Hunger Ravages Inmates in Overcrowded Prisons in Nigeria

Ibrahim* went from earning an honest living as a factory worker, supporting his family, to clawing for scraps of garri in a sweltering, overcrowded prison cell.

Within a week of entering the Goron Dutse Correctional Facility in Kano State, northwestern Nigeria, he developed a severe skin infection. Two months later, he was almost unrecognisable. Once fair and plump, as shown in the photo on his old identity card, he now appeared skinny, his skin marred by rashes that covered half his body.

But how did Ibrahim end up there?

Months earlier, a substantial credit alert unexpectedly appeared in his bank account. He claimed to have no idea where it had come from at the time. He waited anxiously for any inquiries. When none came, he convinced himself it was an unforeseen stroke of luck. Yielding to temptation, he used the money to clear his debts and support his ageing parents, reassuring himself that no harm would come of it.

However, the factory where Ibrahim has been employed discovered some missing funds, which were traced back to his account. Summoned to the manager’s office, Ibrahim told HumAngle that he had admitted to the transaction and promised to repay the money. He was immediately dismissed and given a brief window to settle the debt. When he failed to repay by the deadline, he was arrested one day, in front of his family.

At the police station, Ibrahim spent hours under questioning. He admitted to spending part of the money but pleaded for leniency, explaining he had mistaken it for a “federal government loan” he had previously applied for. His pleas fell on deaf ears.

In court, Ibrahim was charged with theft and given two options: pay a fine of thirty thousand naira or face three months in prison. With no way to pay, he was sentenced to Goron Dutse.

Justice delayed, lives endangered

Critics argue that Nigerian judges contribute to the overcrowding of prisons by sending people to jail for minor offences or holding them in custody pending trial. In Kano State, over 70 per cent of the inmates are awaiting trials and, recently, the Police said some inmates’ files are missing, preventing cases from progressing.

“Most of the inmates awaiting trial have stayed in custody with their cases yet to be determined by the courts,” said Musbahu Lawan, the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), Kano Command spokesperson.

He explained that this backlog is the primary cause of congestion. “Our laws give us the power to transfer convicted inmates to any facility in the country, so if the inmates awaiting trial are eventually convicted, there won’t be congestion,” Lawan noted.

Hell behind bars

Goron Dutse was worse than Ibrahim had imagined. His cell, not larger than the size of a small bedroom, held several of them. “I can’t say exactly how many we were in the cell, but I know we were more than twenty,” he recalled after a benefactor paid his fine and secured his release.

Other inmates who have been released from Goron Dutse described the living conditions as inhumane. Even lying down is a luxury. Usman Auwalu, who spent six months behind bars, was left with a frail body, hollow cheeks and sunken eyes. “We are packed in a room like a box of sardines,” he told HumAngle.

Another released inmate, Mallam Habu, a man in his sixties, could barely walk or speak after his ordeal. Habu couldn’t walk properly. As he dragged his body, he whispered, “Inmates need help inside.”

For decades, Nigerian prisons have struggled with severe overcrowding. Kano State, home to nearly 15 million, has only ten correctional centres, with just two in the metropolis. The Goron Dutse Correctional Facility, originally designed to house 639 inmates, now holds over 2,000, an official source at the facility told HumAngle. “There are new blocks in the prison, but overcrowding remains an issue. More people are brought in every day,” the source explained.

Inside the cells, prisoners are crammed together—some sitting, others lying on the ground, while a few cling to the bars for air. The stench of sweat, urine, and the humid heat, Auwalu said, makes breathing almost impossible.

For many inmates at Goron Dutse, enduring these conditions is a daily struggle. For many others, entering the prison feels like a death sentence.

Starvation into submission

Perhaps the most harrowing aspect of Ibrahim’s experience was the hunger. “We ate once a day, and it was just a handful of garri or three small morsels of tuwo,” he said.

When HumAngle interviewed Usman, he couldn’t stand upright; he attributed the condition to chronic starvation. “It’s just hunger,” he said, his skeletal frame telling a far more harrowing tale. “The food wouldn’t satisfy a toddler. You eat to survive, not to live. You’re never full. Never.”

Others tell similar stories. For Yahaya Abba, a middle-aged man who spent nine months in prison, hunger was a silent killer. “We are the lucky ones. We made it out alive. But inside, people are dying slowly and silently because there is no food,” he said.

Despite an increase in the daily feeding allowance from ₦700 to ₦1,050 per inmate, the funds are insufficient to provide balanced meals. Ibrahim described the food as unbalanced, lacking essential nutrients, and often served in unsanitary conditions.

A source within the NCoS confirmed the dire situation. “Every day, one or two dead bodies are being taken out,” he said anonymously. “They die because of hunger.” Authorities, however, appear reluctant to acknowledge the scale of the problem. “I don’t know what benefit they are driving by denying these deaths or attributing it to other causes, but the reality is inmates are dying because of hunger,” another insider revealed.

Lawan, the NCoS spokesperson, dismissed the criticism. “People expect to eat or sleep in prison as they do in their homes, but that’s impossible. The food is meant to keep inmates alive, not provide luxury,” he stated. He further explained that prison meals are termed “ration” because they are portioned, not because everyone gets what they desire.

The spokesperson’s response highlights the systemic neglect that turns prisons into places of suffering rather than rehabilitation. Ibrahim’s ordeal raises pressing questions: Are Nigeria’s correctional facilities rehabilitating offenders, or are they perpetuating cycles of poverty and crime?

For the men freed, freedom felt hollow. It was survival—escaping one nightmare only to bear its scars indefinitely. For those still inside, their suffering continues: unheard, unseen, and unending.

*All names in this story have been changed.

By Aliyu Dahiru, HumAngle

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Nigerian humanist freed after imprisonment for ‘blasphemy’

The National Secular Society has welcomed news that Nigerian atheist Mubarak Bala has been freed from prison, after spending four years behind bars for 'blasphemy'.

In 2022, Bala was sentenced to 24 years in prison, after Kano State High Court convicted him of 18 counts of causing a public disturbance.

He was arrested in 2020 after a petition from a group of lawyers alleging he had called the Islamic prophet Muhammad "all sorts of denigrating names" was sent to police.

Bala's legal team said they believe Bala is still in danger. Bala told the BBC that that whilst he is now free, there remains "an underlying threat", and "the concern about my safety is always there".

When asked why he pled guilty to the charges in court, which was not part of the agreed legal strategy, Bala said he believed this would save "not only my life, but people in the state, and especially those that were attached to my case".

Humanists International said it is likely he was subjected to intimidation, and there have been unconfirmed reports of threats against his family members.

During his ordeal, Bala was held without charge for 462 days and was denied access to a legal team for over five months. Bala was also denied access to medical care. In December 2020, a judge at the High Court in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, ruled that Bala should be immediately released, but Kano State authorities failed to comply.

Bala said that: "In Kano [prison], I never thought I would get out alive."

The NSS contributed to Humanists International's campaign to release Bala, and in 202 urged authorities in Nigeria to release him after he had spent a year in detention.

Blasphemy laws exist in at least 95 countries, including Northern Ireland. In 12 countries, including Nigeria, blasphemy or apostasy are punishable by death.

NSS: Abolition of blasphemy should follow Bala's freedom

NSS spokesperson Jack Rivington said: "We are delighted that Mubarak Bala has been freed, but he should never have faced imprisonment in the first place.

