ringback i think there's been a lot of. mysteries and tension when it comes to the level of the press we do extremely very well you ranked 100 and 20th out of 180 countries of glorious record is that the list of things that a lot of ignorance and not on fire chief lawyer something has to be that you're covering up down the chain evidence for isn't it. true and has been taken care of

despite promises to respect the rule of law nigeria's government stands accused by the international community of serious human rights abuses my guest this week here in london is live mohammed the country's information minister how does he defend against the country's many critics when the evidence of wrongdoing is so compelling . long mohammed welcomes conflict. thank you so the human rights record of your administration has been widely condemned by the un western countries your own lawyers international human rights bodies for brutality and the stunning lack of accountability why do you say this go on in the june why didn't you get a grip on this. i think there's been

a lot of. misrepresentation. by all these groups absolutely really working concert what i already know that work in constant they're working you know a little but i know for a fact that's essential in particular has been very sensitive to the issue of human rights most sometimes terrorists politicians attributes i confused with human rights so you put it all down to confusion i would do that because i do not know as a fact and i've been minister for almost 5 years that this any policy of my mistress she does deliberately targeted at infringing on anybody's

rights missed the last september the un special rapporteur on extrajudicial summary or arbitrary executions agnus kalama she launched a damning report on nigeria i'm sorry and the human rights abuses of your security forces she said that she spoke of countrywide patterns of abuses include the police military's excessive use of lethal lethal force in violation of the political international standards i'm sure you read the report and she is not a person who makes these accusations lightly. i did but i would up the much more impressed if example was. i given now you must not forget that then you has been locked in in a war of attrition with a book for almost a decade and the pain of. war where fighting

is a war amongst people. and. even then the military has been very careful to ensure that as much as possible writes i know about it now also read about the reports of people who claim that there isn't balloted simply because they have been arrested by any of the security agencies and they've been asked to go through or due process but i ignore their support to see this government does nobody tell him what is right if it's not a matter of policy why have there been so few investigations the un investigator spoke about the absence of meaning effective investigations the absence of meaningful prosecution all of which are compounded she said by the lack of transparency over the vast majority of security issues that accusation about

lack of transparency and effective communication strategy goes straight to your door minister doesn't it you are the minister of information serious criticism here but what i do know is a fact that. several. keys of abuse of you know rights kelly against soldiers have not only be investigated but people have been punished and have been made public how many how many people i don't know of had but i knew the minister of information was of course i can't know everything but i knew for i know that the military or so is very jealous of his reputation and they have set up many. pilots and i think that officers are either been dismissed or imprisoned. the international criminal court isn't isn't impressed by a record that says in 2018 there was

a reasonable basis to believe that the nigerian security forces committed the war crimes of murder torture cruel treatment outrages upon personal dignity and intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population but you have failed to cooperate with investigators and failed to provide information that they requested and if you take these things seriously and you cannot but take the word of the international criminal court seriously you would have provided that information why didn't you how would you know what information they are asking for a lawyer provided by another would incorporate in with a brief aegis history when they come to they say they weren't they weren't getting help from you they weren't getting the information they nor that the i.c.c. . met with the authorities had a career and we would have no choice but to cooperate they've been waiting for

years to get your cooperation and it hasn't come minister maybe you're out of the loop here what maybe you don't have information about what's going on in your own government and very. informed or go so my government and ourselves i did i do take the trouble to ask and. i'm not sure that is a good i'm not aware that we have we don't our cooperation from the i.c.c. the un special rapporteur speaks of countless allegations of excessive use of force by your police in particular officers of the special anti robbery squad or saw us you said you wanted specific examples is a specific example they've been accused of widespread torture in some cases leading to deaths in custody and extra judicial killings so the unit is clearly out of control isn't it because the un human rights committee warned your government to ensure that this group operates in accordance with international standards because

they don't trust that it's doing that at the moment why would that be i guess that i think i'm aware of that and at a point in time when the support came out the sas was disbanded and or little because to ted and you know one thing that as forth they must. be sure that they operated within the confines of the law your own national human rights commission investigated their activities and even held public hearings but the results were never published were not aware that the river i'm i'm not aware that i was on what are published and i took my assumption has to be that you're covering up damaging evidence doesn't it with your friends and i don't think so we have. some police men were dismissed their science was disbanded and reorganized there after. minister on the question

of providing information to outside investigators you failed to provide information to the u.n. under the international covenant on civil and political rights which nigeria has signed last august the treaty body accused you of failing to honor your reporting obligations under article 40 of the covenant and ignoring numerous reminders to do so why is that when you told me all cooperating so openly with these bodies why would they say that what the housing true i want to know why they would say that but i know that we have never shown any interest in other nazir we are very open as to the facts those who know her she will use it much as possible for any country who is in no way gene an entire. you know his her jesse

