HRMI Says Nigeria Performing Worse Than Sub-Saharan African Average On Key Human Rights Indicators

The Human Rights Measurement Initiative, an independent global non-governmental organisation, has said Nigeria is performing worse than average on key human rights indicators when compared with other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The organisation disclosed this in its 2026 embargoed Rights Tracker, which assessed Nigeria across safety from the state, empowerment and quality of life indicators.

“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,” the report stated.

According to HRMI, Nigeria scored 5.5 out of 10 in the category of Safety from the State, which measures protection from arbitrary arrest, torture, enforced disappearance, extrajudicial execution and the death penalty.

The organisation said the score suggests that many people in Nigeria are not safe from one or more rights violations, including arbitrary arrest, torture and ill-treatment, forced disappearance, the death penalty or extrajudicial killing.

In the area of empowerment, Nigeria scored 5.6 out of 10.

HRMI said the score indicates that many people in the country are not fully enjoying civil liberties and political freedoms, including freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and association, democratic rights, and freedom of religion and belief.

The report also rated Nigeria poorly in the Quality of Life category, placing the country in the “very bad” and “bad” categories across indicators such as health, housing and work.

Nigeria, however, received a “fair” rating in access to food, with a score of 56.5 per cent.

The latest assessment comes amid growing concerns over reported human rights violations across the country.

In its human rights complaints statistics for May, the National Human Rights Commission said it received 268,787 complaints, representing an increase from the previous month.

The commission, in a statement issued on Thursday, said the North Central zone recorded the highest number of complaints, while the Federal Capital Territory, Benue and Borno states topped the list of states with the highest number of complaints.

Presenting the report, the NHRC’s Senior Human Rights Adviser, Hilary Ogbonna, expressed concern over the continued rise in cases of sexual and gender-based violence, child rights violations, killings and kidnappings across the country.

The NHRC called for stronger security measures, greater accountability and improved protection for vulnerable groups, saying urgent steps were needed to curb the rising trend of human rights violations in Nigeria.