Tag: Sonnie Ekwowusi

  • Re: Lagos State’s Abortion Guidelines (LSAG) – By Jerry Okwuosa

    Re: Lagos State’s Abortion Guidelines (LSAG) – By Jerry Okwuosa

    By Jerry Okwuosa

    In their rejoinder to Sonnie Ekwowusi’s article on the Lagos State’s Abortion Guidelines recently published in your esteemed paper, the Nigerian Feminist Forum (FNN) set out to deliberately misinform the Lagos State government and Nigerians on the legality of abortion in Nigeria. Yes, there were indeed several spirited efforts to legalize abortion in Nigeria under several guises which failed woefully but efforts to keep trying have continued, hence these topical LSAG. 

    The 5th Commandment of the Decalogue in the Christian Bible commands: Thou shall not kill (unborn babies, children and adults) and there are so many repetitions of this command in the Bible that NFF’s assertion that the Bible is silent on abortion exposes them as blatant liars. Quran 17: 31 stipulates “slay not your children (born and unborn) fearing a fall of poverty…lo, the slaying of them is a greater sin” and NFF missed this too. Nigerian cultures abhor the killing of unborn babies and Nigerians’ love children has made the legalization of abortion a near impossibility.

    The NFF concluded its rejoinder with this: “To Mr. Ekwowusi and others like him who continue to misinform the public, we must state unequivocally: abortion is healthcare, and abortion is a human right”. Our response to this is simple: the opposite is the truth so we confidently reaffirm that ABORTION IS NOT HEALTH CARE and ABORTION IS NOT HUMAN RIGHT, because if it is either or both, Roe v Wade would not have been overturned by the US Supreme Court on June 24, 2022, after 49+ years and 63 million American babies lives wasted; 30% of them blacks. How could the killing of an unborn child ever constitute the human right of anybody? The life of any baby is his/her inalienable right, hence it is never legitimate or right to eliminate human life to resolve any problem. No, never!

    As regards the over flogged issue of legalizing abortion for cases of sexual assault; rape, incest etc. raised by the NFF, we wish to remind them that even in such unfortunate instances, the baby remains ignorant of and innocent of the crime committed by his/her father and should not therefor be killed for the criminal act of a father s/he may never meet. Also, who among us will ever offer to suffer the death penalty in the place of his/her biological father who s/he knows, loves and cherishes? None! But by legalizing abortion for cases of sexual assault, we are forcing unborn babies to suffer the death penalty in the place of their fathers (criminals). We need to reconsider this injustice and condemn the abortion of babies conceived in sexual assaults.

    ABORTION IS NOT HEALTH CARE either: it cannot be for the baby who gets killed and it is not for the mother who suffers dozens of side effects ranging from sterility, breast cancer to death. Note well that The Dublin Declaration On Abortion of 2012 (DD) states that “The purposeful destruction of the unborn in the termination of pregnancy is not medically necessary to save the life of a woman”. DD has been signed by thousands of specialist/expert medical practitioners from all over the world and remains unchallenged to date. 

    The NFF misinforms us that “In Nigeria, abortion is allowed in circumstances where the continuation of the pregnancy threatens the life of the pregnant woman…” that “The guidelines do not represent new legislation or the ‘legalization’ of abortion” and that “They simply serve to operationalize existing legislation on abortion…” These claims unfortunately assume that abortion is legal in Nigeria, but our Legal experts tell us it is not and so if abortion were ever to be legalized in our country on the assumption that pregnancy threatens the life of a woman, then the Dublin Declaration (DD) will surely make nonsense of that piece of legislation. Now, if “The abortion guidelines do not represent new legislation or the ‘legalization’ of abortion “as claimed by the NFF, what are they if not legalization of abortion through the back door?

    The NFF informs us that “In 2011, the Lagos State House of Assembly updated the Criminal Code, providing for abortion…”, that “In 2015, the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act was passed, protecting the rights of gender-based violence survivors to receive comprehensive medical services…, that “The guidelines were modelled after the National Guidelines for Legal Indications prepared by the Federal Ministry of Health….” And asks how Mr. Ekwowusi could have a better input than all these experts who worked on this guideline over the years. Yes, Mr. Ekwowusi can claim to have better input than all of these experts because the Federal and Lagos State Guidelines on abortion are illegal because they are in conflict with the existing laws. Simple! 

    As for the Maputo Protocol, which Nigeria ratified in 2004, it cannot be enforced in Nigeria because it is not domesticated in Nigeria.

    The NFF in stating that “Yet, despite this context and Nigeria’s restrictive law on abortion, more than a million women and pregnant people induce abortions every year in Nigeria…. This shows that Nigerian women are not culturally opposed to abortion, as they clearly partake in the interest of their lives” correctly reflects our own estimate of Nigeria’s scandalous maternal mortality figures but it gives the wrong reasons for it and therefor draws the conclusions that support its murderous causes. This is why. In Dr. Regina Akosa’s write-up in the Guardian of Sunday 15/7/07, which to date stands unchallenged, there are four broad groups of causes of maternal deaths in Nigeria: medical, socio cultural and economic, health services and reproductive factors. Under medical causes fall: Haemorrhage (23%); Infection (17%); Obstructed labour, Eclampsia, Sepsis, Abortion and Anaemia (11% each) and Others (5%). From these figures alone, 11% of Nigeria’s pregnant mothers will not die if they are law-abiding by not attempting abortion, but NFF advises them otherwise and turns round to blame what it tags “unsafe” abortion. Note that 89% of maternal mortality cases in Nigeria relate to issues our governments can impact positively. Will they? Never! because the wives of politicians and top government functionaries give birth abroad.

    In June 2009, when the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights requested for information relevant to a thematic study on “Preventable maternal mortality and morbidity and human rights”, it received a report on WHO studies which show that the top killers of women in childbirth are bleeding, hypertensive disorders, anemia and sepsis etc. Abortion – including “spontaneous abortion” or miscarriage – is tenth on the list and accounts for 5% of deaths. The paper says “it is scientifically, medically, and morally unacceptable to divert resources from what is really needed to save women’s lives: skilled birth attendants and emergency obstetric care” and invest such resources in efforts to legalize abortion. Considering these local and international medical reports, there is really no justification for the relentless pressure mounted on Nigeria to legalize abortion. Abortion is the killing of an innocent unborn baby (murder) and murder should never be legalized. Abortion is intrauterine baby lynching.

    We are sure that many of Nigeria’s pregnant women will not attempt abortion if they do not believe NFF’s lies viz: “Abortion, when carried out using a method recommended by WHO, appropriate to the pregnancy duration, and by someone with the necessary skills, is very safe, even safer than childbirth”. The NFF speaks of “necessary skills”, but does any parent send his child to medical school to specialize in abortion and acquire the “necessary skills” to kill babies against the law of the land? The NFF declares that abortion is very safe, even safer than childbirth. And we ask: Is pregnancy a disease? Never! With the NFF around and active, there is little wonder that maternal deaths and abortions are on the increase in Nigeria. They promote abortifacient contraceptives use and in collusion with the Federal Ministry of Health are struggling to increase contraceptive prevalence from 13.1% to 30% in Nigeria asap, so we can only expect more back street abortions because the confirmed failure rates of these contraceptives remain high: 3% -15%). The plan is to introduce contraceptives to our children as early as possible because everybody is having sex (a big lie) but because No Contraceptive Can Guarantee 100% Effectiveness (All manufactures accept this fact) there will surely be failures: pregnancies, STDs & HIV, emotionally and psychologically devastated young romantics and of course the mortal sin of fornication. So the abortion providers/ “experts” like Marie Stopes International can step in and harvest their millions of blood money.

    Locked onto the World Health Organization (WHO), we at Project for Human Development have traversed the world on this issue and the WHO reports are basically the same: countries with restricted abortion laws or who prohibit abortion out rightly have the lowest maternal mortality rates overall. We are yet to come across an instance in the WHO reports where a country legalized abortion and her maternal mortality figures came tumbling down so we have no reason to believe that Nigeria’s case will be different. 

    Note that in the pro-abortion world, the word “safe” has lost its ordinary meaning. A “safe” abortion is any abortion performed in a country where abortion is legal and an “unsafe” abortion is one performed in a country that has refused to legalize abortion. Every abortion kills a child/children and every abortion harms the mother in ways ranging from sterility to even death. Abortion harms the father of the child, the child’s siblings and siblings-to-be, grandparents, community, country and even the entire world because nobody can tell what an unborn child could become. On the other hand, every pregnancy changes a woman permanently; whether she gives birth, aborts or miscarries because every child deposits its embryonic stem cells in his/her mother; whether she delivers, miscarries or aborts. Once conceived therefore a child has the right to be born as there is no way of completely deleting a child, whose soul (for Christians) lives forever.

    Engr. Jerry Okwuosa, DG, Project for Human Development (PHD), 24 Bishop Crowther Street, Surulere, Lagos. jerryokwuosa@yahoo.com. 0703 137 7740.

     

    About Project for Human Development (PHD)

    PHD is a pro-life, pro-family, trans-political, trans-religious NGO registered with the CAC. We endeavor to hold the moral high ground, act as the moral policeman of society and speak truth to power in order to restore the culture of life for which Nigeria was known until recently.

  • “Re: Legalization of abortion in Lagos State”: A Rebuttal – By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    “Re: Legalization of abortion in Lagos State”: A Rebuttal – By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    I would like to thank the Nigerian Feminist Forum (NFF) for joining issues with me in its very thoughtful and illuminating rejoinder entitled: “Re: Legalization of abortion in Lagos State”. For the avoidance of doubt and for the benefit of those who have not been following the recent development in the abortion debate in our country, three weeks ago the Lagos State government, contrary to the law, dramatically released what it dubbed abortion guidelines in Lagos State, that is, the guidelines for termination of pregnancy or killing of unborn babies in Lagos State. The release of the aforesaid abortion guidelines caused no small stir in the Lagos polity. Apart from triggering off a series of discourses in the media, it was trailed by peaceful demonstrations in Lagos and Abuja. For example, displaying different colourful placards inscribed with attractive inscriptions: “Say No to abortion”, “Abortion Kills Women”, “Abortion Kills Babies”, the members of Civil Society organization staged a peaceful protest at Alausa, Lagos. The protesters, most of whom were young girls aged 10-18, danced joyously as they marched through the block of buildings of the Lagos State Ministries en route to the Lagos State House of Assembly before finally returning to the esplanade of the Ikeja Shoprite from whence they initially took off. Aside the protests, notable stakeholders in Lagos State including the Catholic Archbishop of Lagos issued public statements stating that they were not consulted in the making of the impromptu abortion guidelines, and, that besides the guidelines were antithetical to the political, moral, cultural, religious and philosophical convictions of the Nigerian people.

    On my part, I penned an essay with the title: Legalization of Abortion in Lagos State. In that essay, I stated, inter alia, that the abortion directives fragrantly violate sections 145, 146, 147 and 201 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State (as amended in 2011); sections 228, 229,230, 297, 309, 328, of the Criminal Code Act CAP C38 (and their equivalent provisions in the Penal Code); sections 3,4, and 17 of the Child Rights Act 2003; Child’s Right Law of Lagos State 2015: sections 17 and 33 of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution; Articles, 3, 4 and 5 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights; Preamble to the 1990 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) (ratified and adopted by Nigeria). Consequently, I prayed that in the interest of justice the aforesaid directives should be rescinded.

