Hoodlums on rampage during community festival,women lose freedom of movement

When women lose freedom of movement to tradition

 terseer adamu (Review)

SOME call it Isemo, while others call it Igbele but whatever it is called, the meaning is the same: An age-old Yoruba traditional rite that imposes a restriction of movement on women at a certain period or occasion. Depending on some factors, Isemo is an annual tradition in some Yoruba-based communities observed to appease the gods and to ward off impending danger.

At its inception in the olden days, Igbele practice or observance was the exclusive preserve of the elders in the community, though the youths were carried along for the purpose of instructing them on the rules guiding the practice and its strict adherence in line with the rigorous demand of tradition.

The practice restricts women in every capacity regardless of race, tribe or position. On such occasions, women are denied the freedom to move from one place to another and the erring ones are made to face the wrath of the gods, including being ostracised, maiming or loss of life as the event is totally a men’s affair. During this traditional rite, which usually starts by midnight when residents have returned from work, some men, especially the elderly, usually take position at strategic locations to ensure that no unpleasant incident occurrs. This is said to account for why the practice was widely accepted, especially in the light of the protection extended to women while it lasts.

 

Isemo is usually accompanied by Oro’ or Eluku festival but the bottom line is that women are restricted in every capacity as the organisers use the occasion to pray for the peace of the land as well as security of lives and property, just as the gods are called upon to fight the cause of the land.

Hijack by hoodlums

In days past when the practice held sway under strict obervance, robbery, kidnapping, bombings were rare as perpetrators of such acts dread the wrath of the gods. Nowadays, the reverse is the case, as the occasion has been hijacked by hoodlums, especially in Lagos State. Believe it or not, Igbele is now an avenue to perpetrate nefarious acts like kidnapping, robbery, rape, theft, smoking of Indian hemp or drunkenness.

Apart from coming without prior notice, Igbele has over the years been reduced to a notorious event during which the hoodlums take the law into their hands, unleashing terror on their victims. A case in point was in 2011 when some shops were burgled overnight around Ebute in Ikorodu. Disturbed by the ugly development, the traditional ruler had vowed then to deal with the culprits.

In an incident in August 2012, this reporter and many other women slept on the road to avoid falling victim to hoodlums masquerading as Igbele adherents at Igbogbo in Ikorodu. Also, on June 3, 2013, many Ikorodu women were forced to remain indoors, reason being that Isemo was ongoing in Ikorodu town.

A couple of months back, some women in Itire were forced to stay indoors when the community organised the Isemo festival for the year 2013. The same applies to places like Egan, Ajah and Ikorodu where women have raised alarm over the curtailment of their right to freedom of movement.

And they are calling on government, especially Lagos State Commissioner for Women Affairs, to intervene in the matter.

Responding to Vanguard Metro’s inquiring on the latest ‘’Isemo’’ that commenced in the Igbogbo area of Ikorodu on Thursday August 22, 2013, many residents, spoke out angrily against it and called on Lagos State government to ban it. A commercial driver Rilwan Adeolu, lamented the fact that the practice usually patronage, wondering “why the Lagos State government should allow such primitive practice to exist,’’

For Elizabeth Igbahor, Baliks Mustapha and Modupeola Dagunduro: ‘’Our shops have been burgled on several occasions; it is usually a time for hoodlums to feed fat.’’ Madam Adedayo Tinuola, on her part, claimed she usually relocates to Maryland on such occasions. ‘

Source: By Bose Adelaja

 

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/08/isemo-when-women-lose-freedom-of-movement-to-tradition/

 

 

 

 

Nigeria is likely not to meet poverty target 2015’

‘Nigeria not likely to meet 2015 poverty target’

terseer adamu (Review)

POVERTY in Nigeria remains significant despite high economic growth. Nigeria has one of the world’s highest economic growth rates (averaging 7.4 per cent over the last decade), a well-developed economy and plenty of natural resources such as oil. 

  However, it retains a high level of poverty, which according to National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) 2012 report, reported that 112.519 million Nigerians lived in relative poverty conditions.

  The concern over increasing poverty levels in Nigeria and the need for its eradication as a means of improving the standard of living of the people has led to the conceptualisation and implementation of various targeted or non-targeted poverty eradication and alleviation-programmes. 

  Both the Nigerian government and donor agencies have been active in efforts in analysing and finding solutions to the increase of poverty leveling the country.

  Concern about this problems as well as efforts made to eradicate or at least reduce it cannot be said to be new. While major reductions in poverty level have been made in developed countries, developing countries, Nigeria inclusive, have been battling with poverty, from one poverty alleviation programme to another eradication programme, but all to no avail.

  In an effort to curb the challenges of poverty in Nigeria, National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) was created in 2001 under the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration with the mandate to reduce absolute poverty by creating employment for youths in the automobile industry, provide training and other vocational trades as well as support internship to them.