"Criticising religion should never be a crime. Blasphemy laws of any kind have no place anywhere. They are an affront to the fundamental human rights of freedom of expression and freedom of religion or belief.

"We call again for the abolition of all blasphemy laws, everywhere."

National Secular Society

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‘Modern slavery’: Trapped in Iraq, Nigerian women cry out for help

Sometimes when the pain hits, Agnes* has to pause for several seconds to ride out the excruciating wave. It feels like someone has tied a rope to her insides and is pulling and twisting it, the 27-year-old Nigerian domestic worker says, making it hard to bend or stand up straight.

Agnes’s ordeal started in March in the Iraqi city of Basra when her boss raped her at gunpoint. She fell pregnant, and the man then forced her to undergo a painful abortion. It was so difficult, Agnes said, that she could not sit for three days. Since then, the severe abdominal pains won’t go away, and there’s no one to take her to a hospital.“I just want to go home and treat myself, but I can’t do that,” Agnes said on a phone call from Basra, where she is holed up in a hostel belonging to the recruiting firm that hired her from Nigeria last year. “The man has refused to pay my salary. I don’t know if I am pregnant, but I have not seen my menstruation since then. I just want to go home and check myself and see what’s happening inside me,” she added, her voice breaking.

Al Jazeera is not mentioning Agnes’s real name because she fears reprisals from the staff of the so-called recruiting agency. She is one of hundreds, if not thousands, of people who are caught in a transnational labour network that often sees women from Nigeria and other African countries deceived into domestic servitude in Iraqi cities, activists said.

In Nigeria, the women are hired by a ring of local “agents” who sell them a dream of good pay and good conditions abroad. They get the women to agree, process visas and send them off to recruitment firms in Iraq for a commission of about $500 per woman, according to activists familiar with the system.

Once there, the Iraqi firms ask the women, called “shagalas” (meaning “house worker” in Arabic), to sign two-year contracts and assign them to families or labour-intensive institutions like spas, where they are often expected to work more than 20 hours a day for monthly pay of $200 to $250. In many homes, the women are subject to inhumane treatment: They go days without food, are beaten and are not provided living quarters.

Some, like Agnes, also face sexual abuse and rape. Several women told Al Jazeera stories of victims who had faced so much abuse and torture that they ended up dead although these cases have not been independently confirmed.

“It’s a form of modern slavery,” said Damilola Adekola, co-founder of Hopes Haven Foundation, a Nigerian NGO that helps track women in Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries where abuse of African domestic workers is rife. “These Iraqi agents and the families [the women work for] often tell them, ‘We’ve bought you, so you have to work.’ The contracts they sign go against any type of international law because there’s no medical care and they have to work obscene hours.”

These women often lack knowledge of what a normal workplace should be like because the Nigerian recruiters target women from rural communities who are usually uninformed about the dangers, Adekola added. Although some have diplomas, they often don’t know about the realities of post-war Iraq or that Baghdad is not a country. “Once they hear they can get on an airplane, they just jump at the opportunity,” he said.


A chance to ‘hustle’ abroad goes badly

A native of Nigeria’s Ekiti, a small state northeast of the commercial capital, Lagos, Agnes was working as a domestic worker at home when she heard of an opportunity that could take her abroad.

She paid 100,000 naira ($64) to a local recruiting agent, a family friend whom she trusted, believing that she would be able to make much more money to send home to her ailing mother and nine-year-old son.

Soaring inflation in Nigeria has crippled the naira since 2019. The result has been that Nigerians, young and old, are leaving the country to seek better opportunities. According to an Afrobarometer report this month, more than half of the 200 million population indicated they want to leave the country due to economic hardship with most looking at Europe, North America and the Middle East.

For Agnes, domestic work anywhere else and with the promise of pay that was three times what she normally earned, was an answered prayer. She left for Basra from Lagos airport in September 2023 and arrived at the Iraqi recruitment firm she had been “sold” to after a day’s journey.


Once in Iraq, Agnes’s dreams of a comfortable life abroad turned into a nightmare. Her first shock was at the recruitment firm in Iraq. The firm assigned her a first home to work at, but Agnes was badly treated. She wasn’t given food regularly although her boss would force her to work all day, and her phone was seized, she said. When she complained and refused to work, the Iraqi man returned her to the agents, demanding a refund. Angered that she’d caused a loss, two employers from the firm descended on Agnes, she said, hitting her, punching her and smashing her mobile.

“I had to use a bandage on my eye for three days,” Agnes said. In a photo taken days after the beating and seen by Al Jazeera, Agnes’s right cheek is red and swollen. The firm then forced her to go to a second home, which is where she said the rape took place.

Now, Agnes is back in the firm’s hostel, penniless. After the pains in her abdomen rendered her unable to work, she said the boss who raped her abandoned her there and refused to pay six months of her salary.

“If I knew what this country is like, I wouldn’t have come here. If I knew it’s not safe and there is no respect for life, I wouldn’t have come. I just thought I could also come here and hustle. Please help me get out of here,” she pleaded.

Although she has a place to sleep and she, as well as dozens of women at the hostel, get some noodles and rice daily to cook, Agnes is fearful. The agency has refused to send her back to Nigeria, insisting that she has one more year to work on her contract, despite her debilitating pain.

Agnes said she tries not to aggravate staff of the firm to avoid beatings. Several women there have either been beaten or have been locked up for days without food because their bosses complained of their conduct, she said. Al Jazeera is not revealing the name of the company in order to protect the women, but we did seek official responses regarding the firm from the Iraqi Ministry of Interior, which is in charge of Iraq’s police. We have not yet received a response.

Trafficking of Africans rife in Middle East

Despite several laws against labour trafficking, the practice is rife in post-war Iraq. The country is both a source and destination country for trafficked victims with an estimated 221,000 people currently in slavery-like conditions, according to a November report from the International Organization of Migration (IOM). Most documented victims are from Iran and Indonesia.

The experiences of African female domestic workers in Iraq are largely undocumented, but the challenges they face have been going on for years. Black people have historically been seen as slaves in the country and still face discrimination today.

In 2011, news reports documented how dozens of Ugandan women were tricked by local agents into believing they would be working on United States army bases when the country was under American occupation after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s government. Instead, the women were “sold” to Iraqi firms for about $3,500 and forced to work in dire conditions. Eventually, some escaped with the help of US army staff, but others were never accounted for.

Similar cases of exploitation are being reported across the Middle East, where hundreds of thousands of migrant workers from African and Asian countries are at higher risk of trafficking, according to the IOM.

Under the “kafala” system, which is legal in countries like Lebanon, employers pay for the documentation and travel costs of the foreign workers and use that as leverage to abuse them by confiscating their passports or seizing their pay, reports have shown. The system doesn’t give the worker the right to seek out another employer but does allow employers to transfer contracts to others. Recruitment agencies often use the legal system to employ many workers and then auction the contracts online for huge amounts of money.

It’s unclear to what extent Iraqi authorities investigate agents hiring and “selling” African workers or the individuals who maltreat these women. Authorities however appear to be investigating one case that has garnered widespread attention on Nigerian social media.

Eniola, 28, had, like her counterparts, jumped at the opportunity to earn more money abroad as a domestic worker and arrived in Baghdad in February 2023. However, her boss forced her to work most of the day and allowed her only three to four hours of sleep. When she complained, the woman routinely tortured her with tasers or hit her with an iron rod. She doused her with hot tea or water on several occasions too.