    Apparently peeved by the facts contained in my said essay, the NFF had last week joined issues with me in their rejoinder entitled: “Re: Legalization of abortion in Lagos State”. It is noteworthy that the members of the NFF are pro-abortionists and pro-choicers. They propagate, for instance, that a married woman in her matrimonial home can procure an abortion with or without the consent of her husband because, as far as NFF is concerned, women are the owners of their bodies, and, therefore men have no right to dictate to women how to use their bodies. Before faulting the said rejoinder of the NFF, let me quickly state that Lagos State has suspended the aforesaid abortion guidelines. I must thank the Lagos State government for its prompt display of fatherly maturity and understanding in this matter.

    Contrary to the view of the NFF, the guidelines were not anchored within the ambit of the laws of the land. They were ultra vires the laws and therefore were null and void. In my aforesaid essay, I stated that by virtue of the combined effects of sections 145, 146, 147 and 201 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State (as amended in 2011); sections 228, 229,230, 297, 309, 328, of the Criminal Code Act CAP C38 (and their equivalent provisions in the Penal Code); sections 3,4, and 17 of the Child Rights Act 2003; Child’s Right Law of Lagos State 2015: sections 17 and 33 of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution; Articles, 3, 4 and 5 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights; Preamble to the 1990 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) (ratified and adopted by Nigeria) abortion is completely illegal in both Lagos State and in Nigeria as a whole without any exception under which abortion could be procured. I further submitted that section 201 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State which is in pari materia with section 297 of the Criminal Act is not an exception permitting abortion in Lagos State, and, that even if it is an exception it would, by virtue of the doctrine of covering the field, be inconsistent with the provisions of the Criminal Act and other Federal laws, and, to the extent of that inconsistency would be null and void.

    It is amazing that the phrase: “killing the unborn in order to save the life of the mother” has somehow become a convenient cliché or a dubious catchphrase or subterfuge which the NFF and the abortionists always latch on or hide under to advocate for the perpetuation the heinous crime of abortion. Over the years they have been deceiving the unwary public into believing that abortion is permissible in Nigeria when the life of the pregnant woman is threatened. But this is completely unfounded under our law. As I have stated above, there is no such exception or provision both in the Lagos Criminal Law (as amended in 2011) and in the Criminal Act and that even if such exception exists in Lagos State it is inconsistent with the Federal laws and to the extent of that inconsistency becomes null and void.

    Sharing her own medical experience on this matter, prominent Nigerian public health practitioner, Dr. Regina Akosa, writes that even in situations in which the life of the mother is threatened, it is not permitted to kill the unborn child because such murderous act may still not save the life of the mother. According to her, “when there is the medical need to separate an unborn baby from the mother because the latter’s life is threatened, say, in the case of eclampsia, every effort should be made to protect the life of the unborn baby and its mother. In the process of doing so the unborn baby could survive, but even if it doesn’t survive, the process cannot be termed as an abortion because the doctor did not deliberately intend to kill the baby. Abortion is the deliberate act with the intention of killing a baby. That is wrong because doctors are enjoined under the Hippocratic Oath to save human life not to terminate or take away human life. No medical doctor should deliberately intend to kill the unborn baby under any circumstance, not even when the life of the mother is threatened because the doctor is not even sure that the mother would be alive after killing the unborn baby. Abortion is neither a health care nor a human right not even when the life of the mother is threatened. By virtue of the Hippocratic Oath, it is the job of the Obstetrician and Gynecologist to save the life of both the mother and the unborn baby at all times. If a pregnant woman is sick of cancer, for instance, and wants to be treated even though she is pregnant, she has the right to be treated for cancer. But what the doctor must not do is to abort the woman’s baby in order to treat her for cancer. The baby must not be aborted. If the baby dies in the process of treating the woman for cancer, so be it, but in most cases the baby does survive. The Society for Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Nigeria (SOGON) is notorious in Nigeria for always pressuring the government to legalize abortion in Nigeria. I recall that in 2006 Senator Daisy Danjuma sponsored a Bill to set up the Institute of Reproductive Health in Nigeria, which in actual fact was a cover up for legalization of abortion in Nigeria. Because we all knew at that time that reproductive health was another euphemism for abortion, we all opposed the Bill and the Bill was defeated at the National Assembly”

    I agree with Dr. Akosa. SOGON is heavily funded by foreign pro-abortionists. It has been pressurizing the government to legalize abortion under the fabrication that many Nigerian women are dying because they lack access to safe, legal abortion. I am not a medical doctor but common sense tells me that abortion is not food or medicine that Nigerian women badly need in order to stay alive. But abortionists argue that rape and incest victims and women whose lives are in jeopardy badly need abortion to survive. But cases of rape and incest are very rare cases. And even if they are not rare cases all rape and incest cases do not automatically result in pregnancy. The truth of the matter is that about 98% of all abortions committed in Nigeria are committed for other reasons unconnected with rape or incest or “circumstances where the continuation of the pregnancy threatens the life of the pregnant woman” as the NFF wants us to believe. 98% of female abortion seekers in Nigeria are unmarried young girls who willingly and knowingly got entangled in the complex web of pelvic issues and have resolved to abort their pregnancies without the knowledge of their parents. For example, two years ago, the Lagos Police raided the notorious Marie Stopes abortion Clinic located in Surulere, Lagos. During the raid, the Police discovered the abortion files containing the particulars of the under-aged girls who had been aborted by the Clinic. On being quizzed by the Police on why the clinic was committing abortion on the under-aged girls without the consent of their parents, Dr. Bernard, the abortion doctor on duty on that fateful day told the Police that the clinic was not aborting the girls but merely doing “family planning” with them. In response, the Police further queried and said to him: “How can you be doing “family planning” with unmarried young girls?. It was Eleke the bird that said that since men have learnt to shoot without missing he has learnt to fly without perching. Analogously, since abortion is illegal in Nigeria, and, since the word “abortion” is repugnant in our cultural and religious setting, Nigeria abortionists have deftly learnt to promote abortion under euphemisms such as “family planning”, “unsafe abortion”, “post-abortion care”, “family health”, “interruption of pregnancy” et cetera. So whenever you hear the Federal Ministry of Health, Abuja, talking about “family planning” be assured that they are talking about abortion.

    On February 7 2009 The Vanguard newspaper hit the newsstand with a screaming headline: “70-abortion-a-day doctor arrested. “A Lagos-based medical doctor got what he did not bargain for as a new year package when a team of detectives…swooped on his hospital…based on information earlier received about the doctor’s criminal activities in the hospital situated in the densely Orile area of Lagos State”. The name of the hospital where the doctor was criminally killing babies was Rotunda Hospital, a tall-four-storey building once standing adjacent to Orile Police Station. The doctor’s clients, or, sorry, his victims, were mostly Nigerian secondary school girls including young girls from Cotonuo, Togo and other countries sharing boundaries with Nigeria. The doctor charged between N1, 500 to N5, 000 to abort various degrees of pregnancies. For example, he charged N5, 000 to burst open the womb inhabiting a 5-month old pregnancy. From his hospital diary, the police discovered, to their consternation, that he performed 11 abortions Christmas Day, 25 December 2008. On January 1, 2009 he started the New Year by performing 9 abortions. His administrative secretary confessed that he is “stupendously rich as a result of proceeds from procuring abortion and had always ‘settled security agents’ with huge sums of money in order to divert their attention from his criminal activities”. Sources said the girls arrested in the hospital confessed that they throng the hospital because the doctor is reputed to “successfully abort pregnancies at any stage of growth…”. The Assistant Inspector General of Police Mohammed Abubakar who ordered for the doctor’s arrest said that the doctor was wasting humanity

    The NFF argued that the suspended Lagos abortion guidelines have the imprimatur of SOGON, with support from the Population Reference Bureau (PRB). They also said that the guidelines were modeled after the National Guidelines of the Federal Ministry of Health, Abuja. And so what? Nobody is above the law of the land. Neither the abortionists nor SOGON nor PRB nor the Federal Ministry of Health, Abuja is above the law of the land. In any case, the directives are not laws. They do not have the force of law. Therefore nobody is bound to obey them. I had argued in my earlier essay that directives or policies that are in violation of the existing laws should neither be obeyed nor enforced. The Federal Ministry of Health, Abuja is a big scandal. It is in dire need of purge. Nigeria is the first country in the world with the highest number of people lacking access to basic primary health care. Cancer epidemics have erupted in Nigeria. Nigeria’s life expectancy has plummeted to 35 years. In various parts of Nigeria, the ordinary primary health care system for preventing preventable diseases such as polio, cholera, and measles is virtually non-existent. Medical infrastructure and equipment are in shambles in Nigeria. Yet the Federal Ministry, Abuja is busy channeling all its resources in promoting safe-sex for kids, abortion and population control in Nigeria.

    The current Minster of Health Dr. Osagie Ehanire, who is the brother of Senator Daisy Danjuma, has recently, under the guise of “family planning (FP) services” or “Family Planning 2030” or “sexual reproductive health”, launched a comprehensive abortion, infanticide and contraception national policies and programs in Nigeria aimed at killing Nigerian babies and children. In August 2012 Federal government said it was spending a total of $11.3 million to purchase condoms for ‘safe sex.’ In April 2011, the then Health Minister, Prof Chukwu flagged off an aggressive free distribution of contraceptives (including hormone and injectable contraceptives) in all public health centres and institutions in Nigeria. The Federal Government planned to spend N915 million in 2017 on procuring contraceptive commodities for safe sex. The then Health Professor Isaac Adewole announced in July 2017 that Nigeria, in collaboration with its partners and the private sector, would spend an additional $4.3 million on contraceptive procurement to achieve a modern contraceptive distribution rate of 27 percent among all women by 2020. He also stated that Nigeria was committed to increasing its annual allocation for contraceptives in each state to $4 million. At the request of Prof Adewole, the Federal Government announced in January 2018 that $1 million had been set aside for the free distribution of contraceptives to improve the quality of safe sex among Nigerian adults and teenagers. The preceding reveals the vast sums of money spent on promoting safe sex at the expense of people’s actual health problems. So why do we fail to get our priorities right in Nigeria? It defies belief that at a time when malnutrition and kwashiorkor are wreaking havoc on the citizenry; a time when medical statistics show that 2,300 under-five children and 145 pregnant women die in Nigeria every day, the Federal Ministry of Health, which was established to develop health policies and programs that will, among other things, strengthen the country’s health system, has chosen to conspire with foreign agencies such as the World Health Organization. In addition, the Federal Ministry of Health, Abuja provides the Nigerian public with IUCD, postinor 2, Lo-femenal, Norplant, suction tubes, Vasectomy y (male sterilization), tubal ligation (female sterilization), and other procedures. Shame to the Federal Ministry of Health, Abuja !.

