Human Rights: The Story of the Poor

Where I come from, the terms human and right are nothing but a string of English words with little meaning. Two words that the poor illiterate man has no idea exist. The UDHR states that "all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights", but to what extent? To what effect? In Nigeria, it is to the extent of your social standing in life. Humanity has two faces in Nigeria; the rich and the poor. Thanks to Political greed, a grave dichotomy has been drawn between these two classes so much so that the rich have left the poor for dead. The question of equality and dignity for the poor is a rhetorical one. Human right is not for the poor, it is for those who are wealthy enough to afford it. Without a doubt, poverty is a crime in Nigeria. A crime punishable with injustice, incarceration, underdevelopment, stolen Government funds, poor health facilities, bad roads, hunger, lack of education, underachievement, poor living standards.
Human rights mean nothing to the poor that life has abandoned in the slums, wallowing in a vicious circle of poverty passed on from generations before us to generations to come.
Nelson Mandela once stated that "To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity". But in Nigeria, the situation is far worse. Denial of a persons human rights sometimes equals a death sentence.

The Universalism theory propounds that human right is inherent in every human being irrespective of race, religion, social standing and so on, in a Country like mine this theory fails miserably. Although so elegantly enshrined in the Nigerian Constitution , Human right is a privilege that only the rich can afford. While the poor man pays for every little crime, the rich go scot free because the law is an ally of the rich. The Nigerian prisons overflow with thousands of inmates awaiting trial living in degenerating conditions while corrupt Government officials live in mansions with their looted wealth surrounding them. It is beyond appalling.
Today being the 10th of December is the Human Rights Day, A day on which the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948. This was shortly after the second world war. The International Community felt the need to counterbalance the inequities inflicted by the second world war. Hence, The UDHR was adopted to bring an end to crimes against humanity, to uphold justice, to acknowledge equality and dignity of human persons all over the world. But what dignity of the human person has been achieved in Nigeria when life is unimaginably unbearable for the poor?