In videos Eniola sent to Al Jazeera, her fingers, which appear to be broken, are bandaged, and scars from burns and wounds dot her body. She found the courage to finally escape in August after more than a year of abuse. Al Jazeera is only using Eniola’s first name to protect her identity.

“She had just beat me when she put some water on the fire and told me to enter the bathroom,” Eniola told Al Jazeera. She feared her boss wanted to pour hot water on her, so she fled. “I don’t know where I got the courage, but I ran outside.”

Bleeding, Eniola ran to groups of locals who, shocked by her wounds, helped her get to a police station where she handed herself in. She was never paid by her boss.

In a statement, Iraq’s interior ministry told Al Jazeera it was not aware of the two women’s cases, but vowed to investigate the matter.

An officer at the country’s Directorate for Residence Affairs in charge of residency violations, and where Eniola has been transferred, told Al Jazeera the abusive boss had been “invited by government agencies for questioning and was bieng investigated”.

On Tuesday, Eniola confirmed she was arraigned in court alongside her former boss, and a years’ worth of salary was handed to her. Eniola, only willing to go home, said she declined to press charges against the Iraqi woman. Authorities plan to force the boss to pay for her ticket home, she said, but it’s unclear when that will happen.

There are several other Nigerian women in detention for various offences: fighting with their bosses, overstaying their residence permits or “taking salaries and running away,” said the Iraqi official, who is not authorised to speak to the press.

Nigerian domestic workers Al Jazeera spoke to however say their Iraqi bosses have been known to take advantage of language barriers and some wrongfully accuse the women of crimes.

Nigeria fails to act quickly, activists say

Activists blamed Nigerian authorities for failing to regulate the industry and allowing groups of women to head to Middle Eastern countries for domestic work without proper documentation or a system to track them. Some reports also accuse staff of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) of taking bribes from local agents and turning a blind eye at airports to clear cases of exploitation.

Al Jazeera put these allegations to the NIS via email. In a statement, the NIS said it would respond to the accusations but did not reply in time for publication.

“Immigration is never a crime, and we are not saying people should not find work abroad, but there should be a government system where these women are registered and taxed, even if it’s a small token,” Adekola of the Hopes Haven Foundation said. The organisation helped alert authorities to Eniola’s and Agnes’s cases.

“With that, the government can monitor the women’s information and work situation. If these employers torturing them know that the ladies are being monitored by their government, they’ll not try what they’re doing to them.”

Officials at the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), the Nigerian anti-trafficking agency, first sounded the alarm about the exploitative recruitment drives to Iraq in May 2023.

Some rogue agents who take part in recruiting and “selling” the women are known by NAPTIP and are under investigation, an official who had not been authorised to speak to the media and who we are therefore not naming, told Al Jazeera.

Agnes’s and Eniola’s cases are being investigated, the official said but did not give a timeline as to when the women might be repatriated. Nigeria does not have an embassy in Iraq, and the official said the agency was liaising with the Nigerian consulate in Jordan.

In Basra, Agnes is still holed up in her recruitment agency’s hostel, hoping for a way out. She can hardly stand up from her bed, she said. This week, some women arrived freshly from Nigeria and Uganda, and have been sent to their assigned homes to work, she said. The women, Agnes added, were fearful after seeing her condition but were forced to go.

“I just want to go home because I’m not OK,” she said. “I’m barely alive. Please help me get out. I’m too young to die here.”

*Name changed to protect anonymity

By Shola Lawal, Al Jazeera

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Christian mother in Nigeria acquitted of blasphemy charges after years-long legal fight

A Nigerian Christian has been fully acquitted of any wrongdoing after spending 19 months in prison on blasphemy charges.

Rhoda Jatau, a mother of five, was arrested in May 2022 after she allegedly shared a "blasphemous" video to a WhatsApp group that condemned the murder of Nigerian Christian college student Deborah Emmanuel Yakubu, who had been stoned to death by her Muslim classmates the week before.

A mob attacked Jatau's neighborhood, and she was charged under sections 114 (public disturbance) and 210 (religious insult) of the Bauchi State Penal Code for allegedly sharing the blasphemous video. She spent 19 months in prison before being released on bail last December.

"It was not easy, because I have missed my children," Jatau said, adding that she was not allowed to have any visitors in prison apart from her lawyer.

ADF International, which supported Jatau's legal defense, shared with Fox News Digital that she was fully cleared of any wrongdoing by a Bauchi State judge this month.

The faith-based legal group celebrated her acquittal as a "win for religious freedom."

"We are thankful to God for Rhoda’s full acquittal and an end to the ordeal she has endured for far too long," said Sean Nelson, legal counsel for ADF International. "No person should be punished for peaceful expression, and we are grateful that Rhoda Jatau has been fully acquitted. But Rhoda should never have been arrested in the first place. We will continue to seek justice for Christians and other religious minorities in Nigeria who are unjustly imprisoned and plagued by the draconian blasphemy laws."

A Nigerian ADF International allied lawyer, who served as lead counsel on Jatau’s case and is remaining anonymous, also shared a statement.

"After a two-and-a-half-year ordeal, including 19 long months in prison, we are happy that Rhoda finally has been acquitted of any wrongdoing. We thank all who have been praying for Rhoda, and we ask for your continued prayers as Nigerians continue to push back against persecution."

Jatau faced up to five years in prison if convicted.

Jatau's cause spurred international outcry from human rights and religious freedom advocacy groups, who called attention to the danger and injustice of blasphemy laws.

Bauchi state is predominantly Muslim and one of twelve states in northern Nigeria to have adopted Sharia Law.

ADF International called Nigeria "the most dangerous country in the world for Christians," saying that more Christians are killed in Nigeria than in all other countries around the globe combined.

Ryan Brown, the CEO Of Open Doors U.S., previously told Fox News Digital that there were "4,998 Christians that were killed because of their faith in Nigeria last year."

Jatau's acquittal comes roughly one year after an estimated 200 Christians were slaughtered by jihadists in Plateau, Nigeria.

By Kristine Parks, Fox News

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Deadly violence in Nigeria tied to United Methodist Church schism over LGBTQ policies

A religious schism has turned deadly in Nigeria, with a church member fatally shot and two young children killed as homes were set ablaze, according to United Methodist News Service.

The news service said the reported violence on Sunday stemmed from a schism in the worldwide United Methodist Church over its decision to repeal LGBTQ bans — and the ensuing formation of the new Global Methodist Church by breakaway conservative churches.

According to the news service, a United Methodist church member was shot and killed in a confrontation between both factions in Taraba, a state in northeast Nigeria. Homes were set ablaze, claiming the lives of two children, ages 2 and 4, of the overseer of a United Methodist school and nursery, the news service said. Another 10 church members were reported injured.

The worldwide Global Methodist Church held its inaugural general conference earlier this year. It was created by churches breaking away from the United Methodist Church — an international denomination with a strong U.S. presence.

While the UMC, at its general conference in May, lifted its longstanding bans on LGBTQ ordination and same-sex marriage, it also granted local conferences the right to set their own standards. The West Africa Central Conference, which includes Nigeria, restricts marriage to between a man and a woman and instructs its churches to follow national laws on LGBTQ issues, according to the news service.

In a statement, local United Methodist bishops condemned the violence and asked that there be no retribution.