    In case the NFF does not know, although the Maputo Protocol has been ratified by Nigeria it does not have the force of law because it has not been domesticated in Nigeria by virtue of section 12 (1) of the 1999 Constitution. In the locus classicus Abacha V Fawehinmi, the Justices of the Supreme Court held that an international treaty or regional treaty entered into by the government of Nigeria does not have a binding force in Nigeria until created into law by the National Assembly by virtue of section 12(1) of the Constitution. In the aforesaid case, Justice Michael Ekundayo Ogundare JSC (of the blessed memory) unequivocally stated that the African Charter is not superior to the Constitution. Consequently in the event of a conflict between the African Charter and our 1999 Constitution, the latter prevails to the extent of the inconsistency. Justice Okay Achike JSC (of the blessed memory) minced no words in stating that “unincorporated treaties cannot change the aspect of the Nigerian law even though Nigeria is a party to those treaties. Indeed unincorporated treaties have no effects upon the rights and duties of citizens either at Common law or Statute law” .To Justice Akintola Olufemi Ejiwunmi JSC, CON, (of the blessed memory) “If such treaty is not incorporated into our municipal law, our domestic courts have no jurisdiction to construe or apply its provisions…”. These pronouncements of the law Lords are in agreement with the position of the law in Nigeria on this matter. A contrary pronouncement would lead to a travesty of the Constitution.

    Maputo protocol was hurriedly ratified on 16 December 2004 by a bunch of unknowledgeable Nigerian officials probably over a glass of champagne without knowledge of the import of the protocol. The National Assembly is empowered by the constitution to make good laws for the country. Therefore since the Maputo Protocol is a complete break with the values of African civilization, the National Assembly cannot proceed to domesticate it let alone Nigerian courts “respecting it”. Maputo Protocol is incompatible with African regional instruments such as the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights domesticated in Nigeria and applied by the Supreme Court in the case of Abacha V Fawehinmi. Specifically Article 14 (2)(c) of the Maputo Protocol cited by NFF is incompatible with the language of African values, and in particular with the language of African Charter which upholds the human rights of both the child and the mother. Therefore Maputo Protocol is unacceptable and must not be domesticated in Nigeria.

    Contrary to the view of the NFF, Muslims, in principle, are against abortion (Quran 17:31 stipulates: “slay not your children, fearing a fall of poverty, we shall provide for them and for you, LO the slaying of them is greater sin”) although some Muslims believe that abortion can be committed at the early stage of pregnancy. Of course, the Ten Commandments and the Bible condemn abortion. But above all, the law “thou shall not kill” is a natural law written in every one’s heart. It is a natural law which every rational person, be he a Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, atheist, Marxist, internet free-thinker, juju worshipper, agnostic, animist etc applying his/her natural intellect comes to grasp and appreciates by his/her own effort. St. Thomas Aquinas, Hugo Grotus, Sophocles Antigone and St. Augustine of Hippo and others of the Natural Law School argued that natural law constituted the basis for good ordering of the society. Abortion destroys the good ordering of society. Abortion is murder. Murder is murder. Whether the victim is a vulnerable child in the womb crushed to death by the doctor or a 45-year old politician killed by a bandit, it is the same murder. And we cannot be advocates of the human rights of adults and feign ignorance of the human rights of the most vulnerable unborn child.

    I am surprised that after reading my earlier essay the NFF is still quibbling with the phrases “safe abortion” and “unsafe abortion”. As I said in my aforesaid earlier essay: “Safe-abortion” is not only an oxymoron: it is a medical impossibility since every abortion is always unsafe for the unborn baby because it kills the unborn baby. The notion “unsafe-abortion” is also misleading because it implies that some abortions done by competent medical doctors are “safe” or without risks. This is a big lie. All abortions carry serious risks for the aborted woman regardless of the quality of medical care employed. If the abortion kills the child how can they be talking about “safe-abortion”?. More importantly, abortion is a crime in Nigeria. Therefore you cannot modify the crime of abortion with the prefix “safe” in the same way you cannot modify stealing with the prefix “safe”. For example, you cannot say “safe-stealing”

    Perhaps the biggest blunder in the rejoinder of the NFF is its assertion that maternal deaths in Nigeria can only be curtailed by giving Nigerian women access to safe, affordable abortion. I have never heard a more illogical assertion. With due respect, medical experts have ceaselessly maintained that the main cause of high maternal deaths in Nigeria is lack of access to acceptable and affordable primary, secondary and tertiary health care system; lack of drugs, lack of access to skilled birth attendants; lack of consumables, medical equipment, poor referral linkages in our hospitals; poor transportation and general lack of access to basic emergency obstetrical care associated with save birth in Nigeria. For example, severe bleeding (hemorrhaging), during birth and after birth accounts for about 44% of maternal deaths in Nigeria. So, what Nigerian women need for survival is access to well-equipped affordable Nigerian hospitals, not access to abortion. I hope I am understood.

    All said, I can understand why the Nigerian abortionists are putting so much pressure on the government to legalize abortion despite the fact that the U.S Supreme Court has recently upturned ROE V WADE. The abortion industry in Nigeria is now a multi-billion dollar industry. This is why SOGON, Federal Ministry of Health, Abuja and other pro-abortion persons and institutions are waxing stronger and stronger in the industry. They want money, quick money. But that is blood money. Blood money kills.

  • RE: Legalization of abortion in Lagos State by Sonnie Ekwowusi

    RE: Legalization of abortion in Lagos State by Sonnie Ekwowusi

    Letter to the Editor: On Lagos State’s new abortion guidelines

    In an article published by The News Guru entitled Legalization of abortion in Lagos State, author Sonnie Ekwowusi urges Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to “withdraw the abortion directives” in the recently-released Lagos State Guidelines on Safe Termination of Pregnancy for Legal Indications. He argues that the guidelines cannot be enforced because they would be inconsistent with the existing legal and policy framework of Nigeria and Lagos State on abortion. He suggests that the guidelines effectively legalises abortion in Lagos State.

    Mr. Ekwowusi is either misinforming the public or is himself misinformed, and it is dangerous to give a platform to someone who seeks to deliberately misinform the public. The guidelines do not represent new legislation or the ‘legalization’ of abortion. They simply serve to operationalize existing legislation on abortion in Nigeria and update the standards for the provision of care within the ambit of the criminal law of Lagos State. Hence, they are completely consistent with existing legal and policy frameworks.

    In Nigeria, abortion is allowed in circumstances where the continuation of the pregnancy threatens the life of the pregnant woman. Otherwise, it is criminalized. Revision of penal and criminal laws in Nigeria, however, can be carried out at the State level. In 2011, the Lagos State House of Assembly updated the Criminal Code, providing for abortion to save the life and protect the physical health of the woman. Meanwhile, in 2015, the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Act was passed, protecting the rights of gender-based violence survivors to receive comprehensive medical services.

    In 2018, the development of the Lagos State Guidelines began with the ‘Safe Engage Project’ led by the Lagos State Ministry of Health and hosted by the Society for Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Nigeria (SOGON), with support from the Population Reference Bureau (PRB). The guidelines were modelled after the National Guidelines for Legal Indications prepared by the Federal Ministry of Health and designed to provide guidance to medical practitioners and other stakeholders on the grounds on which abortion. Mr. Ekwowusi cannot claim to have better input than all of these experts who worked on this guideline over the years.

    Such grounds for allowing abortion are in keeping with the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, also known as the Maputo Protocol, which Nigeria ratified in 2004. Article 14 (2) (c) of the Maputo Protocol urges all ratifying countries to “protect the reproductive rights of women by authorizing medical abortion in cases of sexual assault, rape, incest, and where the continued pregnancy endangers the mental and physical health of the mother or the life of the mother or the fetus”.

    Mr. Ekwowusi repeatedly uses children’s rights and cites the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which Nigeria has also ratified, to argue that provision of abortion is tantamount to the murder of children. Meanwhile, the Committee on the Rights of the Child has made clear distinctions on the legal identity of children and fetuses by ruling on at least three occasions.

    Mr. Ekwowusi invokes the religious and cultural context of Nigeria in his appeal to have the new Lagos State Guidelines withdrawn. However, he neglects to mention that abortion is permissible in Islam to save the life of the mother, while the bible is completely silent and does not prevent abortion. Yet, despite this context and Nigeria’s restrictive law on abortion, more than a million women and pregnant people induce abortions every year in Nigeria; this number represents one in seven pregnancies ending in abortion. This shows that Nigerian women are not culturally opposed to abortion, as they clearly partake in the interest of their lives.

    While Mr. Ekwowusi correctly admits that “abortion is a medical procedure”, he over-emphasizes the health risks associated with having a safe and legal abortion. Abortion, when carried out using a method recommended by WHO, appropriate to the pregnancy duration, and by someone with the necessary skills, is very safe, even safer than childbirth. But when such conditions are not satisfied, an abortion may be classified as an unsafe abortion. Hence, the use of safe or unsafe is not as arbitrary as Mr. Ekwowusi suggests.

    For a country that is ranked as having the second-largest burden of maternal mortality in the world, a more proactive stance on ensuring access to safe abortion is much welcome. Maternal mortality as a result of unsafe abortions are suffered more by women living in rural areas, younger women, women with little or no education, and poor women. These deaths could be prevented by allowing access to safe abortion. No woman should compromise her physical or mental health from conditions that can be prevented or addressed.

    The Lagos State Guidelines are also timely as it comes on the heels of the updated World Health Organization (WHO) Guidelines on Safe Abortion, which recommends the full decriminalization of abortion and repeal of laws and regulations restricting access to abortion. According to the WHO guidelines, restrictive laws do not reduce the need and demand for abortion; these only delays the provision of care or lead women to seek out unsafe methods of abortion.

    While Nigeria’s abortion laws are a far leap from WHO policy recommendations, the Lagos State Guidelines represent an important step in recognizing how restrictive laws on abortion result in confusion among service providers and stall effective implementation at appropriate levels of care.

    The presence of clear guidelines will help ensure that service providers can provide care according to appropriate healthcare standards and best practices and decrease the incidence of preventable death and disability.

    To Mr. Ekwowusi and others like him who continue to misinform the public, we must state unequivocally: abortion is healthcare, and abortion is a human right.

     

    About the Nigerian Feminist Forum

    The Nigerian Feminist Forum (NFF) is a public policy forum that brings together Nigerian feminists. It is an ideological and political space, that is made up of individuals and organizations located both in Nigeria and the diaspora, who are committed to challenging and dismantling patriarchal oppressions that perpetuate gender inequality. The NFF creates a space for women, organizations, and individuals to build formal and informal networks, organizations, personal friendships, and collective feminist energies.

    The NFF is guided by the African Feminist Charter.  Read the charter here; http://bit.ly/3qSXob0

  • Legalization of abortion in Lagos State – By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    Legalization of abortion in Lagos State – By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    The abortion directives issued last week by the Lagos State Governor Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu to the effect that Lagosians can now “safely” kill their unborn babies without any qualms are illegal and therefore null and void. Frankly speaking I don’t know why Mr. Sanwo-Olu has allowed himself to be drafted into the simmering, highly-sensitive political, cultural, religious, moral and contentious issue of abortion. I don’t know any Nigerian politician who had promoted abortion without his or her political career being completely ruined. So why is Governor Sanwo-Olu toying with his political career?. Already the Sanwo-Olu’s abortion directives have sparked off demonstrations in Lagos and Abuja. The Governor’s abortion directives fragrantly violate sections 145, 146, 147 and 201 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State (as amended in 2011); sections 228, 229,230, 297, 309, 328, of the Criminal Code Act CAP C38 (and their equivalent provisions in the Penal Code); sections 3,4, and 17 of the Child Rights Act 2003; Child’s Right Law of Lagos State 2015: sections 17 and 33 of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution; Articles, 3, 4 and 5 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights; Preamble to the 1990 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) (ratified and adopted by Nigeria). Therefore, as earlier stated, the aforesaid abortion directives issued last week by the Lagos State Governor are illegal and therefore null and void.

