25.6.2026
Nigeria is “performing worse than average” compared to other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa in terms of the quality of life of its citizens.
According to a report by the Human Rights Measurement Initiative many Nigerians risk “arbitrary arrest, torture and ill-treatment, forced disappearance, death penalty or extrajudicial killing,”
The report, HRMI’s first global project to systematically track the human rights performance of countries, was released on Wednesday and stated that “Nigeria’s new human rights scores show little improvement.”
“Nigeria fails to fully protect its people’s economic, social, civil, and political rights,” the report stated, adding, “Nigeria’s right to food (58.6%), health (48.8%), housing (41.0%), and work (34.9%) scores all fall in the ‘very bad’ range, making it clear that Nigeria still has a very long way to go to meet its immediate obligations on economic and social rights.”
On the “quality of life” of citizens of Africa’s most populous country, the report stated that “Compared with the other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria is performing worse than average when we look across the rights for which we have data (this comparison is calculated using the ‘Income adjusted’ benchmark).”
According to the report, Nigeria’s Safety from the State score of 5.9 out of 10 suggests that many people are not safe from one or more of the following: arbitrary arrest, torture and ill-treatment, forced disappearance, death penalty, or extrajudicial killing.
The report, which measures human rights performance across 212 countries, stated that, “Nigeria’s score of 5.8% for ensuring the right to good quality education is the second lowest in the world, indicating that Nigeria is only doing 5.8% of what HRMI calculates it is capable of at its current level of per capita income.”
Thalia Kehoe Rowden, HRMI Co-Executive Director, said, “The rights we measure are absolutely fundamental. Nigeria’s leaders will need to make significant changes to improve their people’s quality of life. Better lives for its people are within its grasp if leaders choose.” Peoples Gazette
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