes bribery, kickback, misappropriation, misapplication or the use of ones position to gain an undue advantage. Thus, any transaction which violates the duty of a public office holder and aimed at acquiring or amassing resources illegally for personal advancement and self gratification is seen as an act of corruption. Put differently, any intentional deviant behaviour for personal foredeal is a corrupt act. Gibbons (1976) sees corruption in terms of politics and believes that political corruption has to do with the way public office forsakes public interest measured in terms of mass opinion in order to ensure that some form of political advantage are achieved at the expense of public interest. A more encompassing description of corruption was given by Akindele (1995) who opined that corruption is a socio-political, economic and moral malaise that is usually holistically permeates all the nerves of any society. The concept of corruption, as observed by Akindele (1995), has ideological, moral, cultural and intellectual discourse. Another simple, uncomplicated and encompassing definition of corruption that is found to be useful is the one that sees the phenomenon as the acquisition of that personal benefits which one (as a member of society not public official alone) is not entitled to (Salawu, 2007). Corruption, seen from this perspective therefore represents a departure from what the society considers as correct procedures in exchange of goods and services on the part of everybody that makes up the society. The implication is that corruption is seen in various societies from the perspective of the prescribed social life of the people. The proposition is that, while some societies speak of corruption mainly in terms of illegal acquisition of material resources or benefits, others tend to broaden it by attaching social and moral values to it (Metiboba, 1996). The deduction from above is that what someone regards as a corrupt act is seen differently by another person. The 1999 and other previous constitutions established a code of conduct for public officers and made it a political objective for the state to abolish all corrupt practices associated with abuse of power. However, it does not define corruption or give a list of acts that will amount to corruption. It has also been observed that the statutory criminal laws, the criminal and penal codes, do not define corruption. The Independent Corrupt Practices (and other related offences) Commission (ICPC) Act 2000, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Act 2004 have now broadened the definition of corruption. The EFCC act empowers the commission to investigate, prevent and prosecute offenders who engage in:

Money laundering, embezzlement, bribery, looting and any form of corrupt practices, illegal arms deal, smuggling, human trafficking, and child labour, illegal oil bunkering, illegal mining, tax evasion, foreign exchange malpractices including counterfeiting to currency, theft of intellectual property and piracy, open market abuse, dumping of toxic, wastes, and prohibited goods (EFCC Act, 2004).

This paper agrees with Lipset (1995) that corruption involves a deviation from the laws and regulations with intent to abuse ones public office and obtain private benefits. Second, the resources exchanged in corruption result in material advantages, as when a favourable public decision is paid for with money. Corruption is therefore one form of influence of money on politics. Third, that corruption always involves clandestine transactions as it is an unacceptable form of transaction.