"We are outraged that such an atrocity would occur among Christians, especially brothers and sisters who were once part of the same Methodist family," they said in a statement.

"We further urge GMC members, at all levels, to put an immediate end to the violence and refrain from disseminating misinformation that fuels fear and disdain that can lead to violence," they said.

The Assembly of Bishops of the Global Methodist Church issued a statement saying it is actively looking into the allegations and is seeking to determine what has happened.

"We mourn the loss of human life, decry the use of violence in any form, and call on both Global Methodists and United Methodists to serve as agents of peace," it said.

AP

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Police officers’ disregard of anti‑torture law ruins lives in Nigeria

Despite passing a legislation that prohibits torture of crime suspects, Nigeria’s security agencies continue to maim individuals in their custody.

Nigeria’s anti-torture law enacted in 2017 criminalises physical torture of suspects such as “systematic beatings, head-bangings, punching, kicking, striking with rifle butts, and jumping on the stomach.”

But when Ndukwe Ekekwe was arrested barely a year later, the police officers punched him, hit him with rifle butts, and stabbed him in the head.
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“They wanted me to look like a criminal. The blood from my head drenched the cloth I was wearing,” Ekekwe, 37, tells The Africa Report.

Despite passing a legislation that prohibits torture of crime suspects, security agencies in Nigeria continue to batter and maim individuals in their custody.

Before the anti-torture bill was passed into law, Nigeria had ratified the United Nations Convention against Torture 16 years earlier. The country also has a national committee on the prevention of torture.

Despite the legal steps, no law enforcement official has been brought to justice under the anti-torture act.

“The level of awareness and, therefore, implementation of the act is still very low,” Okechukwu Nwanguma, executive director of the Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC), tells The Africa Report.

“There’s no demonstrable commitment by the authorities to end torture in Nigeria by ensuring effective implementation of the anti-torture act,” says Nwanguma.
 

Torturing victims

Ekekwe’s encounter with the police began in February 2018 when armed officers of the now defunct special anti-robbery squad (SARS) invaded his phone accessories shop in Lagos. They refused to tell him his offense and, instead, bundled him into their vehicle and drove off.

After assaulting and stabbing him, the police officers returned to the market with Ekekwe the next day and started disposing of goods from his shop.

After reportedly criticising the police action, he was found unconscious on the ground floor of the building. He was taken to different hospitals for treatment, but a spinal cord injury has confined him to a wheelchair ever since.

Last year, police officers arrested Thaddeus Ojokoh, a tailor in south-east Imo State. They accused the 53-year-old father of five of being a member of the separatist group, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

He was detained for three months, amidst torture and starvation, Ojokoh’s cousin, Ikechukwu Amaechi, tells The Africa Report.

“If you saw the guy when he came out of that place, he was like a scarecrow. He could hardly walk because of the beatings and torture,” says Amaechi, who is also a journalist.

The torture and extra judicial killings by police officers climaxed during the nationwide #EndSARS protests in 2020, where young people, angered by the excesses of the law enforcement agencies, took to the streets.

The government responded by scrapping the notorious SARS and instituting investigative panels on police brutality.

Ekewe was at the panel in Lagos, where he testified about his torture and incapacitation. The panel awarded him N7.5m ($4,500) and recommended dismissal of the police officers.

“[But to] date] they have not dismissed the police officers,” Ekekwe’s lawyer at the panel, Olukoya Ogungbeje, tells The Africa Report. “It tells you that police authorities are complicit. There is no way they can sanction the police officers involved.”

Ekekwe says the police officers rendered him immobile and indigent, as the money from the panel was all spent on physiotherapy. In 2021, he relocated to Abia State, in Nigeria’s south-east region.
 

Lucrative business

In 2007, after visiting Nigeria, the UN special rapporteur on torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment issued a report, noting that torture and ill-treatment is widespread for those in police custody.

Activists say torture remains a lucrative business within Nigeria’s security circles, with law enforcement officials using it as the primary means of extracting confessions and extorting bribes.

After Ojokoh was arrested on 15 April 2023, he was paraded by the police to the media alongside eight others as members of the proscribed “IPOB terrorists”.
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Of the nine of them, only two are now living, says Amaechi, alleging that the police extra-judicially executed six of the suspects.

“After much torture and afraid that he was going to be killed, because I spoke to him, [the other suspect identified as Charles] Chilaka gave them N1.5m so he would be released,” says Amaechi.
 

Government response

Despite the Nigerian government’s attempts at implementation, torture remains widespread in crime detention centres.

In December 2023, Beatrice Jedy-Agba, Nigeria’s solicitor-general, urged judges to ensure full implementation of the anti-torture act and other relevant human rights instruments in the country.

One of the instruments, the administration of criminal justice act, requires judges and magistrates to regularly inspect detention facilities, including police stations, to ensure that suspects are treated fairly.

In 2022, a police commander allegedly harassed a magistrate who was conducting a routine inspection at a police command in Lagos. The police denied the claims and blamed the lawyers who accompanied the magistrate for taking pictures and video recordings.

Last week, Jedy-Agba said plans are ongoing to review the anti-torture act and improve mechanisms to discourage and eradicate torture in detention.

RULAAC’s Nwanguma says the government needs to demonstrate a genuine commitment to ending torture by ensuring the investigation and prosecution of offenders.

By Ben Ezeamalu, The Africa Report

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Activists, lawmakers in Nigeria coalesce against gender-based violence

Hundreds of people, including women’s rights activists, Nigerian lawmakers, and other participants, chanted as they walked from the National Assembly through the streets of Abuja on Monday.

The rally was part of Nigeria's participation in the United Nations-backed "16 Days of Activism," a campaign against gender-based violence, running from November 25 to December 10.

It also was an opportunity to announce the latest efforts by authorities to address gender-based violence — also referred to as GBV — in Nigeria.

Abbas Tajudeen, Nigeria's speaker of the House of Representatives, led lawmakers to the rally. It took place on the 25th anniversary of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

"Every 10 minutes a woman is being killed across the world. This is an unacceptable trend; this is an unforgivable trend," said Tajudeen. "We in the parliament must have to unite more than ever before with relevant authorities, particularly the law enforcement in ensuring that we cut this dangerous trend to the barest minimum."

Gender-based violence is a global problem. Nigerian authorities say about one-third of women between 15 and 49 experiences physical and sexual assault in their lifetimes.

The country also accounts for approximately 20 million GBV survivors — or about 10% of the global total.

Poor awareness, a low rate of reporting, cultural and religious biases, and trust deficits in the justice system are some of the challenges hampering efforts to address GBV in Nigeria.

Raquel Kasham Daniel is the founder of the non-profit "Beyond the Classroom Foundation," which promotes the rights of girls through education and advocacy.

"I think that policies that protect women and put the perpetrators behind bars will be very helpful," said Daniel, whose foundation is championing the sexual harassment bill in tertiary education. "That will be a very good one to pass, we hope that it gets the presidential assent soon."

Nigeria had previously launched a "sex offenders” registry to name and shame perpetrators of violence against women.

On Monday, Women Affairs Minister Imaan Suleiman-Ibrahim announced the launch of a national electronic dashboard system to improve data collection and accountability.

Suleiman-Ibrahim said that besides preventive measures, authorities will review existing laws to ensure they protect survivors of gender-based violence.

