By George Mgbeleke <\/p>\n
Following a groundswell of attacks from a cross-section of activists, academics and public intellectuals targeted against the minister of Defence and the immediate past Chief of Defence Staff General Christopher Gwabin Musa (rtd) for participating actively in the just concluded national convention of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC), HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has endorsed the decision of General Musa a retired military General to join politics given that as a civilian he is entitled to his constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights to freedom of association and movements.
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG-20251202-WA0094.jpg\")
\nCiting some examples, HURIWA quoted a social media post by Chief UC Maxwell,SAL, that reportedly states thus: “Your Minister of Defence was at APC convention few days ago supervising the teargasing of foolish APC supporters.
\nA few hours later, more than 40 have been killed in Jos by terrorists.
\n“Tinubu will handle the economy, Shettima will handle security”
\nBoth the economy and security are gone!”<\/p>\n
Besides, a Professor of law and a respected human rights activist Professor Chidi Odinkalu who was Chairman, governing board of the National Human Rights Commission also carpeted the minister of Defence for making an appearance at the high profile and widely publicised National Convention of the ruling All Progressive Congress. <\/p>\n
But HURIWA has now openly defended General Musa’s constitutional right to join any political party of his choice provided he is not actively serving in the Nigeria Army anymore after he retired as the highest ranking Nigerian military officer as Chief of Defence Staff and soon after made the substantive Minister of Defence by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. “In in advanced societies, cabinet ministers are mostly members of the political party in power.”<\/p>\n
HIRIWA stated that within the framework of the extant laws in Nigeria, the right to freedom of association is governed mainly by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria of 1999 (as amended). However, other significant legal instruments shape how the right is framed, protected and enforced. <\/p>\n
“HURIWA is well aware that other globalised laws supporting the right to freedom of association said these include the African Charter on Human and Peoples\u2019 Rights (African Charter) \u2013 a strategic component of African Union law, the Trade Unions Act and the Labour Act. <\/p>\n
“A law expert wrote that it is important to note that the right operates in the context of legal pluralism in Nigeria where several legal systems operate side by side. There is always the potential that the right could conflict with other legal systems existing in the country such as the customary legal system. However, the courts have always upheld the supremacy of the constitutional provision on freedom of association when the provision conflicts with other legal systems.”<\/p>\n
HURIWA has therefore emphasized that the minister of Defence who is a retired General or any retired military, police officers or civil servants who desire to enlist into any political party has the right protected by the Constitution. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By George Mgbeleke Following a groundswell of attacks from a cross-section of activists, academics and public intellectuals targeted against the minister of Defence and the immediate past Chief of Defence Staff General Christopher Gwabin Musa (rtd) for participating actively in the just concluded national convention of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC), HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11875,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2350,1493,2055],"class_list":["post-12341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-constitutionally","tag-fundamental","tag-guaranteed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12341"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12344,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12341\/revisions\/12344"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}