Manifestations of Corruption in Nigeria

Colonialism, western education, the development of urbanization and monetization of the economy with its attendant growth of individualism brought about dramatic changes in the Nigerian state. The consular court system disrupted the traditional administration which the white colonialists met. In its place was appointed the highly flawed indirect rule under which appointment of personnel was arbitrarily made. Often times, appointees were unknown people, different from the traditional heads and chiefs. Many of the appointed people were of questionable character and were usually intoxicated by power, leading them to abuse and misuse their positions. Corruption in the Indirect Rules system soon got to the attention of the colonialists, as most of the warrant chiefs prospered materially through the process of bribery and corruption. The military that overthrown the civilians who took over from the colonialists cited corruption, amongst others, as the reason for staging the coup. They gave instances of electoral corruption and malpractices involving the use of money to buy votes, employment of thugs to intimidate political opponents, hiring of assassins to eliminate political opponents, hijacking of electoral boxes and materials, and the printing of fake voter cards. Unfortunately, military regimes tended to be more corrupt than the regimes they seemed to have come to correct. The unfortunate thing however, as observed by Salawu (2007) is that the military that took over in 1966 from the civilian government hoping to wipe out corruption in the Nigerian political system ended up entrenching corruption on the nation. Despotism, which characterizes military regimes, destroyed a culture of accountability. The once cherished culture of probity in public affairs soon yielded to a place of graft and the standard of public morality continued to worsen. Characteristically, military regimes upon taking power and in fighting corruption, sack or remove from office or dismiss some individuals allegedly found to be involved in corrupt practices, forcibly seize/confiscate corruptly acquired property through legislation (decree). Such actions were, however, regarded as arbitrariness as it lacks an acceptable culture of probity and tended to be abused. A more serious attempt at tackling this problem was made under Muhammadu Buhari/Tunde Idiagbon regime (1984-85). Institutional efforts taken to deal with the problem of corruption by the past administrations include, the Corrupt Practices Decree of 1975; the Public Officer (Investigation of Assets) Decree No. 5 of 1976, which was supplemented by the Code of Conduct Bureau and Code of Conduct Tribunals as spelt out in the 1979 constitution. Others include the Shehu Shagari‟s Ethical Revolution (1979-83), the War Against Indiscipline (WAI) campaign under the Buhari/Idiagbon junta. The Babangida administration introduced what was then tagged the National Committee on Corruption and other Economic Crimes (NCCEC) in its bid to deal with the perennial problem of corruption. However, a more serious attempt at tacking the problem was made under the Buhari/Idiagbon regime (1984/1985) In spite of the various efforts made and measures taken by successive military administrations to rid Nigeria of corruption, the phenomenon of corruption, as it presents itself in the Nigerian polity has assumed an endemic, alarming and systemic proportions to the extent that the pervasive mentality for the worship of 'worldly things'; money, properties, or assets acquisitions has become the order of the day. To some analysts, corruption in Nigeria is characterized by extensive and intensive corruption properly protected by the „Official Secret Act‟ and „Immunity Clause‟ strategically embodied in the Nigerian Constitution of 1999. These two features of the constitution informed the opinion of some Nigerians that the constitution indirectly encourages corruption. Moreso, the perceived life-style and sudden inexplicable acquisition of wealth by ex-military and serving personnel, their relatives and accomplices, coupled with lack of transparency in governance, informed the conclusion that military regimes were institutionalizing corruption and corrupt practices and, thereby enthroning a culture of graft (Ribadu, 2006). The situation of corruption in Nigeria has presented an anomic situation in which anybody can get away with his/her loots no matter the amount of money involved and the material costs to the nation. The ThisDay Newspaper reported that the level of leakages in Nigeria has attracted an annual rate of $25.76 billion loss to fraud related crimes in the last five years and that on a daily basis too; the country is losing about $70,575,342 to corruption and other related crimes (Salawu, 2007). Given its alarming rate, particularly because of its damaging implications, the phenomenon constitutes a national question which needs to be examined in all its ramifications. In other word, every effort should be exerted to stem its spread and growth. It must be tackled head log no matter whose ox is goosed. This ugly picture has become insurmountable since independence and every strategy fashioned to address or tackle the menace has not yielded the desire outcome. Most of the national earnings particularly from the oil sector since independence have been gulped by different forms of corruption. The level and rate of corruption and, lack of accountability have remained an impediment to Nigeria's developmental drive and responsible for the increasing level of poverty in the country This unpalatable situation of corruption x-rayed above informed President Olusegun Obasanjo's stern focus on corruption. To this end, the government established two agencies - Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, (ICPC) and Economic and Financial Crime Commission, (EFCC) to achieving the purpose. The sentiment echoed by El-Rufai was that, corruption has reached an endemic level in Nigeria and that despite measures taken to stem its spread; it has continued unabated (Odekunle, 2006). He (Odekunle) stated further that every effort evolved at addressing the scourge have always been frustrated by the evolution of even more effective and sophisticated methods of corruption (ibid). In 2001 alone, Nigeria was said to have lost more than N23b (Alanamu et al, 2008). Oby Ezekwesili – Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the President on Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit (BMPIU) was quoted by Newswatch (2004) to have said that “the unit (BMPIU) had saved N125b from over bloated contracts. The figure is considered an equivalent of 30 percent of the capital budget for fiscal year 2004” (Salawu, 2008).

Protest

Manifold definitions exist of the term ‘protest’, and the picture is further complicated by the evolving nature of online and on the ground protests, blurring the contours and boundaries of protest movements. These difficulties acknowledged, this study attempts to piece together a broad definition by examining the various definitions available of assemblies, non-violent civic action and protests. Our definitions draw from sources that include international CSOs, UN human rights experts and academic literature. International human rights treaties do not provide a definition of the right to protest. Instead protest, and the rights essential to its realisation, are subsidiary to the right to the freedom of assembly.[ ‘International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights’, United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2200A, 1976, http://bit.ly/Jz4HwZ] An important step was, however, taken in March 2016 when the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association and the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary killings put forward a definition of assemblies. In their landmark report, ‘On the proper management of assemblies’, the Special Rapporteurs articulated that assemblies: “…express a common position, grievance, aspiration or identity and… diverge from mainstream positions or challenge established political, social, cultural or economic interests.”[ ‘Joint report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association and the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions on the proper management of assemblies’, United Nations Human Rights Council, A/ HRC/31/66, March 2016, http://bit.ly/1Rq4Pu2.] The implication here is that protests, by their very nature, involve a challenge to existing norms, policies or practices. In other words, they maintain a dissenting element. An equally important principle of protests is their temporal nature. While an individual protest is typically a temporary phenomenon, protest movements require sustained efforts. These set them aside from one-off, spontaneous assemblies in which participants cannot expect to bring about significant long-term change.[ ‘Why Civil Resistance Works’, Maria J Stephan and Eric Chenoweth, MIT Press, 2008. ] Our definition of protest is also intentionally limited to gatherings in physical spaces. While there is a growing recognition of the importance of ‘virtual protests’, the intention here is to examine the range of variables that specifically shape protests in physical spaces as a particular form of protest.[ ‘The Right to Protest: Principles on protection of human rights in protests’, ARTICLE 19, 2015, http://bit.ly/2cQeKiK.] A final component of our definition of protest is the centrality of non-violent civil action as a matter of policy.[ ‘Nonviolent Action: A Research Guide’, Gene Sharp, Garland, 1997]