"This occasion provides us yet another opportunity to renew those commitments and take deliberate actions to protect the rights, safety and dignity of women, girls and vulnerable people across Nigeria, said Suleiman-Ibrahim.

As authorities continue to make efforts to address the problem, many hope the new intervention offers a lifeline to millions of vulnerable people. Africa recorded the highest rates of intimate partner and family-related femicide last year, followed by the Americas and Oceania, according to the United Nations’ Office on Drugs and Crime.

By Timothy Obiezu, VOA

Nigeria launches 'Human Rights Defenders' forum

The Nigerian National Human Rights Commission on Wednesday inaugurated a forum targeting rights violations in the West African nation.

The Human Rights Defenders Forum was held on the sidelines of an NHRC meeting to review the state of human rights in Nigeria.

The initiative is a partnership between the NHRC and the European Union.

Officials say the forum, comprising various human rights groups, will be responsible for ensuring greater protection of civil liberties in Nigeria and serve as a unified platform for rights defenders to interact and address common challenges.

NHRC Executive Director Anthony Ojukwu said, "We're gathered here not only to discuss the current state of human rights in Nigeria, but also to start to chart a way forward — one that ensures safer protection for civil liberties, fosters democratic consolidation and safeguards the fundamental rights of all Nigerians, especially those who stand up for the rights of others."

The meeting comes amid a recent spate of human rights violations, including a crackdown on antigovernment demonstrations in August and the prolonged detention of minors who took part.

The delegates also discussed digital rights, privacy protection, gender-based violence and child abandonment by parents.

The NHRC said security forces were contributing to human rights violations in Nigeria.

Hilary Ogbonna, a senior adviser to the agency, said, "The majority of these violators are the Nigerian police, the military, bandits and parents of children. We also saw an upsurge of sexual and gender-based violence.

“But that is not as worrisome as 4,300 [cases of] child abandonment," he said.

The Nigerian police and military have not responded to being named as violators of human rights, but last week, the NHRC found the military culpable for infanticide and extrajudicial killings during a 2016 operation in a remote village in northeastern Borno State.

The NHRC also raised concerns about the growing threat of insecurity in Nigeria and its impact on the rights of the people.

The commission said it recorded more than 1,700 cases of kidnappings and about 1,500 killings between January and September this year.

Damilola Decker, programs officer with the Nigeria-based group Global Rights, said economic vulnerability is one of the reasons that the rights situation is deteriorating.

"What we're observing under the [Nigerian President Bola] Tinubu administration is that civic space is under attack, attacks on journalists, attacks on the rights of people to protest,” Decker said.

“We're also seeing economic and sociocultural rights of Nigerians being impacted majorly because of the harsh economic conditions especially related to energy prices,” he said. “It's cascading — crime is on the rise; the state of insecurity is on the increase."

By Timothy Obiezu, VOA

Nigeria violated human rights during police brutality protests

A regional African court has ruled that Nigerian authorities violated the rights of protesters during mass demonstrations against police brutality in 2020.

The protests, dubbed End SARS, called for disbanding the Special Anti-Robbery Squad after allegations of torture, extortion and extrajudicial killings.

A coalition of human rights activists and organizations sued in late 2021. Applicants Obianuju Udeh, Perpetual Kamsi and Dabiraoluwa Adeyinka alleged severe human rights violations by state agents as they put down the street protests.

In its verdict issued Wednesday, a three-member panel of the Court of Justice - linked with the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS - determined that Nigerian authorities had used disproportionate force in their response to the protests.

The panel said security agents had violated the African Charter on Human and People's Rights as well as several international human rights laws.

Bolaji Gabari, lead counsel representing the applicants, welcomed the verdict.

"Justice is finally achieved and obtained. ... What we were really looking for was to get an affirmation that this really happened," Gabari said. "This judgment just affirms what we have been saying. The other applicants that came forward initially considered their safety and withdrew."

The ECOWAS court ordered the Nigerian government to compensate each applicant with $6,400, or about 10 million naira; to investigate the rights abuses; and to show progress on holding offenders responsible within six months.

The court also stated that the use of live rounds against protesters at the Lekki toll gate on October 20, 2020, caused fear, and that the Nigerian government did not present evidence refuting those allegations.

Authorities have not responded to the court ruling, and a national police spokesperson did not take VOA's calls for comment.

But human rights groups like Amnesty International and some activists welcomed the court’s decision as a significant victory for human rights in Nigeria.

Nelson Olanipekun, a human rights lawyer and founder of Citizens' Gavel, a civic organization that seeks to improve the pace of justice delivery through the use of technology, said, "The ECOWAS court judgment came at a right time, especially now that Nigerians are going through tough times. And there's also a regional move where Africans largely are recognizing their power as citizens. For example, what happened in Kenya — people demanding accountability from their government — was also similar to what happened during End SARS."

Olanipekun said, however, that more work needs to be done.

"What is the next move? Since End SARS, even though the police have tried, there has been reoccurrence of incidents of police brutality in the country," he said. "It has not abated. There's no sufficient accountability and oversight over government organizations. Also, the Nigerian court has been weak, inefficient and corrupt. They're not independent enough."

Thousands of young Nigerians poured into the streets in October 2020 to demand the dissolution of the SARS unit, but the protest soon expanded to call for better governance before it was forcefully quelled on October 20.

Last October, Amnesty International said at least 15 End SARS protesters languished in a Lagos jail while activists marked the third anniversary of the protests. 

By Timothy Obiezu, VOA

Women abused in Nigerian military cells after fleeing Boko Haram

Dozens of women and young girls have been unlawfully detained and abused in Nigerian military detention facilities after escaping captivity by Boko Haram extremists in the country’s northeast, Amnesty International said in a new report on Monday.

Some of the women were detained with their children for years because of their real or perceived association with the extremists, the report said. It cited 126 interviews, mostly with survivors, over the 14 years since the Islamic extremists launched their insurgency.

The report echoes past human rights concerns about the Nigerian military, which in the past has been accused of extrajudicial killings and illegal arrests in one of the world’s longest conflicts.


However, the report noted that prolonged and unlawful detentions have been less widespread in recent years.

Nigeria's army dismissed the report as “unsubstantiated” and reiterated that it has continued to improve on its human rights record and holds personnel to account.

The conflict has spilt over borders killed at least 35,000 people and displaced over 2 million. Women and young girls are often forcefully married or sexually abused in captivity.

But the conditions some women found themselves in after fleeing captivity were so “horrible” that some chose to return to Boko Haram, Niki Frederiek, crisis researcher with Amnesty International, said of the detention camps located in military facilities in Borno state.

At least 31 survivors interviewed said they were held illegally in the facilities, the report said, suggesting the practice had been more widespread.

“Some said soldiers insulted them, calling them ‘Boko Haram wives’ and accusing them of being responsible for killings. Several described beatings or abysmal conditions in detention, which amount to torture or other ill-treatment,” the report said.

“The Nigerian authorities must support these girls and young women as they fully reintegrate into society,” said Samira Daoud, Amnesty International’s regional director for West and Central Africa.

Africa News 

Related story: Nigerian girls failed by authorities after escaping Boko Haram captivity

Activists in Nigeria condemn mass ‘forced marriages’ of 100 girls and young women

Human rights activists in Nigeria have launched a petition to stop a plan to push 100 girls and young women into marriage in a mass ceremony, which has caused outrage in the west African country.

