Barely 15 months into his tenure, the government of President Bola Tinubu has recorded more direct assaults on the civil rights of citizens than all the other elected regimes combined since 1999.

Throughout President Olusegun Obasanjo’s eight years, very few incidents of human rights abuses, press freedom violations and the harassment of civil society groups were recorded, though the government must continue to carry the stigma of the many unsolved high-profile politically-motivated murders, such as those of Bola Ige, Marshall Harry, Aminasoari Dikibo, Funso Williams and others.

It was not until the All Progressives Congress, APC, regimes of former President Muhammadu Buhari and the incumbent Tinubu that the hitherto quiescent state apparatuses, especially the Department of State Security Services, DSS, and the Nigeria Police Force, NPF, returned in full force as predators on the human rights of Nigerians. This has manifested in the midnight assaults on the residences of judicial officers, invasion of the National Assembly by state agents, sponsorship of several bills aimed at stifling the freedom of expression of citizens and unacceptably regulating the Press, broadcast sector and social media.

The Tinubu administration has taken matters further afield by returning Nigeria to the military era-style of directly harassing journalists, abducting and detaining them for doing their constitutional duties and sometimes for criticising the alleged misdemeanours of public officials.

Many Nigerians were shocked when Amnesty International recently disclosed that up to 40 #EndSARS protesters detained since October 2020, are still in Kuje Prisons, Abuja. The Buhari government had claimed that the protesters against police brutality and bad government had aimed at “regime change”. This is the claim that the Tinubu regime is also levelling against suspects arrested during the recent #EndBadGovernance protests.

The current government, led by a leader who shot into prominence through protests and other acts of opposition to the Sani Abacha, Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan regimes, is now also invading the premises of Organised Labour and civil society activists such as the Socio-Economic Rights Advocacy Project, SERAP, in Abuja. These never happened even under Buhari, a former military dictator.

By all means, if government has any credible evidence to charge any citizen or group for any offence, it is justified under the law to do so. And if so, the public must be fully availed of the facts. Treason and terrorism charges are among the severest since they carry life and even death sentences. These should not be pinned frivolously on anyone. They should not be used as instruments of intimidation or silencing of opposition. If these were done to APC leaders, they would not have survived to be in power today.

Every genuine terrorism or treason offender has sponsors and financiers – big names in the society. We want to see them in the dock too.