    Therefore the Lagos State Governor is humbly advised to withdraw the abortion directives. Why? Because the abortion directives or policies cannot be enforced or obeyed in Lagos State. It is trite law that directives or policies that are ultra vires the existing laws of the land or do not fall within the ambit of the laws of the land or are in violation of the laws of the land cannot be enforced or obeyed in the State. Only enacted laws or Acts can be enforced or obeyed. Governor’s Directives that are in flagrant violation of the laws of the land cannot be enforced. The combined effects of sections 145, 146, 147, 201 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State (as amended in 2011) and sections 228, 229,230, 297, 309, 328, of the Criminal Code Act CAP C38 (and their equivalent provisions in the Penal Code) is that anybody who, with an intent to procure the miscarriage of a woman or intents to abort or kill her baby in the woman by unlawfully administering on her any noxious substance or contraceptives or pills or drugs or instruments or by inserting instruments into the womb of the woman and crushing her baby to pieces in order to achieve the aforesaid purpose is guilty of a felony punishable under the various sections of the Criminal Code of Lagos or the Criminal Act of the Federation. In fact, section 328 of the Criminal Act prescribes life imprisonment for killing an unborn child. The section stipulates: “Any person who when a woman is about to be delivered of a child prevents the child from being born alive by any act or omission of such a nature, that, if the child had been born alive and had then died, he would be deemed to have unlawfully killed the child, is guilty of a felony, and is liable to imprisonment for life”. Section 17(1) of the Child’s Right Act 2003 clearly provides for the right of the unborn child. It states: “A child may bring an action for damages against a person for harm or injury caused to the child willfully, recklessly, negligently or through neglect before, during or after the birth of that child”. In similar fashion, section 16(1) of the Child’s Law of Lagos State 2015 clearly provides for the right of the unborn child. It states thus: . “Right of the unborn child to protection against harm, etc. (1) A child may bring an action for damages against a person for harm or injury caused to the child willfully, recklessly, negligently or through neglect before, during or after the birth of that child”. The preamble to the CRC states: “Bearing in mind that, as indicated in the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, “the child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth”.

    The deduction from the forgoing is that abortion is outlawed under our laws. In fact, both sections 16(1) of the Child’s Law of Lagos State 2015 and 17(1) of the Child’s Right Act 2003 clearly provide that an unborn child can bring a legal suit, of course via locus parentis or guardian ad lite, against any person for damages for harm or injury willfully or negligently inflicted on the child before its birth, during its birth and after its birth. So, you can see that the unborn child enjoys enormous the right to life under our laws. Therefore unless the aforesaid laws are amended to permit the killing of unborn babies, the Lagos State Governor has no right to issue directives approving the killing of the unborn babies in Lagos State. It is instructive to note that section 201 of the Criminal law of Lagos State erroneously relied upon by abortionists to argue that medical abortions are permissible in Lagos State to “save the life and protect the physical health of the woman” does not by any stretch of imagination prescribe abortion. Section 201 merely states that a person or a medical doctor is not criminally liable for any surgical operation performed in good faith and with due diligence on any person for his benefit, or upon an unborn child for the preservation of the mother’s life. Therefore section 201 is not an exception allowing the procurement of abortion in Lagos State. Equally section 297 of the Criminal Act is worded exactly like section 201 of the Lagos State Criminal law. Again section 297 is not an exception allowing procurement of abortion. The Dublin Declaration on Maternal Health 2012 and other declarations unequivocally state that abortion is not medically necessary even to save the life of a pregnant woman. So why are these abortionists misinforming the Lagos populace? In any case, assuming section 201 of the Criminal law of Lagos State permits medical abortion in Lagos State, it would be inconsistent with the provisions of the Criminal Act and other federal laws, and, to the extent of that inconsistency would be null and void. By virtue of the doctrine of covering the field, the Criminal Act and other federal law have outlawed abortion in Nigeria.

    Therefore Sanwo-Olu’s directives or any Lagos Law “legalizing” abortion in Lagos State, would, to the extent of their express or implied inconsistency with the Criminal Act or other Federal laws, be held null and void and no effect whatsoever. In other words, in the event of any inconsistency between the Lagos law on abortion and the Criminal Act and other federal laws on abortion, the latter will prevail to the extent of the inconsistency. Those who pretend or feign ignorance of the right of the unborn child forget that in the U.K, and, I think in other criminal jurisdiction, any person who kills a pregnant woman is charged for double murder, that is, he is first charged for the murder of the pregnant woman, and, then separately charged for killing the unborn child in the woman’s womb. If the fetus in the womb is not a human being, why is the murderer of a pregnant woman charged for double murder or homicide?

    What is most unacceptable about the Governor’s abortion directives is that the critical stakeholders such as the Churches, Mosques, traditional rulers, purveyors of Nigeria’s cultural heritage, security agents, anti-abortion legal practitioners, anti-abortion medical practitioners were not consulted or invited in the fashioning out of the 40-page abortion directives. The Catholic Archbishop of Lagos Most Rev. Alfred Adewale Martins has just issued a press statement condemning the legalization of abortion in Lagos State and stating that the Catholic Archdiocese of Lagos was never invited or consulted in the making of the abortion directives. Neither were Muslims in Lagos invited or consulted. The Pentecostals were not consulted either. Only abortionists, pro-choicers and pro-abortion institutions, namely, Marie Stopes abortion clinics, the Federal Ministry of Health, Society for Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Nigeria (SOGON), Population Reference Bureau (PRB), Ministry of Health, Lagos, Prof. Innocent Ujah, Prof. Ayodele Atsenuwa were consulted in the making of the abortion directives. I have crossed paths with SOGON, Prof. Ujah and Prof. Atsenuwa at Conferences, and, I would tell you that they were vehemently campaigning for the legalization of abortion in those Conferences. SOGON is a notorious abortion NGO. The Federal Ministry of Health, Abuja is another dangerous abortion organization. Last week the Health Minister Dr. Osagie Ehanire said that last 1% of the Nation’s health budget is allocated for abortificients and contraceptives to facilitate abortion. You can now see what I am talking about. A country in which her citizens have no access to basic primary health care is budgeting huge amount of money for abortion. The PRB is an international abortion agency that has been promoting population control in Africa through abortion. Marie Stopes is a notorious U.K abortion clinic with abortion clinics in Nigeria.

    Acting on a petition written by a concerned body about the illegal abortion activities of Marie Stopes in Lagos State two years ago, the Police raided the Marie Stopes abortion clinic in Surulere, Lagos. During the raid, the Police confiscated the abortion files and abortion instruments such as Manual Vacuum Aspirators found in the clinic. On opening the abortion files the Police discovered to its chagrin that the clinic had aborted under-aged girls below the age of 17 without the consent of their parents. The Police handcuffed Dr. Bernard, one of the abortion doctors found on duty in the clinic on that day. The police later took him and the abortion files and Manual Vacuum Aspirators to their station. The funny aspect was that as the Police tried to arrest the clinic’s security guard who was manning the clinic’s gate at the material time, the poor man knelt down and swore to high heavens that he did not know that Marie Stopes performs abortion at the clinic. He was obviously lying to avert police arrest and detention. It is scandalous that the Lagos State government is consulting Marie Stopes, the largest global abortion provider in the English-speaking world. According to the Marie Stopes website, Marie Stopes aborted over 700,000 women in 2018, meaning that it killed 700,000 Nigerian babies in 2018. Marie Stopes abortion clinics had been shut down in Niger Republic, Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Togo, Madagascar, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso. To fully understand what I am saying, just google “Marie Stopes abortion clinic”.

    Now let’s examine the content of Sanwo-Olu’s abortion directives. The content of the directives is the singsong of the abortionists and pro-choicers in Nigeria over the years. They argue that legalizing abortion makes it “safe” because when abortions are legal, it become “safe” because women can seek out competent medical doctors to perform them unlike when abortions are illegal the abortions will be performed by quack medical doctors and medical personnel in “unsafe’ conditions and by doing make abortions “unsafe” for women. Therefore they argue further that abortion or termination of pregnancy should be made “safe” and “lawful” for those women. In summary, the Sanwo-Olu directives are aimed at making abortion and termination of pregnancy in Lagos State “safe” and “lawful” because according to abortionists “unsafe” abortion leads to the death of women. This is false. All abortions have serious negative impacts on women. 17% of women undergoing the so-called “safe-abortion” or legal abortion procedure experience physical complications (such as abdominal bleedings or pelvic infections) after the abortion. The percentage is likely higher with long-term physical and psychological effects of abortion such as heavy bleeding (requiring blood transfusion), nausea, abdominal cramping, heart attack, perforation of the uterus, miscarriage of future pregnancies, death (it is estimated that 20% of maternal deaths result from abortion), guilt, anger, depression, suicidal thoughts, memory repression, eating disorders and sleep disorders are considered.

    The truth of the matter is that abortion is a medical procedure, and, as with any medical procedure, abortion is fraught with health risks, even if it carried out by the most competent medical practitioner and under the best medical conditions especially in Nigeria and other developing countries. Therefore prefixing or modifying abortion with “safe” is not only misleading but medically inaccurate. “Safe-abortion” is not only an oxymoron: it is a medical impossibility since every abortion is always unsafe for the unborn baby because it kills the unborn baby. The notion “unsafe-abortion” is also misleading because it implies that some abortions done by competent medical doctors are “safe” or without risks. This is a big lie. All abortions carry serious risks for the aborted woman regardless of the quality of medical care employed. The abortion kills the child. How can you say that abortion is “safe” when it claims the life of an unborn child? More importantly, abortion is a crime in Nigeria. Therefore you cannot modify abortion with the prefix “safe” in the same way you cannot modify stealing with the prefix “safe”. You cannot say “safe-stealing”

    Consequently, the Lagos State Governor is humbly advised to rescind the abortion directives. The directives are coming on the heels of the recent upturning of ROE V WADE by the American Supreme Court. ROE is the famous abortion case law that hitherto had legalized abortion in America. If the U.S is rethinking and outlawing abortion, why should Lagos State be setting pace in legalizing abortion through the back door? I like this quotation recently sent to me. “Man’s laws cannot make moral what God has declared immoral. Even if a sin is legalized, it’s still a sin in the eyes of God” (Dallin H. Oaks). The killing of an unborn baby, whether euphemistically self-styled “safe-abortion” or “post-abortion care” or “termination of pregnancy” or “interruption of pregnancy” or “women’s reproductive right” or “women’s health” is a crime punishable under our laws. We must stick to our own cultural and religious values in Nigeria. It is suicidal to import foreign practices and lifestyles which are alien to Nigeria and seek to impose them as directives simply because money has exchanged hands. The consensus reached at the various United Nations Conferences, is that the law passed in every developing county including Nigeria must reflect the diverse social, economic and environmental conditions of that country, with full respect for their religious, cultural backgrounds and philosophical convictions.

