Early today’s morning as I quaffed cups of hot American
coffee, I engaged in a discussion with a young female lawyer born in Jos,
Plateau state, and the topic was on the new vocation of Nigeria’s first
lady Mrs. Patience Goodluck Jonathan which seems to have significantly shifted
from mundane politics to what may be considered as the pristine pursuit of
noble causes.
I heaped
profound praises on the significant paradigm shift of the wife of
Nigeria’s President for embracing the noble causes of fighting against sexual
violations of women and waging unrelenting advocacy campaign against the
emerging dangerous trend of cyber bullying and other ramifications of child
abuses through the internet.
But my lawyer
friend asked me how much professional fee that the wife of Nigeria’s President
has paid me for vigorously pouring encomiums on her new approach to human
rights advocacy with specific reference to pursuing women’s rights.
My response
was straight to the point when I flatly told her that I have not received any
form of financial compensation.
Further, I
informed my friend, a female lawyer in her late 20’s that a human rights group
that I founded was the first to criticize Mrs. Jonathan for getting herself so
much involved in the partisan muddy waters of divisive politics of her
state of origin-Rivers state even as we advised her some months back to
concentrate her time and resources towards advancing some noble causes such as
fighting for the promotion of the fundamental human rights of women.
My reason for inquiring if my group’s advocacy urging Mrs.
Jonathan to embrace the pursuit of noble causes has paid off is because of two
major events in which the wife of President Jonathan made speeches that
underscore her fundamental paradigm shift from the world of politics to
pursuing good humanitarian causes.
Indeed the public Relations Managers of the wife of President
Jonathan seems to be responsive to critical opinions which are against her
getting involved in partisan political warfare.
The first event which took place at the behest of the wife of
Nigeria’s President was primarily focused on strategies for combating the
emerging crimes of cyber bullying and the attendant child abuses through online
sources. This event was attended by high profile World leaders including the
former Israeli Prime Minister Mr. Ehud Barack.
The second event took place only last weekend in Paris,
France at the behest of the wife of the French President-Ms. Valerie Trierweder
on the sideline of the Elysee Summit for peace and security in Africa hosted by
the French government. The Nigerian President was among over 50 world leaders
that attended the global anti-terrorism event.
The noble roles played by Mrs. Patience Jonathan could be a
perfect response to the groundswell of criticism trailing her less than
dignifying involvement in the political fight going on between the Rivers state
governor Chibuike Amaechi and her husband-President Jonathan which is
interpreted by political observers as a fight over rumoured Presidential
ambitions of both men come 2015 election.
Mrs. Jonathan was also criticized for wielding too much state
powers whenever she visits other cities such as the traffic lock down that
characterized her visit to Lagos state early in the year and also the women's
political rally that closed down central business District of Abuja to
traffic only last few months.
But the well oiled media think tank working for Mrs.
Jonathan wants us to believe that Mrs. Jonathan’s paradigm shift was purely on
humanitarian ground.
In one of the few articles published in recent times in
praise of the first lady’s new humanitarian crusade, Emma Okonji stated that
the acceptance of Mrs. Jonathan to champion the global campaign on child online
protection will inevitably create positive global image for Nigeria.
He wrote thus; “When in
May 10, 2013, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the body that
is regulating telecommunications operations globally, with the United Nation’s
Cyber Security executing arm, which is known as the International Multilateral
Partnership Against Cyber Threat (IMPACT), visited Nigeria to present a
certificate of appointment to the first lady, Mrs. Patience Jonathan, as the
‘Child Online Protection Champion’ (COPC), many experts in the Nigerian
technology industry, saw the appointment as a turning point for Nigeria to
redeem its image on cyber security fraud, labelled against the country”.
The ITU-IMPACT team that visited the
first lady, and gave her the global appointment, according to Emma
Okonji, was led by the Director of Telecoms Development Bureau of ITU, Mr.
Brahima Sanou. The team is reportedly passionate about addressing the
menace of child online abuse globally, and was looking for someone with high
personality, and commitment to drive its agenda in curbing online fraud and
online child abuse. It beamed its search light on Nigeria and found the first
lady, who then, was already the President of African First Ladies Peace
Mission. So recalled Emma Okonji who authored this highly patronizing article
for the Wife of the Nigerian President.
