The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Tuesday said it recorded 3.7 million human right violations complaints across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, in 2025.
The Executive Secretary of the commission, Tony Ojukwu, disclosed this at the presentation of the December Dashboard and Observatory Reports on Human Rights violations.
But only a tiny fraction of the complaints were completely investigated. Hiliary Ogbonna, senior human rights adviser to the commission, disclosed at Tuesday’s event that the commission completed investigations on only 52,489 of the 3.7 million (3,724,822) complaints.
Mr Ogbonna attributed the poor performance of only about 1. 4 per cent completion rate to poor funding. About a year ago, the NHRC lamented the inadequacy of its annual budget.
Presenting NHRC’s 2024 budget performance report during a budget defence hearing of the joint committee on human rights of the Senate and House of Representatives at the National Assembly Complex in Abuja , Mr Ojukwu lamented the inadequacy of the proposed 2025 allocation of N8 billion.
He called for a substantial increase in its proposed allocation for this year, citing rising cost of operations and volume of complaints it receives annually.
“The current allocation of N8 billion is grossly inadequate to meet this demand,” he said, informing the lawmakers that the commission received as much as 2 million complaints annually.
He urged lawmakers to consider increasing the proposed budget from N8 billion to N19.55 billion, while emphasising the cost of investigating human rights complaints.
But a review of the 2025 Appropriation Act by PREMIUM TIMES shows that the commission’s approved budget remained N8 billion as proposed, despite Mr Ojukwu’s entreaties.
On Tuesday, Mr Ojukwu noted that human rights violations were linked to systemic issues among others, adding that collaboration remained a powerful tool in promoting and protecting human rights.
“From the January to December, 2025 dashboards, we have learnt that human rights violations are deeply linked to systemic issues including inequality, unemployment, weak institutions, and limited access to justice.
“We have also learnt that early warning signs are visible in the data as the dashboard is not merely a reporting tool; it is a prevention mechanism.
“One thing that has also been highlighted is that collaboration remains essential. “No single institution can address Nigeria’s human rights challenges alone. Progress in 2025 was most visible where government agencies, civil society, traditional institutions, and communities worked together,” he said.
He noted that the human rights outlook for Nigeria in 2026 was one of cautious optimism, matched with realism. He promised that in this context, the NHRC would prioritise strengthening early warning and prevention mechanisms, using dashboard data to support proactive interventions.
He added that the commission would also deepen engagement with security agencies, to ensure human rights compliance in law enforcement and conflict response.
Mr Ojukwu said expanding access to justice, particularly for women, children and marginalised communities was also a priority. According to him, data alone does not change lives, action does. He said the Human Rights Dashboard is a mirror held up to our society. “What we see in it should guide policy, reform, and accountability,” Mr Ojukwu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, said.
He therefore called on all stakeholders to use this data to inform people-centred policies. Speaking, Adwoa Kufuor, Senior Human Rights Adviser to the UN resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, noted that looking ahead to the rest of 2026 and beyond, there are still many challenges.
She noted that these were security concerns, economic pressures, shrinking civic space, and barriers to getting justice.
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