    Abortion is anthitectical to the religious, cultural and philosophical convictions of the Nigerian people and therefore cannot be imported into Nigeria. There is no Nigerian culture that endorses the killing of an unborn baby. Termination of pregnancy is murder simpliciter. The Bible condemns abortion or termination of pregnancy. In Islam, Quran 17: 31 stipulates: “slay not your children fearing a fall of poverty; we shall provide for them and for you, lo the slaying of them is greater sin”. Every country is interested in protecting what it holds dear or its cherished values. The West can continue killing their children. But we love children in Nigeria. Abortion is a complete break with the Nigerian cultural heritage.

  • Legal aspects of organ trafficking – By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    The unproven charges relating to organ and human trafficking preferred against the immediate former Deputy-Senate President Ike Ekweremadu and his wife at the Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court, United Kingdom, in my view, provide a window of opportunity to examine the legal aspects of organ trafficking and organ harvesting in Nigeria. The National Organ and Transplant Act of 1984 defines human organ as the human kidney, liver, heart, lung, pancreas, bone marrow, cornea, eye, bone and skin or any subpart thereof and any other human organ or any subpart thereof, including that derived from a fetus. I participated in the Public Hearing on the National Health Bill 2012 (NHB 2012), which substantially was a replication of the controversial 2008 National Health Bill. As requested by the Senate Committee on Health at that time, I submitted a memorandum to the Committee on how Nigeria could tackle human and organ trafficking in Nigeria. I also presented a memorandum at the National Assembly during the Public Hearing on the Bill to establish the Nigerian assisted reproduction authority which, inter alia, was to regulate the practice of assisted reproductive techniques in Nigeria. I was also invited to participate in the Public Hearing on a Bill to enact a law to regulate organ harvest and transplantation in Lagos state last year. I also submitted a similar memorandum to the Lagos State House of Assembly on ways to curtail illegal organ harvesting in Lagos State.

    Suffice it to say that in the course of researching and gathering information in order to prepare and present the aforesaid memoranda both at the National Assembly and the Lagos State House of Assembly respectively, I was able to gain some insights into the law on organ trafficking and the mode of operation of organ traffickers in Nigeria and in the world. The human trafficking statistics being reeled out days in Nigeria are simply mind-boggling. Every day uncountable number of human beings especially young girls and children are being trafficked to many unknown destinations across the world where they are either used as sex slaves or subjected to all forms of inhuman degradation. As Prof. Phillip Njemanze rightly pointed out in his essay on organ trafficking, Nigeria is the hub of illegal organ harvesting and organ transplantation in the world. Many foreign organ traffickers lay siege to Nigeria in their bid to scout for cheap organs. So Nigeria is a cheap source of human organs for transplantation for the Western countries.

    According to Prof Njemanze, “the gains of using ovarian eggs poached from Nigerian women to perfect the complicated tissue cloning procedure called somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) promises economic revenue of thirty trillion USD, one-third of the World economy…” Women, for example, are being promised money and enticed to sell their eggs. For example, Sushma Pandey, a 15-year-old Mumbai girl sold her eggs for $450. She did it three times. But 18 months later she died despite the fact that the clinic which retrieved her eggs claims to be world leader and specialist in gay surrogacy. Some female undergraduates of a certain University in Lagos sell their ovaries for a partly sum of N120,000. Illegal kidney harvesting industry booms in Lagos. The illegally-harvested kidney sells between N170,000 to N1 million. Some human organs sell for only N250, 000. For example, a harvested heart sells for N250, 000. Powerful organ harvesting syndicates in Lagos lure their customers to India for organ harvesting. (Seehttps://tribuneonlineng.com/organ-harvesting-industry-booms-in-lagos-as-probe-deepens). Under the cover of being offered a lucrative job in Europe, thousands upon thousands of young Nigerians are trafficked to Europe every year only for them to discover later, of course to their great chagrin, that they were trafficked solely for the purpose of illegally harvesting their organs. The poor youngsters are deceived into believing that lucrative jobs await them in Europe and in the process their organs are harvested. Peeved by this, the House of Representatives, Abuja was invited in 2020 to probe an alleged human organ harvesting business in Nigeria and the movement of the harvested organs abroad. During the probe, some government officials, and I believe, the Comptroller General of Customs were quizzed. The Director-General of National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) Ms. Julie Okah-Donli regrets the increasing cases of organ harvesting under the guise of ritual killings in Nigeria.

    But the real tragedy in all this which is the resume of this piece is that the extant law, Nigeria’s National Health Act 2014 (signed into by former President Goodluck Jonathan) which ought to regulate organ donation, prescribe the development and management of the country’s national health system as well as set standards for rendering health services in Nigeria, is fraught with egregious provisions endorsing illegal organ harvesting and organ poaching in Nigeria. Specifically, section 48(1) (b) of the National Health Act 2014 states that a person shall remove the tissue, blood or blood product from another living person without his informed consent “for medical investigations” and “treatment in emergency cases”. Strangely enough, Section 62, the interpretation section of the Act, did not provide the definition of the phrases “medical investigations” and “treatment in emergency cases”. The import of this omission is that anybody under the pretext of carrying out “medical investigations” or “treatment in emergency cases” could waylay any non-consenting living person and forcefully remove his or her tissue or blood or blood product. Section 48 (2)(a) of the Act states that “a person shall not remove “tissue” which is not replaceable by natural processes from a person younger than 18-years”. The implication of this is that a person can remove tissue replaceable by natural processes from persons who are 19 years and above. Section 49 is ambiguously couched and could be greatly abused. It states that a person shall use “tissue” removed or blood or a blood product withdrawn from a living person only for such medical or dental purposes as may be prescribed. Again the definitions of the word “tissue” and the phrase “medical or dental purposes” are not provided in the interpretation section of the Act.

    Perhaps the most scandalous of the Act are sections 51, 52 and 53. Section 51 authorizes the removal of a tissue or an organ of a living person for transplantation in another living person without any consent clause. The only thing it says is that the removal should be carried out “at a hospital authorized for that purpose” or with “the written authority of a medical practitioner in charge of the clinical services….”. Section 52 authorizes a registered medical practitioner or dentist to carry out the heinous crime. Section 53 authorizes the sell or trade in human tissues like female eggs cells, sperms, cornea etc. provided that payment from the sell or trade is a “reasonable payments are made in an appropriate health establishment for procurement of , tissue, blood or blood products”.

    I earlier said that I participated in the Public Hearing on the National Health Bill 2012. The Bill was sponsored by Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, and co-sponsored by Senators Chris Ngige, Bukola Saraki, Paulinus Igwe, Danladi Sankara, Christopher Omoworare, Gamawa Garba, Sahabi Ya’u and Sefiu Kaka. The Public Hearing took place at the Hearing Room of the Senate on 11th February 2013. The Public Hearing was organized by the Senate Health Committee. The Public Hearing Room of the Senate was packed full with many stakeholders which included the Health Reform Foundation of Nigeria; Medical and Health Workers Association of Nigeria; The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA); The Pharmaceutical Association of Nigeria; The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria; Project for Human Development; Happy Home Foundation; Doctors Health Initiative; Nigerian Physiotherapy Association; Association of Medical Laboratory; Nigerian Radiographers Association; Catholic Medical Association of Nigeria; Catholic Women Organization (CWO); the trado-medical Association of Nigeria et cetera. Declaring the Public Hearing open, the then Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, urged all the stakeholders present to employ their best initiatives in articulating a National Health Bill that would improve the country’s health system. On his part, the then Chairman, Senate Health Committee, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, who also presided over Public Hearing, stated that the National Health Bill 2012 was an enabling Bill aimed at regulating, developing and managing the country’s national health system and to set standards for rendering health services in Nigeria. During the Public Hearing, the stakeholders argued that trafficking in human eggs, embryos and embryonic stem cell research had become a multibillion dollar business worldwide. Therefore, under the pretext of regulating organ trafficking or harvesting in Nigeria our government should not legalize the multi-billion illegal business otherwise it would be difficult to stamp out in the future owing to our ineffective policing system, poor judicial checks and regulatory policies. All the stakeholders also agreed that Nigeria needed a Health Act that aimed at overhauling the country’s health care system in order to improve the medical facilities in our hospitals; save billions of Naira squandered in medical treatment abroad every year; avoid untimely deaths resulting from diseases and prevent high infant mortality and maternal mortality rates. It was in this spirit that the vexatious section 51 (1) (a) (b) of the Bill was amended to read thus: “No person shall:- (a) manipulate any genetic material, including genetic material of human gametes, zygotes or embryos; or (b) engage in any activity, including nuclear transfer or embryo splitting, for the purpose of the reproductive cloning of a human being”. Section 51 (2) was also amended to read: “No person shall import or export human zygotes or embryos in Nigeria”. While section 51(3) remains thus: “ Any person who contravenes a provision of this section or who fails to comply therewith is guilty of an offence and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a minimum of five years with no option of fine”

    But shockingly, after the National Health Bill was signed into law by the then President Jonathan we discovered that the aforementioned vexatious sections 48(1)(b), 48(2), 51, 52 and 53 which the stakeholders complained about and resolved that they should be amended were still retained unamended in the Act. Section 51 authorizing the removal of a tissue or an organ of a living person for transplantation in another living person without any consent clause was retained in the Act. It is my humble view that sections 48(1) (b), 48(2), 49, 51, 52 and 53 of the National Health Act which permit, inter alia, the removal of the tissue, blood or blood product from another living person without his or her informed consent for “medical investigations” and “treatment in emergency cases” and the selling of and trading in human tissues and blood products are in violation of section 33 (right to life); section 34 (right to dignity of the human person); section 37 (right to privacy) and section 38 (right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion) of the 1999 Constitution as well as Articles 2, 4, 5, 6 and 8 of the African Charter on Human & Peoples Rights (Ratification Enforcement) Act, cap 10. Granted, rights in sections 37 and 38 of the 1999 Constitution are curtailed under section 45(1) of the same Constitution to the effect that nothing in sections 37 and 38 shall invalidate any law that is reasonably justifiable in a democratic society:

    (a) in the interest of defence, public safety, public order, public morality or public health; or

    (b) for the purpose of protecting the rights and freedom of other persons

    But the removal of a tissue or an organ of a living person without his or her consent for transplantation in another living person cannot be a law that is reasonably justifiable in a democratic society as envisaged under section 45(1) of the 1999 Constitution. Therefore sections 48(1) (b), 48(2), 49, 51, 52 and 53 in the National Health Act are unconstitutional and therefore null and void. By empowering medical doctors to play God and decide when to remove organs from living persons without their consent, section 51 of the Act constitutes an infringement of the rights of citizens to life, dignity of their persons as well as the rights to privacy and freedom of thought, conscience and religion as guaranteed by Section 33, 34, 37 and 38 of the Constitution.