Okonji further told his readers that
by virtue of her commitment and involvement to charitable activities in
and outside Nigeria, Mrs. Jonathan accepted the appointment and had since swung
into action in championing the campaign for global child online protection as
well as addressing online fraud in Nigeria; so wrote Emma Okonji in Thisday
newspaper of October 24th 2013.
But her role on the global stage took
place in Paris, France when she mounted the rostrum to campaign for the rights
of women against sexual violence.
Dateline December 6th
2013: the wife of Nigerian President demonstrated to the World her positive
dimension which had remained relatively unknown locally when she read a
well written speech whereby she made strong case for the African girl child and
women to be protected by law against sexual offences just as she remarkably
stated the obvious that 'behind every rape case is a man'.
Mrs. Patience Jonathan
in perhaps what will become for a long time to come as one of her finest public
speeches called for stiffer penalties backed by effective laws against
perpetrators of sexual violence against women.
Going down memory lane drawing from
the rich accounts of wanton sexual violations of women and girls whose nations
especially in Africa witnessed one civil strife or the other, the Nigerian
first lady said conflict-related sexual abuse should not be regarded as
unavoidable or acceptable consequences of war because of their devastating
consequences. The
wife of the Nigerian President made this remarkable speech against the backdrop
of a recent report by the Human Rights Watch that the Northern Nigerian based
armed Islamic terrorists were in the habit of abducting girls for sex.
I will return to that
all important call for stiffer legal framework to be erected by governments
against perpetrators of series of sexual violence against women and girls.
I will briefly touch on
the cyber crime of sexual abuses of children commonly categorized by international
experts as cyber bullying and I will make reference to Britain whereby there
exists scientific and verifiable statistics on this crime against humanity. In
Nigeria, we are deficient of good and verifiable scientific statistics on any
crime and this bad practice must change if we are to be regarded as making bold
effort to fight crime.
For a better
appreciation of this newly emerging crime of cyber bullying, I consulted the
website of www.bullyingstatistics.org
and learnt
that this is a form of teen violence that can do lasting harm to young people.
Bullying statistics
show that cyber bullying is a serious problem among teens. By being more aware
of cyber bullying, teens and adults can help to fight the evil trend. From this
perspective it can be seen that the paradigm shift of Mrs. Jonathan to now
embrace waging an effective crusade against online child abuse, is indeed a
noble cause which must be sustained and vigorously replicated by wives of the
governors of Nigeria’s 36 states and the nation’s capital, so as to make the
needed national impact.
Experts say that cyber
bullying can take many forms and shapes such as; sending mean messages or
threats to a person’s email account or cell phone; spreading rumors online or
through texts; posting hurtful or threatening messages on social networking
sites or web pages; stealing a person’s account information to break into their
account and send damaging messages; pretending to be someone else online to
hurt another person; taking unflattering pictures of a person and spreading
them through cell phones or the internet; and sexting, or circulating sexually
suggestive pictures or messages about a person. These variety of crime are
predominantly seen in Nigeria especially among the younger persons that
perpetually fiddle around with series of newly introduced phones.
Cyber bullying,
according to the website aforementioned, can be very damaging to
adolescents and teens. It can lead to anxiety, depression, and even suicide.
Also, once things are circulated on the internet, they may never disappear,
resurfacing at later times to renew the pain of cyber bullying. These are
eternal facts.
Many cyber bullies,
they continued, think that bullying others online is funny. Cyber bullies may
not realize the consequences for themselves of cyber bullying. The things teens
post online now may reflect badly on them later when they apply for college or
a job.
Also, cyber bullies
and their parents may face legal charges for cyber bullying, and if the cyber
bullying was sexual in nature or involved sexting, the result can include being
registered as a sex offender, especially in the United Kingdom, so reasoned
this writer cited in the website being quoted
here.
