HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES AND SUSTAINABILITY OF DEMOCRACY IN NIGERIA’S FOURTH REPUBLIC: A STUDY OF ENDSARS PROTESTS 2020

ABSTRACT

Nigeria is one of the countries where human right abuses are recorded daily and virtually in all human endeavors and these human right violation are mostly found in torture, extra- judicial killings by government security operatives, kidnapping, arbitrary arrests, unlawful detention and extortion etc. The study reviewed relevant related literature and adopted social conflict theory by Karl Marx as it's theoretical framework while it's methods of research were primary and secondary data and it's adopted the mixed methods of quantitative and qualitative research approach, sample of hundred (100) respondents comprising member of twenty local government in Lagos State were drawn, five respondents from each local government. Quantitative data collected through questionnaire administration was analyzed using descriptive statistics of frequencies, percentages and chi-square. The paper formulated two hypothesis and found out first, democratic rule has failed to promote and protect the rights of individuals in Nigeria. Secondly, the inability of democratic rule to safeguard human rights portends danger for democratic sustainability in Nigeria. This focused particularly evidence in the violence that occurred in the country during the EndSARS protests led by youths to demand for protection of their rights. It’s also emphasized at the nature of human right violation in Nigeria and inferred that there were lot of loopholes in the contemporary observance of human right, most especially in the present euphoria of the nascent democracy. The researcher therefore, recommended that government should have policy of recruiting of members of Nigerian security agencies both locally and internally to make them active and professionally in discharging their duties of maintaining law and order in the society. Government should enlighten and educate young people and adults on the importance of democratic governance and respect for human rights and every hindrance or obstacle to educational, economic and cultural development should be removed. There should be existence for an adequate political will to ensure democratic governance and respect for human right. Also, government leaders should be knowledgeable, sensitive and pro-active to the issue of human right; knowledgeability can relatively guarantee citizen-oriented policy. they should also have respect for human dignity.