When the state turns the law against dissent under Tinubu’s watch, By Kolawole Olaniyan

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa, and more than 100 Nigerian civil society organisations have also condemned the judgment, arguing that it risks turning defamation law into a tool of intimidation that chills legitimate criticism and public-interest advocacy.

But under Tinubu, threats, harassment and intimidation of human rights defenders, activists, journalists and civil society organisations are being compounded by the growing weaponisation of the criminal justice system, particularly by the State Security Service (SSS), to silence peaceful dissent and intimidate critics.

Amnesty International’s State of the World’s Human Rights: April 2026 documented arrests and detention of journalists, activists and others expressing dissent in Nigeria, as well as police assaults on journalists, the use of tear gas against peaceful protesters, confiscation of equipment and prosecutions under the Cybercrimes Act and criminal defamation laws.