  Unfortunately, the issues of poverty eradication have proved to be the most difficult challenge facing the country where majority of the people live in absolute poverty. 

  At the 2012 World Day for the Eradication of Poverty, which had as its theme “Ending the Violence of Extreme Poverty”, the Coordinator, National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP), Malam Mukhtar Tafawa-Balewa assured Nigerians that the organisation’s war against poverty would be successful 

  “We are optimistic that the good days will come sooner than expected; the president has shown enough political will and unwavering commitment to the welfare of all Nigerians.’’

  He said that there was considerable progress in the drive to put an end to extreme poverty by 2015

  Tafawa-Balewa said that the theme was an indication that the world was taking the issue of fighting poverty “as a governance issue that requires deliberate policy thrust.

  “As the Transformation Agenda of this administration gets underway and improvement in our GDP and expansion of our domestic productivity, we shall achieve significant success in our fight against the scourge of poverty.

  “We at NAPEP wish to assure the nation that we shall not spare any effort in seeing to the realisation of the president’s agenda of transformation.’’

  Meanwhile, against the backdrop of meeting the poverty target by 2015, the technical validation workshop group for MDGs targets in Abuja during the last weekend while ex-raying the extent of attainment of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) targets which is less than three years, in their submission lamented that Nigeria was lagging behind in meeting the Goal I of MDGs which was the poverty target adding that it had done well in hunger.

  “On MDG 1 “ Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger,” Nigeria is lagging behind the 2015 target. With poverty at 62.6 per cent and the enormity of the challenge, it is not likely that the 2015 target of 21.4 per cent will be met. But, there is a better outlook on hunger reduction.”

  Meanwhile, as the deadline to meet the targets is winding up, the federal government is committed to accelerating activities to take stock on the level of performance to ensure that the targets are met, of which poverty is inclusive.

  The Senior Special Assistant to the president on MDGs Dr. Precious Gbeneol in her remark at the validation workshop said, “as you are aware, the deadline set for the attainment of MGDs by the global community is 2015, hence as we count down to the deadline it behooves us as a nation to take stock of our collective performance as it affects the MGDs target in Nigeria using MDGs specific key performance.

  “On this note, I urge you to make a meaningful contributions that will deliver a final draft report which should not only guarantee the final outcome as one of the best but that which we all should be proud to own as a people and as a nation.”

Author : John Okeke,

The Guardian  

 

40-years-old collapse bridge: Fear grips community

 

Collapse  bridge: Fear grips Ebonyi community

 

terseer adamu ( Reveiw)

 

RESIDENTS of communities in Ishielu Local government area of Ebonyi State are presently living in fear of an imminent disaster. Their fear derives from the belief that the  Eguho-Ebonyi bridge in the area would soon collapse if urgent steps are not taken to either rehabilitate or reconstruct it.

Presently no vehicle of any class, including motorcycle, is allowed to ply the bridge any longer to avoid mishap.

The Eguho-Ebonyi Bridge which links the whole of Ishielu LGA, including Ntezi, Ezzagu Ezekuna, Ezzagu, Azuinyaba, and Agba-Ezekoma communities, with its counterparts in the area failed last week as residents, commuters and motorists were compelled to take alternative routes to their various destinations

 

Vanguard Metro, VM, learnt that the bridge which was built over 40 years ago became weak as a result of huge water pressure on its abutments during the last heavy down pour that lasted over three days in the state. The bridge also failed because of the huge traffic on it during the last Ezza-Ezillo crisis in the state.

During the crisis which started in 2008, the bridge served as the safest alternative escape route for those fleeing the insurgency in Ezza-Ezillo communities.

The state of the bridge wouldn’t have worried most people in the area if not for the delay in the completion of the ongoing Bridge of Unity embarked upon by the Governor Martin Elechi-led administration since 2008.

This project suffered setbacks allegedly because of the poor engineering design and death of the former contractor who handled it from inception.

This development, VM gathered, did not only paralyse socio-economic activities in the area but also hindered free flow of  goods and services into the state. In addition, it has also affected the supply of medical services as bereaved families now carry the corpses of their loved ones during burial ceremonies through alternative routes, while women undergoing antenatal are also suffer the same fate.

VM gathered that a popular market in the area, Nwafor Eluoji Market, which is popular for items like garri, okro, yam, groundnut, among others, is no longer booming as a result of the collapsing bridge. The market which is older than the state usually attracted marketers from other states in the South East geopolitical zone of the country.