Accordingly, while acts of violence by individual members of a protest do not necessarily undermine the non-violent objectives of a protest movement as a whole or forfeit the rights of the protesters, protest movements must maintain an instrumental commitment to non-violence to be considered legitimate.[ UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, “Factsheet: Recommendations on managing assemblies,” 2016, http://bit.ly/2c7gP7A.] By combining these elements, we arrive at the following definition of a protest movement, employed in this report: a continuous public and physical gathering of a group of individuals committed to using nonviolent tactics to effect some political, social, cultural or economic change that diverges from mainstream or extant political positions or practices.

Forms of Protest

According to Daniel L. Schofield (1994), a protest can take many forms. The Dynamics of Collective Action project and the Global Nonviolent Action Database are two of the leading data collection efforts attempting to capture protest events. The Dynamics of Collective Action project considers the repertoire of protest tactics (and their definitions) to include:

Rally or demonstration: Demonstration, rally, or similar protest, without reference to marching or walking in a picket line or standing in a vigil. Reference to speeches, speakers, singing, or preaching, often verified by the presence of PA sound equipment and sometimes by a platform or stage. Ordinarily will include worship services, speeches, briefings.

March: Reference to moving from one location to another; to distinguish from rotating or walking in a circle with picket signs (which is a picket).

Vigil: Most vigils have banners, placards, or leaflets so that people passing by, despite silence from participants, can be informed about the purpose of the vigil.

Picket: The modal activity is picketing; there may be references to a picket line, informational picketing, or holding signs; "carrying signs and walking around in a circle". Holding signs, placards, or banners is not the defining criteria; rather, it is holding or carrying those items and walking a circular route, a phrase sometimes surprisingly found in the permit application.

Civil disobedience: Explicit protest that involves deliberately breaking laws deemed unjust in order to protest them; crossing barricades, prohibited use of segregated facilities (such as lunch-counters or restrooms), voter registration drives (to earn non-eligible people the right to vote), or tying up phone lines.

Ceremony: These celebrate or protest status transitions ranging from birth and death dates of individuals, organizations or nations; seasons; re-enlistment or commissioning of military personnel; or to anniversaries of any of the above. These are sometimes referenced by presenting flowers or wreaths commemorating, dedicating, or celebrating status transitions or their anniversary; e.g., an annual merchant marine memorial service, celebrating Chanukah or Easter, or celebrating the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr.

Dramaturgical demonstration

Motorcade: Vehicular procession (electoral campaigns or other issues)

Information distribution: Tabling/petition gathering, lobbying, letter-writing campaigns, or teach-ins.

Symbolic display: e.g., a menorah or creche scene, graffiti, cross burning, sign, or standing display.

Attack by collective group (not-one-on-one assault, crime, rape): Motivation for attack is the "other group's identity" as in gay-bashing or lynching. Can also include verbal attacks or threats.

Riot, melee, mob violence: Large-scale (50+), use of violence by instigators against persons, property, police, or buildings separately or in combination, lasting several hours.

Strike, slow down, sick-ins, and employee work protest of any kind: Regular air strike through failure of negotiations or wildcat air strike. (Make note if a wildcat strike.)

Boycott: Organized refusal to buy or use a product or service. Examples: rent strikes, Montgomery bus boycotts

Press conference: Only if specifically named as such in report, and must be the predominant activity form. Could involve disclosure of information to "educate the public" or influence various decision-makers.

Organization formation announcement or meeting announcement: Meeting or press conference to announce the formation of a new organization.

Conflict, attack or clash (no instigator): This includes any boundary conflict in which no instigator can be identified, i.e. Black/white conflicts, abortion/anti-abortion conflicts.

Prayer Walk: A prayer walk is an activity that consists of walking and praying at the same time. It's done not for the physical benefit but for the spiritual exercise, either publicly functioning as a demonstration or rally.

Lawsuit: Legal maneuver by social movement organization or group.

Peopleless Protest: Simultaneous online and offline protests involving physical representations of protesters in public spaces that are subsequently assembled online. Developed in Europe during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Global Nonviolent Action Database uses Gene Sharp's classification of 198 methods of nonviolent action. There is considerable overlap with the Dynamics of Collective Action repertoire, although the GNA repertoire includes more specific tactics. Together, the two projects help define tactics available to protesters and document instances of their use.

human right

Human rights are those categories of rights that nature has bestowed on man. They presume the sacredness of the human person in any society in the world to doggedly resist any constraints upon this right as they underlie his humanity and freedom. In its modern form, where the dominant terminology has taken the e phrase ―human rather than ―natural‖ human rights is defined as a…. Universal moral right, something which all Men, everywhere, at all times, ought to have And something of which no one may be Deprived without grave affront to justice Something which is owing to every human Being simply because he is human. ((Ibid) Issa Shivji goes to opine that: There is only one universal conception and Formulation of human rights. Human rights a Are universal.

