BY JOHNBOSCO AGBAKWURU

ABUJA—The National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, Tuesday, described the Federal Government’s cautious position on what it called army coup d’etat in Egypt as unacceptable.

Chairman of the commission, Professor Chidi Odinkalu, who stated the commission’s position in Abuja, also threw his weight behind the agitation of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt to restore the government of ousted President Mohammed Morsi, insisting that as a constituted majority that won election under a democracy, the party could only be removed through the ballot box.

Odinkalu, also the senior legal officer for the Africa Programme of the Open Society Justice Initiative, warned that the mass movements and push against a democratically elected government in the Nile Basin had the capacity of affecting the political super structure of Nigeria.

Speaking on the theme, “Egypt Crisis: Lessons for Nigeria” during the annual Feast of Barracuda lecture organised by the National Association of Seadogs, NAS, Professor Odinkalu said the Nigerian government only paid lip-service to a development that offered Nigeria an opportunity to demonstrate leadership and commitment to the rest of Africa.

The lead discussant at the event, Chief Emeka Okengwu, said it would be dangerous for Nigeria to ignore the security implications of Egypt crisis.

Okenga said: “If the discoveries that Boko Haram escalated from the ruins of the Libya revolution, then Nigeria cannot pay ordinary lip-service to the event in the horn of Africa”.

Chief Okengwu said the current insurgency in some parts of northern Nigeria was being fuelled by movement of arms and fighters from Libya through the desert, Mali, Niger and Chad.

The chapter president of the Association, Mr. Clement Anizor, explained that NAS was worried about the crisis in Egypt, adding that explained the decision to choose it as theme in the 2013 lecture.

Anizor condemned the decision of the Africa Union to accommodate popular movement/mass action in the process of changing democratically elected governments on the continent, stressing that the ouster of President Mohammed Morsi from office portended danger for the rest of Africa.

Anizor said: “What happened in Egypt is a military coup, and should be condemned. If a government is elected by the majority of voters, then the government should be allowed to run its programmes”.

He said there was need for the various security units and indeed the Federal Government to be proactive in the assessment of the security situation in various regions in the continent, pointing out that the lingering Boko Haram insurgency was a direct, sustained fall-out from the Libyan revolution.

The Feast of Barracuda lecture is an annual conference held by NAS, a registered human rights and charity organisation with over 54 chapters in all five continents of the world.