Assessing the level of defects on the bridge in company of a team of engineers, the State Commissioner for Works and Transport, Chukwuma Nwandugo, assured the people of government’s commitment to ensure that the bridge was repaired and made passable by both commuters and motorists in no distant time. He affirmed that the reasons for the failure of the bridge were traceable to the level of traffic on it during the last Ezza-Ezillo war in the state and also due to the heavy down pour in the area which soaked both the soil and abutments of the bridge.

He said: “What we have there is a failure of the abutment which has made it, of course, impossible for people to pass.

Metal reinforcement

From my assessment, we discovered that it required metal reinforcement that will be welded on both ends that will now make motorists and vehicles to pass through it easily. For now, vehicles cannot pass because of the vacuum created and I believe that in no distant time we will be able to rectify the situation and the bridge will be put to use again.

“From my findings, there is no single casuality from that because no vehicle was on the bridge when that happened and nobody was also on top of the bridge. My discovery is that it was as a result of hugewater pressure that came on the abutment and this abutment is not the type we use now; it is the colonial type which is not reinforced at all and so due to water pressure the concrete became weak and gave way and that is why we have that failure on the abutment. It is not a difficult job to do. All we have to do is extend the abutment away from the failed spot. Everything has to be in alignment with the big centre abutment. I hope that within a short period this anomaly will be solved; I’m appealing to the people to reduce the pressure on this metal bridge to avoid any casuality”.

As soon as we connect this to that, everything is metal; metal work does not take so much time, the state government is swinging into action immediately.

“We will swing into action as quickly as tomorrow (today); we are going to commence all sorts of metal work and when you are doing metal work, it doesn’t take time and very soon the bridge will be put to use” Meantime, the member representing Ishielu South Constituency at the State House of Assembly, Hon. Julius Nwokpor noted that with the failure of the bridge, the people of the area could no longer come into their communities again except through Enugu state.

Source: By PETER OKUTU

http://www.vanguardngr.com

 

Poverty is a denial of choices and opportunities, a violation of human dignity.

Poverty in Nigeria

Terseer adamu (Review)

Poverty as the United Nations statement says: Poverty is a denial of choices and opportunities, a violation of human dignity. It means lack of basic capacity to participate effectively in society. It means not having enough to feed and clothe a family, not having a school or clinic to go to; not having the land on which to grow one’s food or a job to earn one’s living and not having access to credit. It means insecurity, powerlessness and exclusion of individuals, households and communities. It means susceptibility to violence, and it often implies living on marginal or fragile environments, without access to clean water or sanitation.

Today, although Nigeria should be one of the richest countries in the world with vast oil reserves and a plentiful workforce, yet over 65% of the country's populations live under the poverty line and half of those live in abject poverty. That's 80 million people. Part of this is because of rampant corruption in urban areas and the ongoing failure of repeated programs to address the poverty issue. Many of these programs have been dismissed as mere slogans, with former President Ibrahim Babanginda stating the "Nigerian economy has defied all economic theories." Few funds allocated to poverty campaigns have trickled down to the masses due to inefficiency, lack of knowledge and corruption, leaving the 90% of the rural community to rely on subsistence farming with almost half struggling to make a living on smallholdings barely one hectare in size.

This lack of productivity in the agricultural sector is the root cause of rural poverty in Nigeria , as the oil revenues largely bypass those living and working outside that industry. The failure of agriculture in Nigeria is often blamed on the federal system; with the central government planning ignored or by passed by regional governments. What is clear, however, that as the agriculture industry has declined decade after decade, the ability to provide food for the family and sell on the excess has diminished year by year, fuelling poverty in Nigeria and of course, malnutrition.

Malnutrition affects just under a third of all Nigerian children, one in five of whom die before their fifth birthday, HIV/AIDS affects three out of every hundred citizens and there are nearly ten million orphans in the country out of a total population of 162 million ~ making it the eighth most populous nation in the world. Life expectancy is around 53 years.Unfortunately the land  for farming is suffering from deforestation and soil erosion in the north due to poor farming methods and in the Niger Delta Region, land is becoming increasingly polluted by oil spills and also suffers from regular, heavy flooding. Below are some facts and figures about poverty in Nigeria taken from a range of sources. Please note figures for some years, including recent ones, are not yet available and/or not collated however the figures give an overview of poverty and other related indicators in the country.

Indicator	2000	2005	2008	2009	2010	2011
Population	123.69m	139.82m	150.67m	154.49m	158.42m	162.47m
Life expectancy at birth	46yrs	49yrs	50yrs	51yrs	51yrs	53yrs
% of pop with access to improved water	53%	57%	58%	58%	58%	NA
% of pop with access to improved sanitation	34%	32%	32%	31%	31%	NA
% of pop with access to electricity*						51%
Living in absolute poverty		54.7%			60.9%
Children under 5 underweight			26.7%
Literacy						50.4% (72.1% male) (50.4% female)
Unemployment rate						21% est

Source: http://www.noblemissions.org