The plan, sponsored by Abdulmalik Sarkindaji, the speaker of the national assembly in the largely Muslim north-western state of Niger, were criticised by Nigeria’s women’s affairs minister, Uju Kennedy Ohanenye. She said she would seek a court injunction to stop the ceremony next week and establish if any of the girls were minors.

Sarkindaji said the girls and young women were orphans whose parents were killed in attacks by kidnapping gangs that roam northern Nigeria. He said he would pay dowries to the grooms.

A petition launched on Wednesday that has more than 8,000 signatures said the Niger state government should prioritise the education of the girls instead of forcing them into marriage.

“We demand immediate action to halt the proposed forced marriages and to instead implement measures that will empower these girls to lead dignified and fulfilling lives,” the activists said.

Critics have expressed concern that some girls may be underage or being forced to comply for financial gain.

Sarkindaji and the Imams Forum of Niger said the marriage ceremony would go ahead on 24 May and insisted the girls were not underage.

Child marriages are common in the mostly Muslim north, where poverty levels are higher than the largely Christian south. Although the legal age of marriage is 18 under federal law, Nigerian states can set their own age.

Niger’s legal marriage age is also 18, but Sarkindaji’s spokesperson said that under sharia law, which is practised in the state, a girl can be married when she reaches puberty.

After meeting on Wednesday, the imams forum said it would take legal action against Kennedy Ohanenye if she did not withdraw her statement suggesting the girls were minors, its secretary, Umar-Faruk Abdullahi, said on local TV.

“We have given the minister seven days to withdraw her statement she used against us, against our speaker, against the Muslim community … that we want to force them into marriage and the children are underage,” said Abdullahi.

Kennedy Ohanenye did not respond to requests for comment.

The Guardian

Related story: Ending Female Genital Mutilation in Nigeria

Arrest of journalist in Nigeria triggers criticism of worsening press freedoms

A Nigerian journalist's arrest last week has triggered criticism of worsening press freedoms in the West African country.

Daniel Ojukwu with the Foundation for Investigative Journalism went missing last Wednesday in the economic hub of Lagos. His family and employer found out on Friday that he was detained and held in a police station for allegedly violating the country's Cybercrime Act, often criticized as a tool for censorship.

The arrest of Ojukwu, who was later transferred to the Nigerian capital of Abuja, follows his report about alleged financial mismanagement of over 147 million naira ($104,600) involving a senior government official, according to his employer, the foundation.

Nigeria is ranked 112th out of 180 countries in the latest World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders. It is known for the country's tough environment for journalists who face frequent abductions, arrests and prosecution, usually after reporting on chronic corruption and bad governance plaguing the oil-rich country.

At least 25 journalists have been prosecuted under the country's Cybercrime Act since it was introduced in 2015, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. They include eight detained under President Bola Tinubu whose government, in power since May last year, touts itself as one encouraging press freedoms — a claim it repeated last week during World Press Freedom Day events.

The Cybercrime Act was amended this year to remove some harsh provisions but the police still use it to "silence journalists and critics," Amnesty International's Nigeria office said.

Nigeria's law requires a suspect to be charged or released within 48 hours following arrest. Ojukwu, however, was not allowed any means of communication or access to a lawyer until his third day in custody, said Oke Ridwan, a human rights lawyer who met with the journalist at the police station where he was held.

Nigeria's Minister of Information Mohammed Idris Malagi told The Associated Press that he is making efforts to resolve the case and is "on top of the issue." Local and international civil society groups have condemned the detention.

It is a "symptom of a larger problem within Nigeria's law enforcement agencies, and their relationship with politically exposed persons undermining democratic principles," a coalition of at least 30 civil society groups known as the Action Group on Protection of Civic Actors said in a statement on Monday.

"The Nigerian Police Force has veered off course from its duty to uphold law and order to become an oppressive tool in stifling dissent and independent journalism," it added.

AP

Baby factories continue to thrive in Nigeria

Child traffickers often abduct girls and young women, take them to isolated locations and impregnate them. When they give birth, their babies are sold to childless couples. The practice has existed for years in Nigeria.

So-called baby making factories are facilities in Nigeria to which girls and young women are lured, impregnated and held against their will until they give birth.

The "factories" are usually small, illegal facilities parading as private medical clinics that house pregnant women and subsequently offer their babies for sale.

In some cases, young women have been held against their will and raped before their babies are sold on the black market.

The practice is largely prevalent in the southeastern states of Abia, Lagos, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo.

Around 200 underground baby factories have been shut over the last five years, according to Nigerian security agencies, however new facilities open to replace the closed ones.

Earlier this month, police officers stormed a hideout in Abia where they rescued 16 pregnant girls and eight young children.

Maureen Chinaka, a police spokeswoman revealed that the rescued girls were between the ages of 17 and 27 and had been told that they would be paid to leave the baby factories without their babies.

Last June, 22 pregnant young girls and two babies were rescued from a facility in the same state, where they had been held hostage.
Why do the factories exist?

There is a thriving market for babies among couples who are struggling to bear their own children. They are willing to pay between 1 million naira (€576) and 2 milion naira (€1,152) for a baby.

There is a higher demand for male babies, which tend to be sold at a higher price than baby girls.

Clare Ohunayo, a Nigerian activist and educationist, told DW that as long as there is demand for babies, the practice will prevail.
Supplying a demand

Ohunayo blames it on high levels of poverty and the stigma that comes with being a childless couple in Nigeria.

"The desperation that drives the baby factory has two sets of players. The first set is driven by the fear of poverty as a result of the socio-economic conditions of Nigeria," she said.

Those who own these facilities where the girls are kept, the men who impregnate them, and the girls themselves are all pushed into it by poverty, according to Ohunayo.

Some young female Nigerians told DW that they remain vulnerable because of their poor living conditions.

"This baby booming industry, even though it has been in existence, the reason it's coming up [is] because people are really really stressed in terms of striving for a daily living," a young resident of Abuja said.

Another Abuja resident told DW that: "We are experiencing an increase in crime rates due to hardship and poverty."

But not everyone blames it on poverty.

"Actually I think what is causing this menace has to do with moral decadence. Immoral people are desperate to make money. This is why you see this kind of thing happening, but to me I think it's very bad," said one Nigerian man.

Giving birth to children is considered signifcant in many African societies, and often couples unable to have their own children face humiliation, even from family members.

The demand for male children makes the practice especially lucrative, according to police officials.

"On the other side you have childless couple who want to avoid the stigma of [being] childless," said Ohunayo, describing a major cultural factor behind the baby factories.
Ending the baby factory business

Florence Marcus, a lawyer with the Abuja-based Disability Rights Advocate Center told DW there are laws to help tackle the menace.

"This issue of baby factories is a gross violation of the rights of the victims, especially these young ladies who are often taken to these facilities without theor consent," she said.

"The Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act prohibits all forms of violence against person, particularly women and girls. The law provides maximum protection and effective remedies for the victims and also punishment for the offenders."

Several arrests have been made across the Nigerian states in which the practice is prevalent.

Zakaria Dauda, spokesman for the National Agency for the Prohibition in Trafficking in Persons, a government body, told DW that the organization will continue to make arrests and ensure that pepatrators are punished.

"We know [with] the issue of baby factory most victims are usually young girls. We warn people of the dangers of such vices," he said.

