NIGERIA:Nigeria has substituted democracy for a "violent brand of politics" that sees power vested in the hands of unelected criminal "godfathers" and corrupt political officials who use street gangs to eliminate opponents.
This is according to a report published yesterday by the US- based lobby group Human Rights Watch.
In a damning indictment of the current regime, which was widely accused of rigging elections earlier this year, the report depicts Nigeria as a lawless country where politicians steal public funds with impunity.
Calling on President Umaru Yar'Adua to make a break from the past, the report says politicians have hijacked democratic institutions in Nigeria by turning elected offices into vehicles for political violence and corruption.
"In place of democratic competition, struggles for political office are waged violently in the streets by thugs recruited by politicians," says Peter Takirambudde, Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
"Once in office these politicians use their power to undermine basic human rights and enrich themselves at the expense of Nigeria's impoverished populace."
Nigeria, which is Africa's biggest oil producer, returned to civilian rule in 1999 after three decades of almost continuous army dictatorship.
However, the report said, "the end of military rule has brought only a hollow semblance of democratic governance".
Elections in 1999, 2003 and 2007 were marred by allegations of widespread fraud and violence.
The EU described last April's poll as "not credible". Human Rights Watch backs this up in its report, labelling the election as "a farce".
The report says: "Hundreds of Nigerians have lost their lives in the crossfire or as paid proxy fighters for the country's political leaders.
"At the same time, corruption and mismanagement have led to the waste of record-setting oil revenues."
The report cites numerous examples of politicians hiring criminal thugs to grab power and of criminal "godfathers" bribing public officials to raid the state coffers.
In Gombe, gangs initially developed by local politicians and collectively known as Yan Kalare, carried out assaults, rapes and murders, and "none of their sponsors have been held accountable", the report says.
It quotes one member of Gombe's elder forum lamenting: "We are ruled by gangsters.
"The major source of criminal activity in Gombe is the politicians and their militias."
It continues: "The administration of President Yar'Adua is a product of Nigeria's fraudulent 2007 elections.
Nonetheless, his government has embarked on the beginnings of a process of electoral reform that holds out some hope of progress.
And thus far it has respected the independence of Nigeria's increasingly assertive judiciary.
"However, the federal government has done nothing to end the impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators of Nigeria's worst abuses."
The report denounces the "selective investigations" of state agencies, which, it says, are aimed at eliminating political opponents of ruling politicians rather than fighting crime.
It calls on international partners to take action against Nigeria by, among other things, denying travel visas to public officials implicated in systematic corruption and supporting human rights groups in the country.