Some emerging facts on
this crime are as follows; over half of adolescents and teens have been bullied
online, and about the same number have engaged in cyber bullying; more than 1
in 3 young people have experienced cyber threats online; over 25 percent of
adolescents and teens have been bullied repeatedly through their cell phones or
the Internet; and well over half of young people do not tell their parents when
cyber bullying occurs. These are facts recorded in the United
Kingdom but in Nigeria there are even more sinister dimensions to this cyber
crime which go undocumented.
From the above facts, it can now be
appreciated that the crusade just started by Mrs. Jonathan is no mean task
which must be fought with every vigor and resources. The Nigerian government
must galvanize the existing agencies of government in the Federal ministry of
science and also Technology to wage a big but pragmatic campaign against cyber
bullying which obviously poses serious danger not just to our teens but even
adults. For instance I receive an average of six correspondences from cyber
fraudsters posing as beautiful female models who are soliciting for sexual
liaison.
The Nigerian first lady
should focus her attention to the ongoing prosecution of the killers of Miss.
Cynthia Osokogu, the 25 year old post-graduate student of Nasarawa state
university who was lured to a Lagos hotel by cyber criminals and gruesomely
killed.
It is indeed a national
shame that such brutal cyber crime took place in Lagos over one year now and
the wheel of justice is so weak and slow to deliver the desired justice to the
alleged killers. There are a thousand and one of such cases. The wife of
President Jonathan should use her proximity to the seat of power to ensure that
the office of the federal Attorney General and those of the 36 States of the
Federation and Abuja are compelled to embrace this fight against cyber
criminals.
On her other noble
cause of speaking out against sexual violation of women, it is important that
her campaign permeate the Nigerian legal system because charity begins at home.
Mrs. Jonathan should
begin by constituting a team of legal and human rights experts or should send
for some of the past recommendations made by the various committees set up by
the office of the Federal Attorney General regarding the weak legal regimes
against rape and other sexual violations of Nigerian women.
Mrs. Jonathan should pick up a copy of
the well written legal book by one of Nigeria’s finest intellectuals on women
law and human rights Professor (Mrs.) Joy Ngozi Ezeilo of the University of
Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu state.
In her scholarly book
aptly titled: “Women, law and human rights”, Professor Ezeilo expertly
exposed the legal lacuna on laws relating to sexual violations of Nigerian
women.
For instance, Professor
Ezeilo observed that the penal code, like the criminal code, contains
provisions which contravene women’s rights and tend to perpetuate violence
against women.
She wrote thus; “For
instance, section 55(1)(d) of the Penal Code states that: nothing is an offence
which does not amount to the infliction of grievous hurt upon any person and
which is done… by a husband for the purpose of correcting his wife such husband
and wife being subject to any native law or custom in which such correction is
recognized as lawful".
I, too, completely
dissociate myself from any native practice that dehumanizes women sexually.
The wife of the
Nigerian President should hold series of workshops to build the capacity of
wives of the high profile political office holders in all parts of Nigeria so
that individually, they can use their high standing in the society to wage
national campaign against sexual violence targeted against women.
Importantly, to achieve
better result, the National Human Rights Commission must train police
operatives all over the country to become aware of the red flags of rape and
sexual violence of Nigerian women because in latin we know that no one can give
what he/she does not have (nomen dat quod nan habet). In order for the Nigerian
police to key in to the fight now being waged against sexual violence against
women by the wife of President Jonathan, the operatives who come in contact
daily with the ordinary citizens must be educated and made aware of the new
trends that comply to global best practices in the fight against sexual
violations of women.
The Federal Ministry of
Women Affairs must embark on pragmatic advocacy all across the country in
partnership with the states ministries of women affairs and credible civil
society organizations to sensitize Nigerians about these twin evils of
cyber crime and sexual violations of women and also monitor how laws against
these crimes are enforced across board.
The Nigerian first lady should go beyond
sermons on political rostrum to engage in practical advocacy. She should be
supported by all of us so that our women can be protected.
* Emmanuel
Onwubiko, Head; HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA;
blogs @www.huriwa.org;
www.huriwa.blogspot.com.
9/12/2013
No comments:
Post a Comment