"And those who become suspects, we take them [in] for people to also know that there is a crime being perpetrated called sale of babies."

By Ben Shemang, DW

Related stories: Video - Baby trafficking syndicate arrested in Imo state

Baby factory raided in Lagos, Nigeria

16 pregnant women freed from baby factory in Nigeria

Education policy leads to increased girls enrollment, reduced child marriage in north-west Nigeria

Despite security challenges, the education sector plans in six north-west Nigerian states led to a significant increase in girls’ enrollment in secondary schools and a reduction in the percentage of girls married before the age of 18, a new report has shown.

The report said before the introduction of state education plans, the average girls’ secondary school enrollment declined and rates of early marriage increased.

The study – Gender Review and Advocacy For Gender Responsive Education Sector Planning (GRESP) – was authored by the development Research and Projects Centre (dRPC) with the support of the Malala Fund.

The report covers a gender review of 11 years (2011 to 2023) of State Education Sector Plans (SESPs) in Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Sokoto, and Zamfara States.

SESPs is the only official education policy in Nigeria that mainstreams girls’ education goals within the education system and establishes performance indicators for government outcomes within the basic education system.

There was a five per cent increase in secondary school enrollment rates across the six states during the period of the education sector plans and the rate of child marriage fell by an average of 6.9 per cent across the states during the period of the plan, the report said.

It further pointed to an intersectionality between the two outcome indicators – enrollment and early marriage. Jigawa State, with the highest increase in enrollment for girls at the basic education level, was also the state with the second most significant reduction in the age of marriage.

Conversely, Kaduna State, which experienced the lowest change in enrollment rates for girls within the same period, also experienced the least change in the age of marriage for girls among the six states.

In terms of positive change in girls’ education outcomes, Jigawa State also takes the lead, followed by Kano, Zamfara, Sokoto, Katsina and Kaduna.
 

Methodology

The dRPC researchers aimed to generate empirical evidence to show how the components of education sector plans and operational plans deliver a gender-responsive education system that keeps girls in school and supports their learning outcomes.

Applying a mixed method research methodology, the gender review first conducted a trend analysis of two girls’ education outcomes to establish patterns in the period before sector plans were introduced in Nigeria and the period during education sector planning in Nigeria.

At the launch of the report last Tuesday, experts said the review is timely and significant, coming against the background of the exogenous shocks to the school system in Nigeria. The shocks include COVID-19 and its impacts and the incessant attacks on schools and abductions of schoolchildren in the region

The researchers also conducted a Focus Group Discussion with a total of 180 school-age children.
 

Factors threatening school enrollment

The insecurity in north-west Nigeria has led to the compulsory closure of many schools. This is a major factor that would likely stop students, especially girls, from achieving their education plans for the future, the report states.

“Compulsory school closures had a significant impact on students’ psychological, social, and mental well-being, causing a large number of students to forget nearly everything they had learned at school prior to the start of the lockdown and school closure,” it added.

The attacks on some schools may have also deterred some students from going to school. About 14 per cent of female and male participants from educational schools and 7 per cent of girls in all-girls schools mentioned that insecurity and school attacks were factors that could stop them from achieving their educational plans.

The researchers also found that while insecurity was a factor, poverty and lack of financial support are also a threat to future education while COVID-19 also played an impact.

When asked about the impact of COVID-19 on their education, 13 per cent of students from girls’ schools responded indicating a loss of interest in continuing education as a result of COVID-19.

No boys gave such a response, the report said.

Other factors mentioned by participants included drug abuse and peer pressure, bribery and corruption, fear of not succeeding in school, fear of not getting employment after graduation, and discouragement by the community members.

The report noted that gender responsiveness in education sector planning calls for flexibility to adjust to these unpredictable challenges emerging from the environment impacting negatively on the education of all children, especially girls.
 

Second stage of analysis

The second stage of the gender review sought to explore relationships between the trend in girls’ education outcomes established in the first step in the analysis and the structures and functions of bureaucracy prescribed by the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) model of gender-responsive education.

The GPE model of Gender Responsive Education Sector Strategic Planning (GRESP) argues that during the formation phase of planning, the application of three specific process factors can contribute towards positive girls’ education outcomes.

The factors include: gender equality and girls’ education policies and strategies integrated into education sector plans; Stakeholders, including CSOs and local communities as well as government departments that are consulted during the design; and the GRESP has adequate financial resources allocated to gender equality and girls education strategies.

Here, the analysis found clear and consistent correlations, thus confirming the prescriptive powers of the GPE model of gender-responsive education planning.

Findings show that Jigawa, Kano, and Katsina states budgeted for activities derived from State Education Sector Plans (SESP). While in Kaduna, Sokoto, and Zamfara states, there was less alignment between the activities of the state education sector plans and annual budgets.

In terms of SESP activities in the annual budget, Jigawa State emerged as the state that allocated the most funds to SESP activities. On the contrary, Zamfara, Katsina, and Sokoto performed poorly in terms of allocating funds for SESP activities.
 

Call for Action

The report noted that with new administrations at the federal and state levels, this is the time for a definitive understanding of what works for girls’ education and what has not worked for girls in the education system of states implementing education sector plans over the 11 years of 2011 to 2023 in Nigeria.

Experts said the findings of the report provide an opportunity to strengthen the gender transformative plans through the advocacy of civil society stakeholders. They said evidence-informed advocacy is critical in Nigeria in 2023 given the recent findings of the 2022 UNESCO Global Education Monitoring (GEM) report, which showed that the out-of-school population of Nigeria virtually doubled between 2016 and 2022 to 20 million.

Trailing behind India and Pakistan, Nigeria now stands as the third country with the largest out-of-school population. The majority of these children are recognised by the Nigerian government to be girls, many of whom are in the northwestern states with education plans.

In its 2018 data on out-of-school children, the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) reported the estimated number in Nigeria as 10.1 million out of which there were approximately 3.2 million out-of-school children cumulatively in the six northwestern states covered in the dRPC report.

The 3.2 million is about 31.84 per cent of the total estimated number of out-of-school children in Nigeria. Out of this number, 1.9 million were boys and 1.2 million were girls.
 

Why the six north-west states?

In terms of criteria for selecting the states studied, the researchers said the review of the gender responsiveness of education sector plans of Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Sokoto, and Zamfara was “strategic and important for generating evidence of what works for girls’ education.”

The six states are accessing the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) funding.

The GPE is an independently governed partnership that includes national governments, multilateral organisations, civil society, the private sector, and foundations.

Established in 2002 as the Education for All Fast Track Initiative, the GPE has evolved and now designs evidence-informed and gender-responsive education sector plans.

GPE contends that gender responsiveness in education sector plans offers the most comprehensive and systematic approach to delivering change in girls’ education.

For a country such as Nigeria, GPE serves as a mobilisation point for donor coordination of multiple development impact investors, including the World Bank and the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) to fund the country-led basic education interventions very often with a specific focus on girls’ education.

Between 2012 and 2020 when Nigeria became a GPE partner, a total of $101 million has been awarded in grants to the West African country, of which $81 million has been disbursed as of January 2020.
 

States’ performance

In 2020, dRPC organised a gender workshop for the recipients of the grants to assess their education sector plans in terms of gender transformative, gender-responsive, integrated, or gender-blind characterisation.

The result shows that delegates from Kano and Jigawa states assessed their respective education sector plans as gender blind. Delegates from Sokoto and Katsina assessed their education sector plans as gender-responsive.