They inhere in human beings By virtue of their humanity alone…they are Neither privileges nor contingent upon any Duties by entitlements against the state. Conceptually, the dominate outlook on ―human right‘ centers around the concept of ‗human nature‘. Human nature is an abstraction both from history as well as society. (Klenner, 208,p8)

An account of human right violations in nigeria (pre british and british era)

Contrary to widely held views that human rights violations in Nigeria were initiated at the inception of the military in politics, the problem actually has its historical origin traceable from pre-colonial to colonial era. For instance, in 1849 with the imperial activities of John Beecroft, the British Crown Consul in Nigeria. It was John Beecroft who introduced the concept of ―gun-boat diplomacy‖ in Nigeria, (Batten, 1939, p.11 through which he compelled questionable agreements and treaties upon local rulers in the area, offering them ―protection‖ in exchange for allowing British traders special and unlimited access to trade and economic activities in their domains.

Some of the kings that refused to comply with his selfish rule were extended with gun-boat diplomacy and it resulted to violence and low-intensity war. These rulers were hounded, nuzzled and their domain torched. They were either dethroned or exiled. It was in this context that violence and inhuman treatment came into Nigeria. Another earlier indulgencies of human right abuse was Brinsmen crisis with the Royal Niger Company at Akassa in 1895, it was recorded that much harm was done to property and many lives were lost. Although it was alleged that the actual extension of British authority over many of the coastal and land tribes was partly due to human right abuses by some of the pre-colonial chiefs in 1817 for instance, the consul dethroned the king Pepple of Bonny for making war on other chiefs and misruling his country. Also, in 1887, Jaja of Opobo was turned out for checking the trade of British merchants with the inland tribe; and in 1893, a Jekri Chief, Nana, who still kept on slave-raiding and ill-treating other tribes was also conquered and put down. In 1897, Benin was consumed and Oba Ovoramwen was sent away to Calabar due to slave-raiding, making human sacrifices and killing a number of peaceful Englishmen without cause. The condition of Benin at the time of its capture has been described thus: Huge hole, 40 to 50 feet deep, were found Filled with human bodies, dead and dying And a few poor prisoners were saved…On The principal tree of sacrifice, facing the main Gate to the Kings courtyard there were two Crucified bodies at the foot of the tree, Seventeen bodies without heads, and forty Three more bodies that had been dead for Some… to the westward of the kings House was a large open space, about three Hundred yard in length, simply covered With the remains of some hundreds of human Sacrifices. The same sights were met with all Over the city. (Batten, 1939:13) In 1903, Sokoto was attacked and the Sultan escaped. and a new Sultan was appointed by the High Commissioner. The Fulani emirs had ruled their subjects very badly indeed, taxing them severely, and even rendering their own subjects slaves. They also cruelly punished those who had displeased them, as the following quotations shows. ―the Emir‘s best-killed slaves… ordered for their enemies inhuman punishment which they themselves invented. Finger-nails were torn out, arms and legs were still alive, important people who had displeased the emir were burnt up alive gradually on the town walls. Till after a period of terrible pains, the head of the dying man was at least walled up. The public prison of the Fulani became places of cruelty, from which few who were shut up in them could escape alive. (Batten, 1939:12)

From these records it is evident that the British influence on the geopolitical entity of Nigeria began as imperial enterprise whose sole target was exploitation of the economic resources, the institutionalization of violence and the use of coercion as instrument of political control. Many believed that the problems associated with human rights violations are not unconnected with the method of British acquisitions and administration. The British, through a combination of force and cunning, subdued the different ethnic groups in Nigerian state and brought them into political stronghold tagged modern Nigeria. O.Nnoli posits that: In Nigeria, he colonialist were not interested in Making their system of production serve the Basic needs of the local population. The understanding here is that the British political, social and economic policies were formulated and executed to the extent that they served British interests and left Nigeria with no basis for economic and political structures for the future developments of the Nigerian State because of self quest of the colonialist, human abuses was institutionalized Nigeria, even after the declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations, (Eso, 2008), p.17) still possesses the status of colonialism. In 1947, two years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, abuse of Human rights in Nigeria came to a head. There was the Bristol Hotel incident, which is worth elaborating upon. Keith and Ivor Cunnings, was an Afro West Indian. Before leaving Britain, both officials had been booked to stay in Bristol Hotels, Lagos and a Hotel which catered only for whites. It was run by Greek hotelier. Upon arrival, Keith was given a rousing and sumptuous reception while Ivor Cunnings was embarrassed with a very cold welcome. Upon all the unceremonious reception given to Ivor, he was not accommodated in the already booked Bristol Hotel, because according to the hotelier, the hotel was an exclusive reserve for the whites. We see this as another dimension to human right abuse. Imagine, because of colour, Ivor was discriminated against. Nigeria since independence has had different political experiments and experiences. Firstly, it was British Parliamentary or Cabinet system of government up to end of the first republic in 1965. Then came the American presidential system in 1979 of the second republic. The plight of democratic experiences shows that Alhaji Tafewa balewa, prime Minister of the first republic was killed in the military coup of 1966, this led to the Nigerian civil war that al most brought the federation to wreckage. The Shagari administration (1979- 1983) after a first-term in office was also overthrown by the military in 1983.

