By Obiabin Onukwugha
The Rivers State House of Assembly and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) have called for a cleaner environment becomes rights of the Niger Delta people.
They made the call at a one-day training for legislators on ‘mainstream human rights and human rights impact assessment into the legislative process and legislation,” organized by the NHRC in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Wednesday.
Declaring the session open, Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Martins Amaewhule, represented by his deputy, Rt. Hon. Dumle Maol, stated that the House has been at the forefront of enacting human right laws that have been impacting on the people since the return of democracy in 1999.
“The Rivers State House of Assembly has been at the forefront of enacting human right laws that have been impacting on the people since the return of democracy in 1999.
“As we interact today, I assure you that Rivers State House of Assembly will not relent on our achievements in the past and we are poised for a renewed challenges as our mandate as a House.
“As a lawyer, I hold the view that human rights as guaranteed under our constitution is not complete except we have the right to a safe and clean environment. I am committed to doing everything humanly possible to ensure that clean environment should be part of our law,” he said.
The speaker emphasised that there is no human rights without clean environment. “If we don’t have safe environment, if we don’t have a clean environment, then we don’t have human rights. If we don’t talk about life, if we don’t talk about environment, we cannot talk about human rights,” he stated.
In his welcome address, NHRC’s executive secretary, Tony Ojukwu, described the legislature as the guardian of democratic governance, pointing out that every point of legislation has potentials of rights and opportunities or to restrict them.
Ojukwu stated that the commission was firmly committed to working with the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly as well as other relevant institutions to strengthen right-based governance in Nigeria.
“The legislature is the guardian of democratic governance. The quality of any democracy is reflected not only in that number of laws it produces but in that quality, inclusiveness and human rights compliance of those laws. Every piece of legislation has the potential either to expand rights and opportunities or something or to unintentionally restrict them.
“For instance, laws shape access to justice, education, healthcare, housing, security, likelihoods, and civic participation. Consequently, every bill, whether private or executive, deserves rigourous scrutiny before it becomes law. This scrutiny is not a mere exercise of fulfilling legal requirement, but an exercise aimed at genuinely ensuring that such bills meet all legal criteria before it passed into law.
“We are not blinded to the challenges that confronts legislative practice across many jurisdictions, including ours. Too often, bills are considered under significant time constraints, with limited empirical evidence, insufficient human rights analysis and inadequate engagement with those who will ultimately be affected.
“Public heating, though constitutionality and democratically significant, sometimes become procedural formalities rather than genuine opportunities for meaningful public participation,” he stated.