    Relying on the case of Denloye v Medical & Dental Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal the Nigerian Supreme Court held in the case of Medical and Dental Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal v Dr. John Emewulu Nicholas Okonkwo (2002) AHRLR 159 that failure to extract a patient’s informed consent before administering a blood transfusion on him constituted an infraction of his fundamental human rights to privacy (section 37) and right to freedom of religion and conscience (section 38). The Supreme Court held that the patient’s constitutional right to object to medical treatment or, particularly, as in this case, to his tissue, blood or blood products or his organ being taken away from his body is founded on fundamental rights protected in the 1999 Constitution under the (i) right to privacy: section 37; (ii) right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion: section 38. The Court further held that the right to privacy “implies a right to protect one’s thought, conscience or religious belief and practice from coercive and unjustified intrusion; and, one’s body from unauthorized invasion. The right to freedom of thought, conscience or religion implies a right not to be prevented, without lawful justification, from choosing the course of one’s life, fashioned on what one believes in, and a right not to be coerced into acting contrary to religious belief. The limits of these freedoms, as in all cases, are where they impinge on the rights of others or where they put the welfare of society or public health in jeopardy. The sum total of the rights of privacy and of freedom of thought, conscience or religion which an individual has, put in a nutshell, is that an individual should be left alone to choose a course for his life, unless a clear and compelling overriding state interest justifies the contrary…”. In the leading judgment of the apex court Justice Emmanuel Ayoola held inter alia: “The patient’s constitutional right to object to medical treatment or, particularly, as in this case, to blood transfusion on religious grounds is founded on fundamental rights protected by the 1979 Constitution…The right to privacy implies a right to protect one’s thought, conscience or religious belief and practice from coercive and unjustified intrusion; and, one’s body from unauthorized invasion. The right to freedom of thought, conscience or religion implies a right not to be prevented, without lawful justification, from choosing the course of one’s life, fashioned on what one believes in, and a right not to be coerced into acting contrary to religious belief. The limits of these freedoms, as in all cases, are where they impinge on the rights of others or where they put the welfare of society or public health in jeopardy.”

    Under the English Law, the consent of a living person to medical treatment or to the removal of any of his bodily parts is absolutely mandatory. In fact the person can maintain an action in tort or civil wrong for damages for trespass against his person against a medical practitioner or a hospital for removing his tissue, organ, blood or blood product or any of his bodily part without his consent. See Wells v Surrey A. H. A. E (1978). Even when consent has been obtained, it is duty of the medical practitioner, said Justice Bristow, in the case Chatterton v Gerson (1980), to explain to the person beforehand what he intends to do, and its medical implication, in the way careful and responsible doctor in similar circumstances would do. And if the medical doctor claims that he did it under a medical emergency, the onus of proving the need for an emergency is upon him, and this might be difficult to discharge.

    The argument of the backers of sections 48(1) (b), 48(2), 49, 51, 52 and 53 of the National Health Act argue that since the selling of or trading in human parts has become a thriving business in Nigeria, it is preferably to regulate it rather than ban it to ensure that only authorised persons carry it out. This argument is fundamentally flawed. First: a society doesn’t regulate a crime simply the crime is rampantly committed in that society. For example, a society cannot regulate the heinous crime of armed robbery simply because it has become rampant. Second: considering our ineffective police system, judicial checks and regulatory policies, the efforts to regulate the selling of or trading in human parts in Nigeria are efforts in futility. Third: section 21 (a) of the 1999 Constitution enjoins the State to protect, preserve and promote Nigerian culture. Fourth and more importantly, the National Assembly, by virtue of section 4(2) of the 1999 Constitution, is enjoined to make laws for the peace and good government in Nigeria, in other words, laws that conform to the social and religious realities in the country.

    Therefore to the extent to which the National Health Act is inconsistent with the 1999 Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, it is null and void and unenforceable. In Military Governor of Ondo State & Others V Adewumi (1988) 3 NWLR 280 Justice Nnaemeka-Agu (of the blessed memory) held that the Constitution is the grundnorm, the fundamental law or the organic law of the land. All laws derive their validity from the Constitution. Any law that is inconsistent with the provisions of the Constitution shall be rendered void to the extent of the inconsistency. And the Nigerian courts have the power, in exercise of their judicial powers, to declare legislation of the National Assembly that contravenes the provisions of the 1999 Constitution invalid and unconstitutional whether the contravention is substantive or procedural or whether the contravention merely interferes with any of the constitutional fundamentals including the guaranteed rights, the principles of federalism or the constitutionally recognized concept of separation of powers. (See the pronouncements of Justices Fatayi-Williams, Bello, Idigbe, Obaseki, Eso, Nnamani and Uwais in Attorney-General of Bendel State V Attorney-General of the Federation and others).

    Consequently, the country’s National Health Act is overdue for immediate amendment. As I earlier stated, the National Assembly is constitutionally empowered to enact good laws for the country; laws that conform to the philosophical realities of the Nigerian people not laws that threaten national security. To that effect, the offensive sections 48(1) (b), 48(2), 49, 51, 52 and 53 should be yanked off or amended in such a way that they do not give rise to any ambiguity or create loopholes for organ trafficking or illegal organ harvesting in Nigeria.

     

    Sonnie Ekwowusi is the Chairman, human and Constitutional Rights Committee of the African Bar Association

  • Military, lawyers and security challenges – By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    Military, lawyers and security challenges – By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    For the first time probably since the Cold War, millions of people across the world are not just uncertain about their future or concerned about their children’s future, they are deeply worried about their safety and the safety of their property. If anything, the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war has heightened this anxiety. What President Putin of Russia had on 24th February 2022 dubbed a simple “military operation” which in his view, would last for only three or four days, has continued to drag on and runs the risk of snowballing into a Third World War. One of the tragic consequences of a civilization geared for war, banditry, terrorism and so forth; a civilization failing to work to create a climate of peace; a civilization squandering its treasure on the worthless dross of gun-running and bloodletting rather than building a climate of peace is the rapid increase in insecurity of lives and property.

    Most African countries, unfortunately, are at the crossroads at the moment. Instead of peace, what we find in many African countries today is a caricature of peace or a complete turmoil. Most countries on the continent are either engulfed in one war or one terrorism or conflict or armed struggle or another. To be sure, the struggle to create a climate of peace on the African continent is crucial to the future of Africa and by extension to the global human society and its people and governments. Pursuant to a Report on the economic costs of violent extremism in Africa organized by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) in 2020 in Addis Ababa, a causality exists between the violence in the various theatres of conflict in Africa and its effect on the peoples of the continent. In their Report titled “Measuring the Economic Impact of Violent Extremism Leading to Terrorism in Africa”, the UNDP and IEOP estimate that 16 of the 18 African countries – Congo Democratic Republic, Uganda, Chad, Niger, Nigeria, Tanzania, Central African Republic, Niger, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Cameroon, Tunisia, Morocco, Mauritania and Libya – had lost an average $97 billion per year in informal economic activity since 2007. This is just informal economic activities alone and suggests other losses within the formal sector that are equally staggering.

    In Nigeria alone, a damning UNDP Report says that over 350,000 people have been killed directly and indirectly in the North East of Nigeria alone in the last 12 years. About 70% of the victims are women and children. At the moment, virtually all parts of Nigeria are either under the siege or in danger of being under of siege of terrorists’ bombings and massacres. For example, on June 5 2022 the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP), a splinter of Boko Haram, launched a premeditated terrorist attack on St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Owo local government area, Ondo State, Nigeria, leaving in its wake the death of about 50 worshippers and many injured worshippers. The problem is that in most cases, the responses of African governments to the aforesaid calamities and tragedies have been simply nonchalant or sometimes have been tepid as political considerations and intrigues are allowed to trump security initiatives. And sometimes, these responses have ended up aggravating the insecurity as gross violations of human rights by state actions indirectly help in providing violent non-state actors with new recruits.

    Peeved by the foregoing, the African Bar Association (AFBA) in collaboration with the Defence Headquarters, Federal Republic of Nigeria, organized a 3-day Conference last week at the Nigerian Air-Force Conference Centre, Kado, Abuja. Let me quickly say that the AFBA has been responsible for an enormous amount of social change in Africa, because being a lawyer is not just a way of basking in the euphoria of self-contentment or self-aggrandizement: being a lawyer is a calling to nip tyranny in its bud through the instrumentality of the law. Being a lawyer is a vocation to restore the rule of law to its enviable Olympian height. Any society bereft of the rule of law is heading for anarchy if not extinction. Why? Because recourse to the rule of law is the bedrock upon which the society lays its claim to civilization. Therefore African lawyers shall negotiate for freedom and justice, sacrifice for freedom and justice; they shall not surrender for freedom; they shall not surrender for justice-now or ever. Why? Because justice is the ultimate safeguard of civilized conduct. Fiat justicia ruat coelum (Let justice be done though the heaven may fall). Ancient philosopher Aristotle so praises justice that he says, “Neither the morning star nor the evening star are as glorious as justice”. To Cicero, “the brightness of virtues shines above all in justice”. In the immortal words of Hon. Justice Chukwudifu Oputa (of the blessed memory), “Injustice breeds intolerance, violence and social disorder in the same way justice brings along with it the blessings of peace and mutual understanding. There will be no peace in a society where justice is denied or defeated. Where there is wrong it is only natural that justice is evoked to remedy the wrong and thus restore the necessary balance”.

    Anyway, the theme of the 3-day AFBA Conference was: “Enhancing the operational capacities of African Armed Forces and Security Agencies: Law as a vital instrument”. It is important to state that the Conference was the first of its kind in Africa. The Conference was actually a training workshop that essentially focused on building operational capacities for both military and civilian lawyers, senior military officers holding command and administrative positions. military officers and personnel in charge of human rights and humanitarian issues, officers involved in military-civilian Affairs, officers involved in Military Justice System and their counterparts in the Security Agencies such as the Police, the Immigration Service, Customs Service, Drug Law Enforcement Agencies. The Conference was also organized for practicing lawyers, academics, human rights organizations, anti-corruption agencies, Judges, Magistrates and Judicial Staff and the public. The Conference speakers, resource persons and participants came from 22 countries including the United States of America, France, Bolivia, Nigeria, Brazil, Guinea-Bissau, Ghana, Burundi, Liberia, Zambia, Mozambique, Cape Verde Burkina Faso. The Chief of Defence Staff, Defence Headquarters, Federal Republic of Nigeria, General Leo Irabor, was the Conference’s Special Guest of Honour. The Chief of Naval Staff, Chief of Air Staff, Chief of Army Staff attended the Conference. The Director of Army Legal Services and chairman, Armed Forces and other Security Agencies Committee, African Bar Association, Major-General Yusuf Shalangwa played a pivotal role in ensuring that the Conference was successful. Of course, the President of the AFBA Hannibal Uwaifo Esquire and Conference Administrator Professor Edoba Bright Omoregie, SAN distinguished themselves in clearly setting out and directing the course of the Conference. Because there were many French-speaking participants at the Conference, Lt. Col Desire Hakorimana, General-Military Prosecutor, Burundi Defence Force and Vice-President and Advisor Council of African Military Law Forum did a masterful and excellent simultaneous translation from English to French throughout the duration of the Conference.

    Conference Key-Note Speaker Dr. Miguel A. Moreno SAN Juan, Defence and Security Consultant U.S.A and the General Secretary Euro-America Corporation of Security (CEAS) stressed, inter alia, that it is legitimate for military officers to refuse to obey hierarchical commands or orders issued to them in the course of their duties if such commands and orders are at variance with the rule of law. All the Conference Speakers, discussants and commentators unanimously regretted that Africa at the moment is buffeted from head to toe by terrorism, banditry, social unrest, civil conflicts and corruption. They also unanimously agreed that counter-terrorism operations must be governed by the rule of law; that amid the increasing insecurity across Africa there should be synergy between the military and civil society in order to share information and successfully respond to terrorism. There is an urgent need to build the capacity of the security agencies involved in combatting terrorism, banditry, kidnapping and so forth so as to help them to perform their duties diligently.