There was the denial of a sovereign mandate given willingly by Nigerians to Moshod Abiola in June 12th 1993 presidential election. The illegal Interim National government of Ernest Shonekon was also booted out by General Sanni Abacha. It is being argued that military overthrow of elected government is part of human right abuse. On the part of military, there have been coups and counter coups. There was a counter-coup against military government of General Aguiyi Ironsi which brought general Yakubu Gowon to power in July 1966‘ Gowon himself was overthrown by the cup that brought Generals Murtala/Obasanjo to power in July 1975. The military resurgence again with the coup of General Mohammed Buhari on December 31, 1983 which was overthrown by General Ibrahim Babangida who later stepped aside for General Sani Abacha to take advantage of the situation to boot Ernest Shonekon out of power on November 27th 1993.

That has been the same sad pictures of political instability that engulfed this nation In the thick of the struggle to emancipate the nation from the strangulating grip of military dictatorship, the activists vowed not to surrender, but rather to continue to fight for freedom, justice and the enthronement of democracy in Nigeria. Their doggedness and near fanatical devotion to the ideal no doubt tasked the military dictators in the country.

Consequently, there was the needed to meet the daunting challenges that will eventually lead to freedom. Irrespective of age, sex, ethnic origin, everyone was entitled to full and positive enjoyment of fundamental human rights. These fundamental human rights cover a very wide spectrum of human existence, including the specific abuses from which people should be protected, such as arbitrary arrest, unlawful detention and torture. Human rights issues received legal backing with statutory provisions made in the 1999 Constitution of the federal Republic of Nigeria. Section 33 to 43 of Chapter IV specifically covered the fundamental human rights that the government and society not only acknowledge, but also guarantee to protect from infringement. (Constitutional rights project, 1997, 3) Previously, however, the human rights record in Nigeria particularly under military era from 1985 to 1998, which covered the Generals Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida and Sani Abacha regimes, witnessed high levels of human rights abuses and violations in the country. Instructively, there was perhaps no basic right that was nor abridged in the period under review.

There was military brutality against the civil populace, case of extra-judicial killings soared, access to justice by ordinary Nigerians was severely restricted, international passports and other traveling documents of individuals and officials were seized with impunity to prevent opposition and cow articulate critics of the juntas into submission. To worsen matters, the unconstitutional practice of arresting relations in lieu of accused persons-whether factual of fabricated-among other vices, intensified the level of insecurity in the country.

There were waves of baffling and unresolved assassinations as well as recurring incidents of bomb explosions in several parts of the country/. Extra-judicial killings, arbitrary arrests, unlawful and prolonged detention, brutal torture of accused person and degrading treatment bordering on dehumanization of critics and opponents of the military regimes became a common scene in the country. (Ayoob, 1994, p.5) Thus, human rights and national security are intricately interwoven to such extent that one reinforces the other, and a decline in one is a direct threat to the other, which consequently results in general societal retrogression. Component of human security include right to life, right to dignity of the human person, right to persona; liberty, right to fair hearing, right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, right to freedom of expression and the press, right to peaceful assembly and association, right to freedom of movement, right to freedom from discrimination.

NIGERIA HISTORY WITH EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLINGS/MURDER

Extrajudicial killing/murder is the act of arbitrarily taking someone’s life, denying or violating a person’s right to life without recourse to the due process of the law. Generally, in Nigeria today, the sanctity and sacredness of human life have almost lost its real meaning. In the oil-producing communities, several thousands of the inhabitants have been deprived of their fundamental, and inalienable right to life outside the prescription of the supreme law of the land and other applicable international instruments. In 2009, Amnesty International (Al) published an article entitled, Killings at Will: Extra-judicial Executions and other Unlawful Killings by the Police in Nigeria, which documented 39 cases of security force killings and enforced disappearances based on interviews and research conducted between July 2007 and July 2009. According to this report, “the national police conducted hundreds of extrajudicial executions, other unlawful killings and enforced disappearances each year.