very open and we we operate with international you know regulations and laws well clearly you don't go into the bodies that monitor these situations well it depends upon it it depends on from which perspective they're getting the information where they're getting it from different perspectives on them we're talking about human rights organizations international human rights organizations we're talking about the u.n. we're talking about. all kinds of bodies the international criminal court they're all saying the same thing that you're not cooperating and you sit here with the in front in front of me ministers say that about simply not true it's like saying it's dark in this outside when we can see it's very like no no no i think that i dislike or and i ignore the daily we receive we entered and we engage all these bodies. as a government and you're not going to move from that version despite the evidence

that i have quite a level of i'm yet to see any every any evidence that. that is so very large and white as a casual in that as not responded to it when he talked of a suspect side method that yes it will be preceded report and we took action mr whether or not stonewalling on requests for information or taking radio stations of the air and having reporters arrested or beaten june last year you tried shutting down nigeria's oldest private t.v. channel as well as radio stations owned by a member of the opposition p.d.p. raymond doc pacey a federal court overturned your suspension but the nigerian guild of editors called this a barbaric crackdown on free speech why you launching a barbaric crackdown on free speech i think is a lot of ignorance and a lot of this chief geddis is going over it all in a bell read the press is station walked last dell because he ordered the national

red little not because of the news it was pushing out and in january last year soldiers raided the offices of one of your leading papers the daily trust of the rested reporters in march a journalists had been held for 2 years was rearrested you rank 100 and 20th out of $180.00 countries in the press freedom in the acts of reporters without borders it's not a glorious record is that when the story well as i think when it comes to the level of the press. we're doing extremely very well and if papers run foul of the law the must be the consequences but when you have back to the 100 newspapers in the country and i cited the example one is bottles go dine with here i think should be fair to us that we have a very robust free press amnesty international says that between january and

september last year at least 19 journalists and media practitioners were attacked those attacks including verbal and physical assault and indiscriminate arrest and detention by your security forces in the impression ministers therefore that your aims seems to be to stifle freedom of expression especially critical voices you don't like criticism that's the caret is it because i think many of these people don't live on that don't know the eco system of the media in injury virtually every major you know print media is owned by individuals and i can tell you that this their list of about 12 national newspapers and trust daily trust i don't i don't remember what the story was but you cannot take the example of one newspaper among about 20 to say that the country is staffing the media on the

contrary at a point in time i thought that was the government was actually at the receiving end of the media what has also worried people enormously his decision to submit a bill which in its original form would have seen anyone convicted of so-called hate speech actually sentenced to death by hanging on the particular circumstances you actually wanted and you sought authorization from parliament to kill people because of something they said why would you do a thing like that extraordinary and shocking provision added what is it was. shock is the ignorance of people there's what is cause oppression of power in the in or in the democracies this particular be talking about is it built of pretend not by designating a budget i just measured by the listed if i'm a government so how can you accuse the. you submitted you submitted this we did not say as is also the sort of ignorance we did not this is

a private member's bill by a senator with just the yes and you're telling me you didn't want it to go through is that we do have a choice in which bills to go through or not the bill has been discussed this public airing what is it the government does not commit to when the bill has been passed and you didn't use any influence together. at all absolutely none if this bill had gone through mr journalist could have been jailed for any article deemed threatening abusive or insulting and could have been hanged if their work caused any loss of life what you didn't object to this bill that you ignored as it as it is says this was what is called the tree of subpoena power. the only thing you can do as president is refuse your asset such a lot the last blow been passed the lot what would not or did it but executive the

law is still going through the senate so how is that how did i just miss the president stop it with i've been accused of not dictatorship and muslim the you telling me you wouldn't have signed the law with that provision in it i think this you can tell me that you have been speculating you can't tell me why when we went we get when we get the bridge not because it would look at what are the contents of that law in what form will it be passed but you see people rushed in order to history to judge to judge when you can't if we don't have one you said we submitted that that's bill we did not we know nothing i don't want to submit it. we don't micromanage the parliament really what about the protection from internet for sword and manipulations bill also carrying draconian provisions on the journalist could be in prison and who for publishing content all the author of that bill are you against this bill will know i'm not even aware of that bill you're not i'm the

protection from internet falso the manipulations bill you're not even aware of now where it so it cannot because it is causing it's causing an outcry internationally and you're the minister of information and i have nothing about as nor thought bill before the house there is a bill that has diverted that it is really that is not such a bill before the house reporters without borders these bills talking about the prohibition of hate speech bill and the protection from internet falso the manipulations bill they said these bills contain extremely harsh penalties that violate international law and are likely to be used to gag the media and you are saying you know nothing about this one just the same with they were wrong in saying that the submitted the hate speech bill. mr let's talk about corruption because in your country it seems to begin with the government doesn't it the international center for investigative reporting said last year that among 9

countries in sub-saharan africa nigeria has the worst managed sovereign wealth fund based on accountability transparency and oversight why is your record so bad the absolutely false. absolutely false report by the national resource institute's africa office based on data from 2017 said you had failed to regularly disclose publicly the financial interests of government officials in the extractive sector or the identities of beneficial owners of extractive companies despite making public commitments to do so the subsidy forces the force to do the 1st obligation as a minister a public official is way too little it probably declare ition of oil assets. and any minister. who does not do so will risk being prosecuted and we know many who are not being prosecuted as a result of that too is to the credit of this administration that only