    We are tired of hearing about the lapses and inefficiency of the Police. Therefore the Police in Africa should be re-invented so that it can perform its duty diligently. There should be compulsory regular training and continuing education for the military, Police, lawyers and officers involved in prosecution of cases, crime detection, intelligence gathering and so forth to guard against incompetence, laziness and ignorance. Combatting terrorism, banditry etc. is not only the work of the security agencies but the collaborative efforts of both the security agencies and the civilian populace. It is the primary duty of Police, not the military, to routinely maintain peace and order in society. Policing is the job of the Police, not the military. The military only plays a complementary role in peacekeeping in society. In his presentation, Professor Omoregie SAN stated that section 217(2)(c)(d) of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution has in no unmistakable terms spelt out the circumstances and conditions under which the military can be invited to intervene in quell terrorism or combat banditry. There are: (i) for the defence of Nigeria from external aggression. (ii) for the maintenance of the territorial integrity and securing the borders of Nigeria from violation on land, sea and air, (iii) for suppressing insurrection and acting in aid of civil authorities to restore order when called upon to do so by the President; subject to such conditions as may be prescribed by an Act of the National Assembly. In other words, while the President of Nigeria can freely deploy our military to defend our country against aggression and to maintain our territorial integrity, he cannot freely do so against insurrection and other internal armed conflicts without “such conditions as may be prescribed by an Act of National Assembly.

    On his part, the President of the AFBA Hannibal Uwaifo Esquire regretted that the complex nature of conflicts aggravated by bad governance and religious extremism, sabotage from within, inadequate intelligence gathering, lack of synergy among securities agencies are the key factors for the security lapses in many African countries. Professor Steven Haines, Professor of Public International Law, University of Greenwich, stated that war and civil conflicts have a devastating effect on a nation, and, therefore it is very important to protect schools during terrorist activities and civil conflicts because schools are the key infrastructures in nation building. To Professor Ernest Kofi Abotsi who is a Professor of law as well as the Dean, UPSA Law School, Ghana, there should be no compromise in fighting insecurity in Africa. In his paper, Professor Agbo J Madaki regretted, inter alia, that lack or paucity of evidence oftentimes aborts the prosecution of suspected terrorists.

    The Conference ended on a good note as Ghana willingly accepted to host the Conference in 2023.

  • Buhari, APC and freedom for the abductees – By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    Buhari, APC and freedom for the abductees – By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    It is obvious that securing the freedom of the abductees of the Abuja-Kaduna bombed-train is not the priority of the APC ruling party. Neither is it a priority of President Buhari nor former Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi nor the APC Presidential aspirants. The only priority of President Buhari, the APC ruling party and APC Presidential aspirants at the moment is to re-capture political power in 2023.

    They have no human feeling for these abductees. I hate to address them as abductees. They are not unknown abductees: they our fathers, mothers, sons, daughters and, above all, our brothers and sisters who were victims of the Abuja-Kaduna-train bombing and abduction on March 28 2022 and who have been abandoned to be sorrowing and agonizing in the dungeon of their abductors. The Buhari government does not care a hoot about these suffering brothers and sisters of ours.

    Had the Abuja-Kaduna train bombing and abduction occurred, say, anywhere in the western world or even Asia or other parts of the world, the CNN, BBC and the world media including the Nigerian media by now would have been bombarding us with the minute-by-minute analyses about the fate that had befallen the abductees and the efforts being made to secure their freedom. But this is Buhari’s Nigeria where life has become so cheap. This is Buhari’s government where the death and suffering of our fellow Nigerians do not matter to the government.

    With my head collapsing on the table in great dismay and sorrow, I am just looking at the gory photos of the dismembered bodies of the innocent church worshippers who were killed by terrorists at St. Francis Catholic in Owo, Ondo State last Sunday. These worshippers simply went to church to worship God last Sunday only to be felled by the terrorists’ bullets. Just last week in the Lugbe area of Abuja a member of the Vigilante Group was stoned to death and set ablaze by Muslim extremists for allegedly insulting Prophet Mohammed or an Imam. This is Buhari’s Nigeria for you. No progress. We are still awaiting justice for Deborah Samuel who suffered the same tragic fate recently and now they have murdered another person for the same religious reason. Till date, the where-about of the conscience of the nation Leah Sharibu, the little girl who refused to succumb to their force to reject Christianity and embrace Islam, is still unknown. Is Leah Sharibu alive or dead? We don’t know. Contrary to Lai Mohammed’s claims, Leah Sharibu is nowhere to be seen today and the Buhari government will soon quit power.

    The pertinent question: why can’t this Buhari government offer the citizens of Nigeria at least a minimum protection of their lives and property? What an irresponsible government !. I believe it is now crystal clear that the APC ruling party has failed on all fronts-politically, economically, socially, culturally, intellectually and morally, security of lives and property-in the last seven years and consequently must not be re-elected in 2023. The national grid has collapsed again. The whole country including Abuja is submerged in total darkness. This APC government is a complete disaster. It has no heart. It has no soul. It lacks human feeling. It lacks imagination. In the early hours of 31st October 2020, six American forces conducted a successful hostage rescue operation in order to rescue of Philip Walton, 27, an American citizen who was abducted in Niger Republic and held hostage in Northern Nigeria. No American soldier was injured during the operation to rescue Philip despite the fact that the soldiers were unfamiliar with the Nigerian terrain. Now, you judge for yourself. Only one American was abducted and the American government did everything possible to send American soldiers to Nigeria to rescue him. At the moment scores of Nigerians are languishing in the dungeon of the bandits and the Buhari government lacks the imagination of what to do to rescue them.

    If the government lacks the military know-how and intelligence to rescue our abducted brothers and sisters, why can’t it humbly enlist the services of the American forces who rescued Phillip to come to Nigeria and rescue these brothers and sisters of ours who are being tormented in the bandits’ dungeon? Or, why can’t the Buhari government use the technology at its disposal to rescue them? If the kingpin murderer of the Anambra lawmaker Okechukwu Okoye was recently arrested with the aid of a phone technology, why can’t the Buhari government use the same technology to track down the bandits holding our brothers and sisters in their dungeon? If each of the APC Presidential aspirants could raise N100 million on the spur of the moment to purchase ordinary APC Presidential form, why can’t each of them, out of love for God and man, donate at least N50 million towards erecting a framework of human solidarity for the freedom of our abducted brothers and sisters?

    In the last video footage shown to the public by the bandits, we saw some of our suffering brothers and sisters crying to high heavens and begging the Buhari government to come to their assistance before they die in the dungeon of their adductors. With tears flowing down her cheeks, one of lady abductees, who was a classmate of Presidential aspirant Vice-President Yemi Osibanjo in the 1978/79 Nigerian Law School set, pleaded with Osibanjo to act quickly and save her life before she is killed by the abductors. Another weeping lady abductee complained that she left at home her sicklier son whom she was looking after and was unsure whether he had died or was still alive. Earlier, a pregnant lady abductee was delivered of a baby in the bandits’ dungeon. Can you imagine your pregnant wife being abducted and delivered of your baby in the abductors’ dungeon?

    Nothing could be so moving or more inspiring than these agonizing tales of our brothers and sisters in the dungeon. Only a person with a heart of stone will be unmoved by the plight of our brothers and sisters in the dungeon. The Buhari government should be reminded that the perception of our common humanity dictates that it erects a framework of human solidarity to hearken to the assistance of these our agonizing brothers and sisters. The Buhari government cannot live in its cocoons unmindful of the plight of these brothers and sisters of ours. As many people in the world have been repeating, humanitarianism is a path we must not depart from in our efforts to win the human race. Why? Because humanitarianism goes beyond the confines of existing humanitarian law. Humanitarianism has become an attitude for the individuals and a framework for governments and policy makers. Humanitarianism connects ethics and religious creed to action. Therefore amid man’s inhumanity to man; amid the world of shrinking spaces; amid the of competitive market and high profiteering, amid the world of wars and rumours of wars; we must not forget that our first responsibility to our children and our fellow human beings in this passing world is not to foreclose the options available for them to live a dignified human life and thus fulfill the destiny for which God has created each one o agonizing tales of our brothers and sisters in the dungeon of them.

    I must quickly remind us that the APC ruling party and President Buhari have destroyed this country almost beyond repair. Uncountable Nigerians have died owing to frustration due to the economic hardship in the land. The private businesses of many people have collapsed beyond resuscitation. Many sick Nigerians in the hospital have lost all hope of recovering from their illnesses. The country is in darkness at the moment. No electricity supply. No jobs. The Naira currency has been under a free fall under “President” Godwin Emefiele. The Buhari government which came to power under the mantra of fighting corruption is now corruption personified. We have now seen how the former Accountant-General of the Federation and others in this Buhari government have been freely carting away billions and trillions of the Naira currency and putting them into their private purses. Kidnappers, bandits, Fulani herdsmen, unknown gunmen, terrorists are lurking at every street corner to kidnap you and I. So, the Nigerian electorate must do everything possible to vote out the APC in 2023. Ditto for the PDP. Both the APC and PDP must be sent packing in 2023. And if INEC tries an absurd move by way of rigging the 2023 election in favour of the APC or the PDP, the people shall deal with INEC. The #EndSARS protest will be negligible compared to the magnitude of terrible things that would be visited on INEC if it dares rigs the forth-coming 2023 election in favour of any political party or any Presidential aspirant. Happily, uncountable Nigerian young are re-grouping across the country to ensure that most of the Nigerian youths not only retrieve their respective PVCs but cast their votes in 2023. Labour is toeing the same line of action.

    We must understand that the sovereignty in our constitutional democracy resides with the people not with the APC or the PDP. Nigeria is our collective commonwealth. Therefore no Presidential aspirant has the right to conceive Nigeria as his personal fiefdom. No Presidential aspirant has the right to treat Nigerians as his personal chattels. Therefore when President Buhari continues to say that he should be given a chance to select the person who would succeed him as President, he is insulting our collective intelligence. He is not our king and we are not his subjects either. We gave him the mandate to represent us in government. So he is our servant who should be accountable to us. Not to talk of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu who goes about boasting that it is his turn to continue to enslave us. We reject it. God forbid bad thing. No more slavery. We want our freedom back. Come 2023 we shall retrieve our country from evil. Nigeria shall be free in 2023.

  • Justice for the street fighter – By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    Justice for the street fighter – By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    Last week the Federal High Court, Abuja, per Justice Inyang Ekwo, ordered the Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) Danladi Umar to appear before the Senate in a probe on the petition that he was caught fighting in public. Justice Ekwo issued the aforesaid order while delivering judgment in a suit filed by Umar challenging the powers of the Senate to investigate him for fighting a security guard in public.

    In his suit against the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions and the Attorney-General of the Federation, the CCT chair had prayed the court that pursuant to sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria lacks the jurisdiction to investigate him. But while delivering his judgment last week, Justice Ekwo stated that Umar had no cogent reason to stop the Senate from carrying out its constitutional functions. The judge further said that Section 2 of the Code of Conduct Bureau Act exposed Umar to an investigation by the National Assembly. The judge held that as a public officer administering a law relating to the conduct of public officers, Umar’s disgraceful conduct should be investigated by the Senate. The Judge also said that Umar had no reason to institute the suit to stop the Senate from probing a public petition seeking justice. Holding that Umar is not above the law of the land, the Judge further stated: “As such, it will be illogical for him (Umar) to seek to stop the Senate probe as doing so will give an impression that he is above the law”.

