By JKNewsMedia Reporter
LEADERSHIP ON human-rights protection faced renewed scrutiny as Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) issued a statement for International Human Rights Day 2025 warning that deteriorating safeguards continue to diminish lives across the country.
The organisation said neglect and abuses persist across key institutions and communities.
The statement, signed by Media and Communication Officer Robert Egbe, said state neglect, abuse of power, impunity among law-enforcement agencies, widespread insecurity and growing socio-economic pressures continue to diminish lives. It said survivors of violence and deprivation face unhealed wounds, eroded rights and a widening gap between political promises and lived experience.
The organisation urged authorities at all levels to end impunity for security-force abuses while protecting journalists, activists and human-rights defenders. It also called for prioritised security for all citizens and for action on the social and economic conditions that drive mass suffering. The statement encouraged strengthened national institutions and a national culture of care and human rights.
The organisation described 2025 as a year marked by grim reminders of the scale of the crisis. It cited 570 killings and 278 kidnappings reported nationwide in April and the 275256 human-rights abuse complaints recorded in May by the National Human Rights Commission. It said Nigerians continue to endure levels of violence, deprivation and state neglect that cannot align with a rights-respecting society.
The statement highlighted persistent grave and systemic violations, including abuses of the rights of women and girls and mass abductions noting that the state repeatedly fails to prevent targeted attacks on communities, schools and vulnerable populations.
It noted that citizens across the federation face overlapping crises with civil and political rights under attack, social and economic rights in decline and escalating insecurity and communal violence affecting daily life.
CAPPA said peaceful protesters still risk lethal force and arbitrary arrests. It noted the absence of accountability for the killing of at least 24 unarmed citizens during the 2024 EndBadGovernance demonstrations and said these abuses continue to cast a shadow over 2025.
It added that journalists and media workers remain targets of intimidation, harassment and detention, with about 69 attacks recorded this year. It pointed to a 2025 Media Rights Agenda report stating that 74 per cent of these attacks were carried out by state actors.
The statement warned that democracy faces danger when those charged with protecting rights become violators of those rights. It added that millions continue to struggle without access to safe water, decent housing, adequate healthcare and secure livelihoods. It said rising inflation, unsafe communities and the absence of social protection leave families vulnerable and desperate. These conditions were described as urgent human-rights emergencies.
The organisation urged the Federal Government and all duty-bearers to take decisive steps to reverse what it called a dangerous trajectory of rights violations and emergencies across the country saying that International Human Rights Day offers a moment to take stock of how far the country has drifted from guarantees owed to its people.
It added that Nigeria cannot continue on a path where violence is normalised, institutions fail without consequence and citizens face insecurity and deprivation with limited state protection.
CAPPA said people have the right to safety, justice and dignity and described these as obligations the Nigerian state must fulfil adding that a credible response requires honesty about what is broken and a renewed commitment to rebuilding systems that can restore these rights.
The organisation said progress depends on practical reforms that safeguard civic freedoms, strengthen oversight of security agencies, improve the capacity of human-rights institutions and address social conditions that expose communities to harm.
It also encouraged government, civil society and partners across sectors to pursue practical solutions that rebuild trust, close protection gaps and support Nigerians to live without fear, deprivation or uncertainty.