a few months ago we passed you know we put in the in place a policy that compels every ministry every department to make public any expenditure above 10000 past saw that the public can challenge what is being spent for is all a kind of absurd as this in that no government has ever succeeded in securing the condition of high profile politicians by them strachan has paid those of them who belong to the william party we continue to fight corruption because and you for and you follow the rules do absolutely so in 2018 why in towards the close of president will his 1st why did the auditor general himself raise serious concern about the so-called excess crude account that you have this is an oil savings account which holds dollar reserves from crude oil that are sold above the assumed benchmark

price and in july that year the auditor general warned you to bring your handling of this account into line with the more why if you tell me you follow the rules did he feel the need to say this is precisely because. he said it shows how to correct their decision is the editor there and is an appointee of just how shocking he thinks your behavior actually is no us nor on the contrary really is shows the level of transparency in demonstration that an appointee of god plenty can't say this yet retain his job he noted that being the options from the account which appeared to have been made illegally in other words deductions that apparently violated constitutional provisions why would that be and why would he say that if you're following the rules as you tell me you are everywhere in the world to live in the most well known democracies you have what it is generous you have what would

it a generous yes yes and their duty is to monitor the excesses of government not the part that is allowed to do the job and the sciri mince in office i think it's a testament to the fact that we're really britain's bread in the intrusion the effect if this is one congratulations for that always be heard i want god for i was good as far as i got from you as as i was supposed to know not just as i'm from the auditor general who says you're not in line with the law but with that you don't think that matters are prejudice to the. to the correctness or not of that you know. the fact that he can make that allegation so meeteetse has been looked into understeer we need a doctor and i think it's that we know how to live in it and station that does not believe in transparency as the audit team could find no legal authority for even the existence of this excess crude account so it's a sham and

a slush fund isn't it why don't why don't you admit it and with that yeah there's no legal basis for this for this account and you know i don't think it's correct to say that this normally would be as well because the. court as a cult have known about it even before it came to government. it said the audit team could find no legal authority for even the existence of this excess crude account how come you didn't or persistent warnings from the auditor general as he said year after year not just your government but the previous one going back to 2007 to bring this in line with the law again you tell me you follow the rules but it's not backed up by the auditor general we follow the rules and like even that allegation even that arthur is correct the all idea of an auditor general is to point out to you what do i do wrong unfortunately to write i don't see any governor in the war that is all we always follow the law were always do everything correctly

but as he gave the fund that that original comment the report and nothing is happening is still in office yes and what you continue to make illegal deductions from the account what it depends what you made a good look at the illegal doctrine deductions that violated constitutional provisions it's not easy if if a government ballast concessional provision it is the little duty of parliament to take appropriate action but i don't believe that we do responsibility of the government if it cares about the people's money to mend its ways and oh of course and will but that's if you had live that you have it will die a little of the loss but i want some sense that yes they are truly out of alfonso my normal is the all essence of a degenerate anywhere in the ward that there will be checks and balances and ali as does what will put it out here is that there are some regularities and then the appropriate you know i am of god mentor who did it for so what are you going to do

in future about this i'm sure it has been and if he what are you going to do it doesn't it is a true and has been taken care of but hasn't been in these been reporting and complaining about the government's attitude to this of since 2007 well just as the un has been complaining that you haven't been giving information about top. and excesses of violence used by your security forces as the international criminal court has been complaining all these complaints are piling up minister what are you going to do in the future. we don't walk we look at a brick on place we look at our things there and we take action like i've told you there been several. many managers as i've been guilty some have been dismissed and it's now interests global witness says despite a 50 year all boom which transformed nigeria's economy into the largest in africa 80 percent of your people live on less than $2.00

a day they say that an estimated $400000000000.00 has gone missing from state coffers are you going to tell the people of nigeria where that money is gone. and our watch between 2015 and 20 native nobody closer suffered in such allegation and i can only speak for when i became minister and i can see a girl that's between 2015 and 20 nobody can talk about oil money missing. my mama thanks very much for being so thank you very much.

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discover new adventures in the 360 degree. and explore fascinating boreholes heritage sites. d.w. world heritage 316 get kidnapped now. in the us right of climate change. africa's most of. what's in store for the most wanted list for their future with the c.w. to come back and make a city to the mall to. insight. into. how the virus spread. why do we panic and when we'll all miss them. just 3 of the topics covered and the weekly radio show is called spectrum if you would like any information on the crawl of virus or any other science topic you should really check out our podcast so you can get it wherever you get your podcast you can also

find us at dot com for inside science. this is d w news live from berlin italy has reported the highest single day death toll of any country since the corona virus outbreak a grim picture emerges from berrigan more where hospital more tourists are overwhelmed and the army is called in to carry away the date also on the program british prime minister boris johnson announces all schools across the country will

close but critics say his response has calmed tonight. and german chancellor angela.