Human Rights and Militarism in Nigeria
S. O. Alubo
Two laws. Two justices. One law and one justice protects the man of property, the man of wealth. . . . Another law, another justice silences the poor, the hungry, our people. . . . In the court of imperialism, there has and will never be justice (nor human rights) for the people.
-- Dedan Kimathi
The interests of international capital and of the international and national political institutions which sustain it are incompatible with the realization of human rights.
-- Vicente Navarro
Human rights are often conceived in the narrow legalistic sense of the right to life, freedom of association, and freedom of speech. At other times they are regarded as the benevolent characteristic of particular governments such as the Carter administration in the United States and Nigeria's current "human rights--open government" of General Babangida.
Even with this conception, human rights like other social facilities and rewards exist within a particular political economic context. Yet, the context of human rights is hardly examined in its discourse. Furthermore, even within the legalistic straitjacket, the arguments
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