**Steem4nigeria Accelerator Contest Week 75: My fundamental human rights

Greetings, friends and families of steem4Nigeria, Its been a long time. I hope everyone is doing well despite the situation of the economy. I love this contest on rights and I will be expressing my thoughts on the fundamental human rights of everyone, not just myself and I believe you will learn a thing or two from me. Remember, when it comes to rights, we are all equal.

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Fundamental human rights are universal ( not limited to a particular place) rights that is legally or according to the law everyone's. They are basic rights or freedoms guaranteed every citizen regardless of state of origin, financial strength, sex, religion, ethnicity, etc. Unfortunately, some people or citizens do not know their rights, that is why they are treated anyhow. These rights is not base on who your father is, or whether you are educated or not. Even a baby has the same right, an old person, a mentally deranged person, etc example the right to life. Fundamental human rights are so important that the United Nations expects human rights to be universal to all humans and it has 30 declarations of the universal human rights.

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First of all, in Nigeria, in section 33 to section 46 of the Nigerian constitution, there are basic rights every Nigerian citizen is entitled to examples are:

• Right to life

• Right to fair hearing

• Right to Education

• Right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.

• Right to freedom of movement

• Right to peaceful peaceful association and movement etc.

The truth is, these rights are fundamental human rights of every citizens but sometimes the ruch are favoured. And not all the citizens have these right and it is due to ignorance, because a person who doesn't know his right can't insist on it.

Example in section 39 of the Nigerian constitution, there is right to freedom of expression but in Nigeria, a rich man can express himself very well and nothing is done to him. But if a poor man or a journalist expresses himself, and what he says, even though it is the truth and has nothing to do with defamation of character, as long as he is criticizing the government, he loses his right to freedom of movement. He will be locked up, that is if he doesn't run for his life. An example was seen during the end sars protest which took place on 20th October 2021.

Photo by Richard Badejo: https://www.pexels.com/

Another thing that happens in my country is that a lawmaker or politician might commit embezzlement of funds or a bigger crime and ends up with few years of jail term, but a poor man who steals maybe a goat, might end up spending years in prison.

Yes, I have been deprived of some fundamental human rights before. There was a time a peaceful protest was organized by the students in school, we had gathered and we wanted to protest on lack of water in the hostel, and I emphasize on the word 'peaceful'. Unfortunately, the securities came and disrupted everything all because we wanted to exercise our right to peaceful assembly.

I have also been discriminated against which was violation of my right to freedom from discrimination. I went for a job interview, where my right to freedom from discrimination was violated. I was told that they only needed people from a particular ethnic group.

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Unfortunately, I didn't do anything about it because I think, I didn't know my rights then.

Right to life
Everyone or every citizen has the right to life. This means that the law is against taking of people's lives example a policeman killing a suspect, abortion, killing of one by another due to anger, etc. Whether one is a mentally deranged person, poor, physically challenged, bedridden, everyone has the right to life. Also, jungle justice where someone is burnt while alive because he or she was presumed to have stolen or done one thing or the other is the denial of the right to life.

Right to dignity of human person
Here, every citizen is supposed to be treated with respect and dignity. Nobody is to be treated like a slave, tortured or pushed into force labour. Unfortunately, there are many cases where this rights are violated. Example, of someone is suspected to have committed a crime, without evidence and without the person being tried, the person will be tortured to the extent that some die. There are places where forced labour is still practiced. During the end sars in 2021, some citizens were caught and tortured, few others had to go into hiding to save their lives.

https://www.pexels.com/

Right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.
A citizen has the right to think freely and also practice whatever religion he or she wants to. But unfortunately, some people look down on some religions or look down on some people because they practice a different religion.

I don't think any of the human rights should be removed from the law, rather I think Nigerians, law makers, the security agencies, etc should be more realistic and everyone should be given equal treatment. Everyone should be given right to fair hearing and the same judgement should be passed when the poor and the rich commit the same offence.

Its not enough that we have set aside fundamental rights to guide every citizens, but the question is, are these rights practically allowed or exercised by every citizen? There is a great boundary between the ruch and the poor in my country, Nigeria and some people are more favoured than the others, even in terms of ethnicity. Everyone is supposed to be treated the same way, so I think we should sit up and do the right thing.