The police usually claim that the victims were armed robbers killed in an exchange of gun fire or that the suspects were trying to escape.”[ Amnesty Int’l, Killings at Will: Extrajudicial Executions and Other Unlawful Killings by the Police in Nigeria, AI Index AFR 44/038/2009 (Dec. 9, 2009), https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/AFR44/038/2009/en/.] Hundreds of thousands of people have been extrajudicially murdered in the Niger Delta under similar circumstances by the security agents stationed in the area. One of such incidents of police extrajudicial murder is the case of Mr. Victor Emmanuel. On October 16, 2011, in Bayelsa State (Niger Delta region), “following his criticism of the police for extorting money from motorists on the road to his church, Mr. Victor Emmanuel was shot dead in the presence of his mother who pleaded for his son’s life to be spared to no avail.”[ U.S. BUREAU OF DEMOCRACY, HUMAN RIGHTS AND LABOR, NIGERIA 2012 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT, available at http://www.state.gov/i/drl/hrrpt/humanrightsreport/index.htm#wrapper; see also Mike Odiegwu, Ex-Cop Admits Policemen Killed Victor Emmanuel at Bayelsa Checkpoint, PUNCH, June 13, 2013] After he was killed in cold blood, the police removed the Bible he was holding in his hand and planted a pair of scissors in his hand to incriminate the deceased. The above incident is not an outlier, but a typically recurring event in the Niger Delta communities. In response to this ugly trend of extrajudicial killing, and the growing concern of the international community, “the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions on March 27, 2008 stated at the Human Rights Council that Nigeria must end extrajudicial executions by the police.”[ Amnesty Int’l, Amnesty International Report 2008 - Nigeria, (May 28, 2008), available at http://www.refworld.org/docid/483e27a54e.html] In its Universal Periodic Review (UPR) reports submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Council in January 2009, the Federal Government of Nigeria acknowledged: allegations[ Nigeria Police Watch, Three Nigeria Police Officers on Trial for Murder of Bayelsa’s Victor Emmanuel, NIGERIA POLICE WATCH (Oct. 28, 2011), http://www.nigeriapolicewatch.com/ 2011/10/three-nigeria-police-force-on-trial-for-] of extrajudicial killings against members of the Nigerian security agencies, especially the police, but denied that it ‘neither sanctions, nor will it allow extrajudicial killings to be carried out with impunity in Nigeria.’ However, analysts believe that the extrajudicial killings are systematic in the force and would hardly be curbed considering the depth of corruption in the force and the government unwillingness to reform the force.[ U.N. Office of the High Commissioner on H.R. [OHCHR], Universal Periodic Review – Nigeria, 73–74 (Jan. 5, 2008), cited in Open Society Institute in Criminal Force, Torture, Abuse]

It is worthy to note that, cases of police and other security agencies’ brutality and abuse of powers are rarely investigated and perpetrators are hardly brought to justice. Where investigations occur, they fail to comply with international standards and officers suspected of extrajudicial executions are usually sent out on training or transferred to other states instead of undergoing prosecution.33[ Ibid] Also, “reports of highly publicized state or federal panels of inquiry investigating suspicious deaths remain unpublished.”[ ibid] In most cases “charges brought against the perpetrators of human rights abuses and violations filed by private citizens, groups and even the government suffer interminable delays in the court of law and end up being unresolved.”[ U.S. BUREAU OF DEMOCRACY, supra note 29.] Generally, “law enforcement agents operate with impunity in the apprehension, detention or even extrajudicial murder of criminal suspects. The authorities generally do not hold police accountable for the use of excessive or deadly force or for the deaths of persons in custody.”[ Id.; CONSTITUTION OF NIGERIA (1999), § 33(1).] In all the circumstances, the frequent cases of extrajudicial murder of civilians in the Niger Delta and other parts of the country by the law enforcement agents are the most disturbing. Almost every community, village, hamlet, and family in the Niger Delta, in the past five decades have experienced or suffered from unresolved cases of extrajudicial murder of loved ones by the state security agents stationed in the region to secure oil installation and facilities. The climax was the judicial murder of four Ogoni chiefs and the murder of an environmental activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa and his eight compatriots after a kangaroo court trial in 1995, which outraged and caught the attention of the international community as well as led to the temporary expulsion of Nigeria from the Commonwealth. However, many of such or worse incidents like the Ogoniland “wasting operation” in very remote and inaccessible part of the delta area are unreported. Instances of extrajudicial killings committed by state security agents are in abundance in the Niger Delta. In 1987, at Iko village, policemen were invited by Shell to disperse a local protest against the obnoxious practice of environmental destruction and degradation; they were ferried to the site in three boats belonging to Shell and were reported to have murdered eight people occupying Utapete flow station, wounded many and raped women on the spot.[ OKONTA & DOUGLAS, supra note 5, at 138]

Also, on October 30, 1990, Shell’s Divisional Manager (East) specifically requested for the type of mobile police used at Iko to forestall an anticipated violent demonstration at Etche village of Umuechem; sequel to the above request, heavily armed mobile policemen descended on Umuechem and shot at everyone on site. It was reported that: By mid-afternoon several villagers laid dead or bleeding from bullet wounds. They returned on November 1, and murdered about eighty more civilians some of them in their sleep. Over five hundred houses were set ablaze and for several hours the policemen chased after domestic livestock when there were no other villagers left to kill or molest, killing goats and chicken for the fun of it.[ ibid] The judicial commission of inquiry set up by the government to investigate the causes of the Umuechem massacre, “found not a single thread of evidence of violence or threat of violence on the part of the villagers and censured the police for displaying a reckless disregard for lives and property.”[ Id. (citing HON. JUSTICE O. INKO-TARIAH ET AL., COMMISSION OF INQUIRY INTO THE CAUSES AND CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE DISTURBANCE THAT OCCURRED AT UMUECHEM IN THE ETCHE LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF RIVERS STATE IN THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA (1990)).]

