Jegede Ademola Oluborode makes a case for human rights being a collective responsibility everywhere all the time

As an activist, one of the most pressing concerns which have agitated my mind in recent times is the way and when human rights issues evolve for national as well as international attention. Quite frequently, I have been tempted to question the agenda of these issues by asking the following: Whose issues are they? And how involving and timely is the process of defining, identifying, building consensus and designing interventions on the issues?

I am governed in this skepticism because apart from being unimpressed by the timing of human rights issues, I have been bordered by the response of political leadership to issues of widespread human rights significance and traumatized by the attention given to less significant issues being glamourised as most significant. In the many times that I have done this, I can not help but to notice that relevance has often been compromised for glamour. Indeed, more often than not, the agenda for human rights issues is dominantly the “King’s Agenda and not people oriented”! Sad enough, this trend has also found its way into the global stage.

I will make my self clearer with a story I have thought out for this purpose! For the sake of this story we will assume the existence of a Kingdom, a King and a fierce Lion. Let’s go now into the storyline!

Once upon a time, the subjects of a kingdom converged to seek the gracious audience of the King on the issue of a fierce lion which comes attacking at will, maiming lives and killing many in the kingdom. The king granted them an audience. Having listened to the concerns and comments so movingly related by the people about the strange lion, the king proceeded to ask their spokesmen “where is the Lion?” To which the entire people replied “it has fled away.” Then the King said “if the Lion has gone, then there is no trouble because “the trouble has gone.”At this stage, the king’s officials requested the people to leave the palace. Bewildered and disappointed, the people dispersed.

The Lion continued with its preying and subsequent reports on its attacks met with the same question and response of the king “where is the lion”, “if the Lion has gone, then there is no trouble because the “the trouble has gone.”

One fateful day, the king’s only son went on a royal visit to a neighbouring village. As providence would have it, the Lion came attacking once again and on that occasion, it was the one and only son of the king who fell prey to the ferocious animal. Shocked by the incident, the people’s initial challenge was how to inform the King about the tragedy as they were afraid of his possible reaction and wrath. But they summoned the courage to make the decision about informing the King.

As usual, they arrived at the palace to request the audience of the king who came out in the full regalia of a happy ruler to attend to his subjects. Now, listen to his royal majesty’s first comment “hope it is not the Lion again because you will only have one response from me which is, if the Lion has gone, then there is no trouble because the trouble has gone.” The spokesmen of the subjects said “Long live the King, you are right, it is the Lion, and it has eaten up your one and only son.” The King shouted wild in response “TROUBLE HAS COME!”

Any time political leadership, whether national or international, moves the nation or world around an issue; let’s bother to inform them that we hope it is not their “only son who has been killed”. Let us go further to ask them about how seriously the issues affect so many. Indeed, quality and positive human rights activism lies in being able to foresee issues and take steps to check them, for the fence around the hill is better than an ambulance in the valley-prevention is better than cure!

* Jegede Ademola Oluborode is a legal practitioner and a human rights activist in Nigeria.

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