VOICE OF THE VOICELESS FROM NIGERIA

  On September 12, 2013, I wrote this edited piece of opinion on one of the National Dailies in Nigeria- (Daily Trust Newspaper). And I am today reminiscing on it ............ It has been proven time and time again that it is extremely difficult to disarm young people that were arm ed during conflict situations all over the world. . This is simply because once young minds are “ mentalized ” that overpowering perceived enemy is easily achievable through the use of alternative measures like sticks, knives, rods, guns, dangerours weapons etc, they will do everything possible to remain like so as champions of violence. They wish to be as a macho man. This young people are always bigger burden to those who armed them when the dust of conflict settles. Yet it is on record that these armed youths in the absent of conflict do use these tools of weapons against those that armed them in the first place, and most time those who armed them are the political elected, making it real of a story w...

It is rather so unfortunate that I found out that I am fighting a lonely war for justice all the time, when I realized what my fundamental human rights are. But fighting in defense for rights in my country has always been expensive for the poor that, seeking justice seems absolute waste of time. Myself is a victim of rape of justice severally either that I couldn’t afford to pay for legal service for defense in the court of law or, as may seems - justice system itself was calling for money from me; which I could not afford. In such cases I have lost justice and justice denied. But I have never given up recalling or seeking for the full recovery all my lost justice on time, realizing that there’s  power in biro that is mightier than swords, guns and bombs. In reflection, is one of the reasons why there’s increasing wave of violence by vulnerable young people in Nigeria and in Africa; when justice for the poor is hard to get. When majority poor young Africans, are denied justice unju...

On the occasion of the World Summit of Local and Regional Government, ahead of the Habitat III Conference , the Global Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments (GTF), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) launched a website   www.LocalizingTheSDGs.org  – a pioneering knowledge and information sharing platform on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) universally agreed by world leaders in September 2015 in New York. On locally led actions “Local actors have a key role to play in translating the SDGs into reality and the platform will be a useful resource for them in this process”, said Barbara Pesce-Monteiro, Director of the UN and UNDP Office in Brussels. “To ensure that the SDGs contribute to a substantive improvement of people’s lives, sharing best practices as well as challenges is key”. The platform provid...

  “Human trafficking is as old as humankind. Regrettably, it’s been with us for centuries and centuries. But… it is our hope that the 21st century will be the last century of human trafficking, and that’s what we are all committed to.”     Tillerson. If you think slavery is over or has been abolished, you may be making a great mistake about it as modern slavery is deeper than old but same as old in the crime continuum.  “Today more than 27 million people, many of them women and children, suffer under forced labor and sexual servitude in over 165 countries around the world, including the US” according to US Senator Bob Coker who is championing legislation to end modern slavery globally.  Allow me quote him once again- “As I have seen firsthand, the stark reality of modern slavery is unconscionable, demanding the United States and civilized world make a commitment to end it for good”. And I couldn’t have agreed more to this especially when I realized there is...

  There are some things I find difficult to understand especially when you watch animated and video games as a child. The games are full of violence motivations, and when children become target of such, the society is really in a sorry state of affairs. On street walls in some areas hateful slogans are displayed. And I wonder why not love, peace and unity instead. People are finding it easy to preach and promote hate this days especially on the social media.  Most people that do this go unpunished for it. They incite the vulnerable along religious, political, ethnic and other lines, and then cover it up with freedom of speech.  No doubt about that, because hate speech is not freedom of speech and free speech is human right, yet no rights are absolute. This I know.  What we are in for     Hate speech is spreading and has entered the internet spreading like wildfire and is dangerous. High numbers of young people are most technologically sa...

Cancer is a serious illness that can affect many parts of the body. Cancer starts when some cells begin to grow very quickly in an abnormal way, causing growth (tumor) in the body. Sometimes, tumors go away without treatment but many tumors get larger or spread, causing health problems in several parts of the body.     What causes cancer? One cause of cancer throughout the world could be increasing amount of industrial pollution and toxic chemicals in our environment and in our bodies too. The increasing number of people living with cancer is a concerned that should lead our Government to act quickly to protect people’s health and saves lives. But this is not coming very soon.   Several types of cancer are known to be caused specifically by toxic chemicals and include – cancer of the lungs, bladder, liver, breast, brain, blood (leukemia), multiple myeloma and non Hodgkin’s lymphoma. People exposed to toxic chemicals over a long time have greater risk of getting these...

Around the world people are working to protect their rights to health, including the right to a good supply of safe water. In Nigeria, private companies say they can provide better service than Government and still make profit. But when private companies takes control of water services,     I mean water privatization , prices often go up, forcing people to use less water than they need for good health. It is this, that makes people collects water wherever they can, in as much as it is at no cost, even if the water is contaminated with germs or toxic chemicals. They really don’t care. Tap water provided by Government is not rushing and when it rushes, it is with particles and with odour often times. They say the water is clean but I know it is not safe.  You see, when people begin not to trust water from the taps, those who can afford turn and buy packaged – table water or bottled water. But just because water is packaged in polythene leather or bottled does not mean ...

I met Stacey Cram at Lagos, Nigeria at paralegal training by JEI/IWEI and I learnt one thing from her. And that is the secret to service. Stacey Cram is policy Director, Namati. She first wrote about it on Namati website.  SHE WROTE    It was in a small kitchen in Transylvania when I first felt the sting of injustice. I was sixteen, sitting across the table from Eta, a retired doctor in her 80s whose twinkly eyes and cheeky laugh reminded me so much of my grandmother. We sat chatting and she told me how much she loved talking with young people and how she would have loved to have had children of her own, “sadly, not possible because of the sterilizations”. She noted the shocked look on my face and met it with a smile, a squeeze of my hand, and the push of a second slice of plum cake onto my plate. Eta was a survivor of Auschwitz and I was there to document her story. She continued to tell me how “that so-called doctor” Joseph Mengele had chosen her for his sterilization p...