No one was held accountable or prosecuted for the murder of innocent civilians and destruction of property till date. In 1992, the mobile police called in by Shell were reported to have “cordoned off the Bonny town and shot at everyone on sight, elderly people were wounded while many others were rounded up at the town square, beaten up and subjected to all other forms of indignities.”[ Constitutional Rights Project, Time to Talk, 3 CONST. RTS. J. (Oct.–Dec. 8, 1993); see also OKONTA & DOUGLAS, supra note 5, at 139.] Also, “[o]ne hundred and thirty two Ogoni men, women and children returning from a trip to the Cameroons in July 1993, were massacred on the Andoni River by uniformed men wielding automatic weapons.”[ T. O. Owolabi, Genocide in Ogoni, SUNDAY TRIBUNE, Oct. 21, 1996; see also K. SaroWiwa, Report to Ogoni Leaders Meeting at Bori, Gumberg Library 2 (Oct. 3, 1993) OKONTA & DOUGLAS, supra note 5, at 123–24] One soldier involved in the incident narrated to Human Rights Watch “how they were ordered to attack the Ogoni who were causing all the trouble.”[ OKONTA & DOUGLAS, supra note 5, at 125 (citing HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH/AFRICA, THE OGONI CRISIS: A CASE-STUDY OF MILITARY REPRESSION IN SOUTHEASTERN NIGERIA 12 (Human Rights Watch 1995)] Another soldier who was part of a Nigerian contingent serving in the Economic Community Cease-Fire Monitoring Group (ECOMOG)[ HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, WAGING WAR TO KEEP PEACE: THE ECOMOG INTERVENTION AND HUMAN RIGHTS, 5 (1993), available at http://www.hrw.org/reports/1993/Liberia. ECOMOG was established by the Economic Community of West Africa States as a monitoring group of multilateral armed forces.] peacekeeping force in Liberia also narrated “how his unit was ordered to come home ostensibly to repel a Cameroonian attack. He claimed that they were told to shoot on sight only to later realize they were actually shooting at fellow Nigerians- in this case unarmed Ogoni villagers.”[ OKONTA & DOUGLAS, supra note 5]

Also, in August 1993, it was reported that: A troop of men using grenades, mortar shells and automatic weapons attacked the Ogoni village of Kaa, and slaughtered two hundred and forty-seven unarmed civilians. It is instructive that, three weeks prior to this incident all Ogoni policemen serving in the area were reassigned before the death squad descended upon Kaa and other villages.[ OKONTA & DOUGLAS, supra note 5, at 124] This was clearly a premeditated murder of defenseless civilians by the state security agents. The federal and state governments feigned ignorance of this modern-day pacification mission by law enforcement officers all in the name of oil, as usual, no one was held accountable for the incident and the case has been swept under the carpet. Furthermore, the Abacha military junta conducted a scorched-earth military operation in Ogoni following the May 21, 1994 murders of four Ogoni chiefs at Giokoo, an offensive that led to the deaths of over 2,000 Ogonis and destruction of Ogoni villages.[ Leburah Ganago, Banish Shell, NIGERIA WORLD (Jan. 4, 2011), http://nigeriaworld.com/ feature/publication/ganago/010411.html]

Shell was later revealed to be the sponsor of the Ogoni pacification project – in some cases funding the operations and providing logistics for the invading security forces. In a leaked Government House secret memo, dated May 12, 1994, “the ruling military regime had detailed wasting operations to eliminate vocal Ogoni leaders. The wasting operations were deemed necessary to ensure resumption of oil drilling operations in Ogoni.”[ ibid] Curiously, on the heels of that secret memo, four Ogoni leaders were murdered at Giokoo on May 21, 1994. “The scars of five years of military occupation of Ogoni thereafter still remain visible till today and the murder of the four chiefs at Giokoo on May 21, 1994, was noted to be an alibi to the judicial murder of the Ogoni nine (Ken Saro-Wiwa and his eight compatriots) on November 10, 1995.”

The Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS)

The Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) was a notorious Nigerian Police Force unit created in late 1992 to deal with crimes associated with robbery, motor vehicle theft, kidnapping, cattle rustling, and firearms. It was part of the Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (FCIID), headed by Deputy Inspector General of Police Anthony Ogbizi.