Meanwhile, delegates from Kaduna State assessed their plan as ranging between gender responsive and gender transformative. This was highlighted by the fact that the state has done much to mainstream gender into the education sector plan.

“We have rated Kaduna to be between transformative and responsive (high on the responsive and just going into the transformative scale),” the researchers said.

By Kabir Yusuf, Premium Times

Related stories: Video - Nigeria aims to return millions of children to school by 2027

School in Nigeria helps girls to heal after Boko Haram

Video - Activists Working to End Painful Practice of Breast Ironing in Nigeria

A harmful practice called breast ironing or flattening affects about 3.8 million women in Africa, including some parts of Nigeria. The practice aims to delay development in adolescent girls. Gibson Emeka has this story, narrated by Salem Solomon.

VOA 

Related story: Ending Female Genital Mutilation in Nigeria

 

 

House advances resolution to increase sanctions on Nigeria over persecution of Christians

The House Foreign Affairs Committee has advanced a resolution to increase sanctions and pressure on the Nigerian government over the rampant persecution of Christians and other minorities in the country.

Sponsored by Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, the resolution would call on the Biden administration to designate Nigeria a “country of particular concern” (CPC), a designation that comes with additional sanctions.

The resolution would also urge the administration to appoint a special U.S. envoy to Nigeria to monitor and report on incidents of persecution.

Smith and other proponents of the bill, including Alliance Defending Freedom International (ADF), maintain that adding Nigeria to the State Department’s CPC blacklist would be an effective means to pressure the Nigerian government to address the persecution.

Sean Nelson, a legal counsel for ADF, has previously told CNA that the CPC list is “the most powerful tool the U.S. government has to influence the religious freedom situation in other countries.”

For years now Nigeria has been recognized by religious rights groups as one of the most dangerous countries in the world to be a Christian. According to Open Doors International 4,998 Christians were killed in Nigeria in 2023, meaning that 82% of all Christians killed for their faith last year were in Nigeria.

In late January, Nigerian Bishop Wilfred Anagbe of the Diocese of Makurdi told CNA that the persecution amounts to a Christian “genocide” in which radical Islamic groups’ goal is to “systematically” eliminate the Christian population from Nigeria.

Despite this, the Biden administration has left Nigeria off the CPC list for the last three years. This year the administration’s decision to leave Nigeria off the list came just weeks after a series of attacks on Christmas left more than 200 Nigerian Christians dead.

Smith said in a Wednesday statement that the Nigerian government “has enabled widespread murder and violence through indifference and a gross failure to protect victims and prosecute Islamist terrorists” and that the US State Department “is not using all the tools provided to hold guilty parties accountable.”

“Following the Biden administration’s repeated failure to designate Nigeria as a country of particular concern despite widespread outcry, we are grateful to the members of Congress who are taking these vital steps to increase pressure on Nigeria for its egregious violations of religious freedom,” Nelson said in a Wednesday press release.

“No person should be persecuted for their faith, and it is imperative that the U.S. government condemn the targeted violence, unjust imprisonments, and egregious blasphemy laws that plague Christians and religious minorities in Nigeria,” he added.

Nelson told CNA that the resolution “lays out an undeniable case that Nigeria has engaged in and tolerated egregious, systematic, and ongoing violations of religious freedom, and some of the worst in the world, particularly for Christians in the north.”

If Congress passes the resolution, Nelson said he hopes the Biden administration would “listen and change course.”

“More importantly,” he said, he believes the resolution’s passage “would send an immense signal of support for the victims of persecution in Nigeria themselves, who have asked for the international community to raise their voices and would put pressure on the Nigerian government to take the persecution seriously, hold attackers accountable, and free those who have been imprisoned and charged under blasphemy-related allegations.”

“There has already been a great amount of outcry over the lack of the CPC designation for Nigeria by the USCIRF and civil society organizations that focus on international religious freedom,” he said. “Having the voice of Congress echo those concerns would also give the concerns an international amplification that is sorely needed.”

According to Nelson, the Nigerian resolution will now move forward for a vote in the House. However, no date has been set for when the vote will take place.

By Peter Pinedo, CNA

Ending Female Genital Mutilation in Nigeria

“In my clan, they do it in infancy; some others do it in adulthood. My mother was even cut off when she was about to get married. I was cut when I was just five years old, so I didn't know much about it" said now-26-year-old Miss Uzodimma Lucy Ogodo, the Executive Director of Tomorrow, is a Girl Initiative, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State.

"I am a survivor of female genital mutilation (FGM). In my community, Abakaliki, FGM is a common practice. Young girls and women are brainwashed into accepting it as our culture. I first learned about it when I was in sixth grade. I asked my mother to explain what it was about. I asked whether I was cut since I can't remember how much it hurt, the implications to my health, the psychological effect of knowing that an essential part of me was brutally chopped off, and the other harmful effects," Uzodinma explained.

"Upon further inquiry, my mom said that I was cut out of ignorance; on their own part, she and my father realised it was wrong to have cut me," Uzodinmma continued, her expression betraying her self-assured manner. As a result, my other siblings were not cut, “no girl or woman deserves to be cut; it simply destroys our spirit."

"My NGO, Tomorrow is Girl Initiative, was founded in a bid to advocate for an end to FGM practice, and it was in my quest for deeper understanding that I became emotionally invested in the cause. Growing up, I was deeply troubled by the fact that no woman deserves to be cut, knowing the dangers involved," she explained.

Every year, millions of girls and women around the world are at risk of undergoing FGM, with Nigeria contributing to 15% of the total population, globally. Female genital mutilation (FGM) is a harmful practice that specifically alters or damages the female genital organs for nonmedical reasons. Although the practices that uphold female genital mutilation (FGM) differ from one culture to another, the operation is typically performed between the ages of infancy and adulthood, and it is well-documented that it has health, social, economic, emotional, and sexual complications.

From what I observed, the system-transformative strategy that called for our collaboration with boys men, and women, traditional rulers and priests, was quite effective. Therefore, I propose that we employ that strategy more frequently. 

In a similar tone, 51-year-old Mrs. Josephine Ezaka, from Amudo, in the Ezza South local government area of Ebonyi State, said she knew about FGM as a child. “It was my grandmother who took me to where I was cut. It was very painful. After the cutting, they use hot water to wash the cut part. As you can imagine, it's very painful. I was like six years old then. I didn't know the implications of the FGM.”.

“Since I got married, I realised that I don't have the urge for sex, as other women used to tell me how sweet it is. My husband has even complained to some people." Josephine Said.

Through joint support from UNICEF, UNFPA, and the government, FGM is no longer practiced in Amudo. Josephine acknowledged the significant role played by UNICEF and UNFPA interventions, coupled with high enlightenment facilitated by the involvement of the church and traditional rulers.

Expressing her commitment, Josephine affirmed, "I did not subject any of my children to FGM. We are actively combating the practice, actively seeking those rumored to use Vaseline powder for cutting. The proven dangers of FGM emphasize the urgency of preventing daughters from undergoing it, as evidenced by numerous cases of women dying during childbirth due to FGM."

“There's a popular story of a woman, though late, who had no opening but a little opening for her to urinate just because of a dangerous vaginal cut in the name of FGM. She died without having a child." Josephine said it sadly.

By Ijeoma Onuoha-Ogwe, UNICEF

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