Between the 19th of August and the 3rd of September 2019, Agnes Callamard, United Nations Special Rapporteur for Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions conducted an official country visit to Nigeria. For 12 days, she examined situations of violations of the right to life by State and non-State actors; the Federal State security strategy and the responses at Federal and State level to allegations of arbitrary deprivation of life, amongst others.

The concerns she raises are alarming. According to the report, the situation in ‘Nigeria gives rise to extreme concern. By many measures, the Federal authorities and the international partners are presiding over an injustice pressure cooker’. It further says “the warning signs are flashing bright red: increased numbers of attacks and killings over the last five years with a few notable exceptions; increased criminality and spreading insecurity; widespread failure by the federal authorities to investigate and hold perpetrators to account, even for mass killings; a lack of public trust and confidence in the judicial institutions and State institutions more generally; high levels of resentment and grievances within and between communities; toxic ethno-religious narratives and “extremist” ideologies – characterized by dehumanization of the “others” and denial of the legitimacy of the others’ claims; a generalized break down of the rule of law, with particularly acute consequences for the most vulnerable and impoverished populations of Nigeria”