SARS was controversial for its links to extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances, extortion, torture, framing, blackmail, kidnapping, illegal organ trade, armed robbery, home invasions, rape of men and women, child arrests, the invasion of privacy, and polluting bodies of water by illegally disposing of human remains. After widespread protests in Nigeria and worldwide under the motto "End SARS", the unit was disbanded on 11 October 2020. Inspector General of Police M.A. Adamu said that a new unit, the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT), would replace the SARS. He said that SARS personnel would report to police headquarters for debriefing and examination. Within hours of the announcement, some Nigerians took to Twitter with the hashtag #EndSWAT, and demonstrations continued amid fears that police reform would not materialize.

EndSARS Protest in Nigeria

End SARS is a decentralised social movement and series of mass protests against police brutality in Nigeria. The slogan calls for the disbanding of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a notorious unit of the Nigerian Police with a long record of abuses. The protests which takes its name from the slogan started in 2017 as a Twitter campaign using the hashtag #ENDSARS to demand the disbanding of the unit by the Nigerian government. After experiencing a revitalisation in October 2020 following more revelations of the abuses of the unit, mass demonstrations occurred throughout the major cities of Nigeria, accompanied by vociferous outrage on social media platforms. About 28 million tweets bearing the hashtag have been accumulated on Twitter alone.[7] Solidarity protests and demonstrations by Nigerians in diaspora and sympathizers occurred in many major cities of the world. The protests is notable for its patronage by a demographic that is made of entirely young Nigerians.

Within a few days of renewed protests, on 11 October 2020, the Nigerian Police Force announced that it was dissolving the unit with immediate effect. The move was widely received as a triumph of the demonstrations. However, it was noted in many quarters that similar announcements had been made in recent years to pacify the public without the unit actually being disbanded, and that the government had merely planned to reassign and review SARS officers to medical centres rather than disband the unit entirely. Protests have continued accordingly, and the Nigerian government has maintained a pattern of violent repression including the killing of demonstrators. There have been international demonstrations in solidarity with those happening in the country, and the movement has also grown increasingly critical of Muhammadu Buhari's government response to the protests.

SARS officers have been alleged to profile young Nigerians, mostly males, based on fashion choices, tattoos and hairstyles. They were also known to mount illegal road blocks, conduct unwarranted checks and searches, arrest and detain without warrant or trial, rape women, and extort young male Nigerians for driving exotic vehicles and using laptops and iPhones.[13] Nigerians have shared both stories and video evidence of how officers of SARS engaged in kidnapping, murder, theft, rape, torture, unlawful arrests, humiliation, unlawful detention, extrajudicial killings and extortion of Nigerian citizens. A large section of the victims of the abuses of SARS have been young male Nigerians.

2.2 THEORETICAL FRAMWORK

THE NATURAL LAW THEORY OR THEORY OF NATURAL RIGHT

Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas are the classical theorist of this school. Central to this theory is the issue of morality and ethics. Naturalist in this context argue that justice demands that man respect the natural rights of one another. This right according to them is not man determined but by God given proceeding from the being of God and discovered by the reason of man. Between the 16th and 18th century the natural law theory had become an independent and rationalist system professed and espoused by the philosophers of the secular school of natural law. The enactment of the America and French declaration metamorphosed the natural law to the theory of natural rights- a liberating principle, ready at hand for the use of modern man in his challenge against institutions (Ehindero 1998).

The three outstanding characteristics of the natural rights theory are rationalism (because the rights are simple and indisputable, subject to the dictates of reason), individualism (because of the equal inalienable and natural nature of the rights), and radicalism (because the exercise of power is liable to be referred to the end of all political institutions). Natural law theorists contend that the end of all political institutions is the preservation of natural and imprescriptible rights of man.

UTILITARIAN THEORY OF RIGHTS

This theory argues that human right are not individual right but collective rights, and that individual right pose danger to the general welfare of greater number of society members. The utilitarian theorist replaced rights with duties, the y are consequentially theorists, believing that the consequences of an action, if it will serve the best interest of the greater number of society is most welcome, hence for example the killing of , without due process an armed robber by policemen is okay- if it will maximize the happiness of majority and minimize pain

THE VALUE OF RIGHTS THEORY

The theory advocates the benefits of rights. It argues that rights are treasures because of the protection they give to people in the society. For example human rights allow for freedom of worship in most democratic societies, it allows for the preservation of life, freedom of movement, etcetera.

Applicability of the Theories To The Present Study.

As shown by the various theories, human rights are for people to „enjoy‟ not because of where one belongs in the ideological divide or social status or any other artificial consideration but by the fact “all men are born equal” and as such are determined by virtue of membership of human race or society.

The utilitarian theory of right is applicable in this study because for human rights of individual which ought to be at the centre of democratic governance works for the majority in the society. The hatred of the masses for the police profession casts an aspersion on the function role of the police in the sustenance of democracy and protection of lives and property, finally, the value of rights theory shows the pragmatic benefits of enforcing human rights of citizens and the dangers that indifference to human right can throw a society into.

CHAPTER SUMMARY

In this review the researcher has sampled the opinions and views of several authors and scholars on Corruption and EenSars Protest in Nigeria. The works of scholars who conducted empirical studies have been reviewed also. The chapter has made clear the relevant literature.