Rights abuses: We’re not answerable to US, UK, says Nigerian Presidency

The Presidency says Nigeria is a sovereign nation and will not be bothered about the reports from the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union as regards human rights abuses.

The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, said this on Channels Television’s ‘Politics Today’ programme on Wednesday.

Adesina was asked to react to reports from the EU, UK and the US that Nigeria’s high record of human rights abuses.

He was also asked to react to the invasion of the Federal High Court, Abuja by men of the Department of State Services who arrested the Publisher of SaharaReporters, Omoyele Sowore, last Friday.

Responding to the question, Adesina said, “We are not answerable to the US, the UK or the EU. We are Nigeria, a sovereign country. Those countries and entities have issues of their own. Let them deal with their issues. Let Nigeria also deal with her internal issues. We are not answerable to them.”

When asked to respond to criticisms against the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) by Prof. Wole Soyinka, Adesina said the Nobel laureate was free to express his opinion.

“We respect Prof. Soyinka. You don’t have too many of them in the country or even on the continent. He is an avatar and he is well respected but his opinion will remain his opinion. It will be considered and if there are things to act on, we will act on them,” he said.

Adesina said the Presidency would not take the opinion of a few Nigerians as that of the majority.

– Punch