rated higher than Nigeria in terms of
respect for political rights and civil
liberties.
The recent report, which was published
by the Freedom House, an international
non-governmental organisation that
supports the expansion of freedom
worldwide, classified the two West-
African countries as free, while Nigeria
was classified as partly free.
One was the rating for the most free
country, while seven was the rating for
the least free country in terms of
political rights and civil liberties,
individually. Nigeria was rated four in
both categories, among 195 countries
and 14 related and disputed territories.
The report stated, "Partly free countries
are characterised by some restrictions
on political rights and civil liberties,
often in a context of corruption, weak
rule of law, ethnic strife or civil war."
In the Map of Freedom 2014 published
by the organisation, Nigeria and some
other African countries such as Niger
Republic, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire,
Mali and Togo were among the 59 partly
free countries; while Cameroon and
Gabon were classified as not free.
The global status by population showed
that 40 per cent of the world population
is free, 25 per cent partly free while 35
per cent is not free.
According to the report, 10 countries
were given the lowest possible rating of
seven for both political rights and civil
liberties. They were Central African
Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea,
North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Somalia,
Sudan, Syria, Turkmenistan and
Uzbekistan.
A human rights lawyer, Mr. Festus
Keyamo, said Nigeria had yet to
experience total freedom in terms of
exercising its civil liberties.
He said, "We do know as a fact that
there are still some impediments in the
way of having total freedom from abuse
of human rights and political rights in
Nigeria. The truth of the report cannot
be questioned. We cannot seriously
dispute it."
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