President Muhammadu Buhari says slavery must be eradicated completely.
President Buhari said this in an opinion published in The Washington Post on Friday to mark the 400th anniversary of the abolition of slave trade.
Buhari was however completely silent on prisoners of conscience like Leah Sharibu, Jones Abiri, Steven Kefason, Dadiyata, Omoyele Sowore among others who have been abducted, arrested and detained for ‘offences’ like speaking truth to power.
Kidnapped Dapchi schoolgirl Leah Sharibu remains in Boko Haram captivity with concerns she may have been killed by the terrorists. President Buhari’s administration has failed to secure her release despite making promises to do so.
Under Buhari’s watch, journalist Jones Abiri was arrested and detained for two years without access to legal representation. He has been re-arrested this year and is currently held on impossible bail conditions.
Abubakar Idris popularly called Dadiyata was forcefully taken from his home in Barnawa, Kaduna State on 1st August 2019. Dadiyata, a vocal social media critic was abducted by state agents according to family sources. His whereabouts are still unknown at the time of this report.
There are several more examples like Steven Kefason who is facing a jail term for making a Facebook post the Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai (a member of the ruling APC and close ally of President Buhari), didn’t like. In another bizzare case of what is clearly a clamp down on human rights, Omoyele Sowore is being prosecuted for treason for organising a protest he tagged #RevolutionNow.
In Buhari’s Washington Post opinion, he said despite the fact that the descendants of African slaves have made valuable contributions to society, they still face discrimination and racism.
He noted that slavery still thrives with as many as 40 million people living in forced servitude.
“It is not enough to mark this 400th anniversary. We must use it as a platform to eliminate slavery in all its present-day forms,” Buhari said.
“We should reflect in memory to find a better future, one that should ensure freedom for all.”
He said in Africa, slavery are in the forms of debt bondage, commercial sexual exploitation and forced domestic servitude.
“The abolitionists of the 19th century succeeded more than any before: By working to extinguish the transatlantic slave trade that had claimed 15 million victims, they laid the groundwork to ensure it did not manufacture millions more,” the president said.
“But their work is not done. We must take up their examples as we forge a path forward to eliminate modern-day slavery in all its forms. Slavery, once again, has become entwined in the global economy — and it is largely unseen.
“For instance, most of us might know in principle that the mining of cobalt crucial to our smartphones might have used forced labor.”
Buhari added that only political will could be used to curb modern day slavery.
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