    It is surprising that Umar was shamelessly praying to the court to stop the Senate from investigating him. You will recall that on March 29 2021, the CCT Chair Umar threw decency, dignity and decorum overboard and engaged a security guard in an open street brawl in broad daylight at the Banex Plaza, Wuse Abuja, to the astonishment of the bemused onlookers who could be heard admonishing Umar, *“Go away, go away, Oga go inside your car, respect yourself. You are not the most powerful person here, they will beat you here”*. The video which captured the fight made the rounds at that time. During the affray, Umar gave the security guard an upper cut which landed in his face and consequently sending the poor man landing and sprawling on the ground. Seeing the man sprawling on the ground, a visibly-angry Umar was not done with him yet. Just as the man was regaining his composure and was about getting up from the ground, Umar, the street fighter, further sprang to his feet in the fashion of a native wrestler, swiftly ran to his car, brought out a lethal weapon and stretched his hand to use it to smash the head of the security guard but thanks to Umar’s two police escorts, driver and some good Samaritans who swiftly used their hands to block Umar from committing what would have been a murder or a homicide. At the end of the fight the security guard was rushed to the hospital for treatment. I don’t know whether Umar was also rushed to the hospital for treatment.

    Following the unequivocal condemnation of Umar’s disgraceful conduct at that time by the general public, all have been expecting the National Judicial Council (NJC) to wield the big stick and fire Umar or at least suspend him from office pending the allegation against him. But unfortunately that hasn’t happened. Meanwhile Umar, in his arrogance, has not deemed it fit to apologize for his scandalous conduct. Instead of apologizing to the Bar, the Bench and the public for his disgraceful behaviour, Umar proceeded to institute a suit at the Federal High Court to pervert the course of justice. It is obvious that Umar believes that he is above the law of the land. He sees himself as an untouchable lawless leviathan. He is god. He is superior to everybody. He can do whatever he likes. For example, during the trial of former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Walter Onnoghen, Umar announced in open court that he would not grant an ex-parte order. Strangely enough, the same Umar secretly went behind Onnoghen’s lawyers and concocted a black-market ex-parte order which President Buhari relied on in illegally removing Onnoghen as the CJN. Umar actually threatened journalists covering judicial proceedings in his court at that time that he would imprison them and they would remain in incarceration until he (Umar) retires from service after about 28 years. An ethnic profiler, Umar threatened to deal with those whom he contemptuously labels “Biafra boys”. Shocked by the ethnic profiling, a visibly-angry co-convener of Bring Back Our Girls movement Aisha Yesufu released a video in April 2021 demanding for the immediate dismissal of Umar as CCT Chair.

    I cannot agree less. By fighting in public, Umar has brought the Bar and Bench into public ridicule, public odium and opprobrium. Consequently Umar should have been removed as Chair of the CCT. It is characters such as Danladi Umar that gives the judiciary a bad name. There have been insinuations on social media to the effect that Umar must have been provoked by the security guard or that the security guard was the first aggressor and assaulter of Umar. No matter the high level provocation or aggression, a Chairman of the CCT cannot descend to the low level of fighting in public contrary to the Code of Conduct of Judicial officers and the Judicial Oath which he swore to uphold and in fact made other judges to uphold as well. As a lawyer, Umar should have known that aggrieved persons are enjoined by the Constitution to seek remedy in a law court. Therefore if Umar had felt that the security man had wronged him he could have set the law in motion against him instead of resorting to violence. Resort to violence is a recipe for anarchy. The rule of law in contrast to the rule of force ought to reign always.

    The legal profession is a conservative profession that extols decency, public decorum, social comportment as the hallmark of excellence and success in the profession. By their special vocation as unbiased empire in the dispensation of justice, judges ought to be the most disciplined officers in the temple of justice. Like Caesar’s wife, judges should not only live and behave above board but manifestly be seen to live and behave above board. Judges are honoured and revered because of their impeccable character. This is why judges could refrain from joining issues with their critics in the media and public space. This is why judges religiously season their public utterances in public places with the ingredient of mortification. For example, Master of Rolls, Rt. Hon. A. T Denning was distinguished by both his exceptional lucidity of thought and his character. If Umar can fight in the street, what is the difference between him and the motor touts and political thugs who are always fighting in public?. If Umar can descend from his Olympian height to the low level of fighting in public, what advice will he be giving to his children and probably grandchildren? Or, what impressions will Umar’s children or grand-children have watching their father or grandfather fighting in public?

    The late eminent Justice Akinola Aguda tirelessly advocated that only worthy persons should be appointed to the Bench. Aguda believed that a single error in appointing unworthy persons to the Bench could ruin the whole administration of justice. Justice Aguda was right. In most countries, only the best and the brightest are appointed judges. Not so in Nigeria. In Nigeria the most important factor that plays out in the appointment of judges is Prof. Joseph Richard’s prebendalism. This was why a Supreme Court nominee was nevertheless appointed as a Supreme Court justice despite the fact that the man did not know the meaning of the notion “technicality in law” during the Senate screening/clearing exercise.

    I agree with Aguda that only men of character should be appointed to the Bench. For descending to the low level of fighting in the street, Danladi Umar is unworthy to be the Chairman of the CCT. If Umar is the Chairman of the CCT investigating the conduct of public officers it stands to reason that he should be fired when his conduct gives us reason to believe that he is unworthy to be the Chair of the CCT. On March 15 2010 Hon. Justice Idris Habib Shall of the Bauchi State High Court was suspended by the National Judicial Council (NJC) for fighting in public. So, why hasn’t the NJC fired Umar or at least suspended him pending the investigation of the serious allegation against him? The function of the judiciary as a dispenser of justice or as sustainer of good governance is endangered when a Chair of the CCT who ought to conduct himself responsibly in public throws decency overboard to engage in an open street brawl.

  • Who is sexualizing our children? – By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    Who is sexualizing our children? – By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    The sex scandal involving a 10-year old girl and a boy, both students of Chrisland Schools, Victoria Garden, Lekki, Lagos during the recently-concluded World School Games in Dubai, has once again brought to the fore the vexed issue of sexualization of Nigerian pre-teens, teens, teenagers and young school pupils especially pupils in primary and secondary schools. The striking lamentable aspect of the Chrisland Schools sex scandal is that while the 10-year old girl and the boy were busy engaging in immoral sex, the onlookers who happened to be their school mates where busy videoing the sexual perversity and posting it on social media. You see, we now live in an age in which public shame and sense of guilt have completely evaporated from the being of so many people including pre-teens and teens.

    It is important to note however that sexual perversity is not the exclusive preserve of Chrisland Schools: it also occurs in other secondary schools in Nigeria. Other Nigerian secondary school students are also implicated in sexual perversity. So, no need making Chrisland schools an escape goat. You will recall that in 2017 some senior students of Ireti Grammar School, Falomo, South-West Ikoyi, Lagos, who had finished their exams decided that the best to celebrate it was to gang rape the girls from a nearby school called Falomo Senior High School, Ikoyi, Lagos. One of the eye-witnesses stated that after chasing the girls and successfully catching up with them, the Ireti Grammar School boys forcefully used scissors to rip off the girls’ skirts before commencing their gang-rape. What further shocked the eye-witness was that as the different gang-rapes were simultaneously going on in broad day light of course, the passers-by and onlookers who had gathered and besieged the rapists and their girl-victims did not deem it fit to rescue the girl-victims from the rapists. Instead they were busy laughing and applauding the rapists and videoing the rape incident.

    In the past, the friendly relationship between boyfriends and girlfriends could attain maturity with the exchange of love letters. A boyfriend or a girlfriend engaging in sexual promiscuity hid away from their parents, the public and the law. Today things have fallen apart. All the sexual mores’ boundaries have been obliterated to the extent that sexual promiscuity is now glamourized even in front of the camera as the animals in the TV Reality Show called BBNaija do. In today’s Nigeria, adults including governments and parents bombard Nigerian pre-teens, teenagers and young adults with “safe-sex” or “condom-safe-sex” adverts with the tragically misguided belief that sexual promiscuity make them good and that the resultant pregnancy could be aborted. The ample evidence of sexualization of our children could be gathered on TV, in music videos, in movies, on mobile phones and on the internet. At every turn — TV, music, movies, mobile phones, internet, public education — young people are encouraged to indulge in sexual perversity, in all of its barbaric forms, with no fear of pregnancy because if a pregnancy does occur, abortion is sold as a safe, easy and painless way to rid them of the unwanted “product of conception.” You see, every one gets morality right when it concerns stealing of government money, the official corruption reigning supreme in Buhari government, fighting insecurity by arresting and prosecution of terrorists, bandits and kidnappers and so forth, but when it comes to sexual matters or watching of BBNaija porn where our human flesh is weak, we tend to remove our moral thinking cap and replace it with our immoral thinking cap in order to give free rein to the demands of our sinful bodies. Lest I forget, the lawsuit instituted by some NGOs against the Federal government, National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Multi-Choice and others in order to stop the airing of BBNaija porn came up for hearing at the Federal High Court, Lagos recently. What was astonishing during the hearing, with due respect, was the inability of the counsel representing the Federal government and Multi-Choice to properly articulate and argue their respective defences to the suit. At a time in the course of the hearing, the presiding judge turned and addressed the counsel to Multi-Choice, “Are you not a lawyer. So, you don’t know how to adopt your brief of argument”.

    It is not surprising that some of us try to rationalize BBNaija porn and sexualization of our children. Man is weak. Sex sells. Since the Fall, man has been inclined to sexual promiscuity. Besides, we live in a perverse world that lays claim to the soul of our children. We live in a sexual State. The State which ought to be the guardian of the morals of children now sexualizes our children. Why? Because the State argues that pre-marital sex or casual sex makes children feel good and consequently any parent or anybody depriving children of casual sex is infringing on their “right” to have casual sex. In order to facilitate the quick sexualisation of our children and school pupils, the State has introduced into the school curricula textbooks and Literature in English books containing lewd subject-matters to give the unsuspecting young school pupils the wrong impression that self-control is unnecessary, repressive and an impossibility; that casual sex makes them feel good; that they should engage in casual sex before marriage; that ‘safe sex’ is what to aim for in life provided that they don’t get pregnant. And if they do get pregnant they should procure abortion as soon as possible.

    Acting on a tip off two years ago, the Police raided the Marie Stopes abortion Clinic situate at 105 Itire Road, Lawanson, Surulere, Lagos for aborting under-aged Nigerian girls (aged between 13-18) and injecting them with dangerous abortificients without the consent of their parents. During the raid, the police arrested and handcuffed Dr. Bernard who was the medical doctor on duty at the material time. The police also arrested and quizzed one Miss Jadesola who was on duty as well. The police recovered some injections and medical equipment used in aborting girls which included Manual Vacuum Aspirator. Unfortunately today, Marie Stopes has bribed its way and has reopened to continue to abort Nigerian under-aged girls.

    The United Nations Population Funds (UNFPA) needs no introduction in Nigeria. For decades, the UNFPA has been sexualizing Nigeria girls and women. Specifically, in 2014, the UNFPA organized what it dubbed the third Family Planning Pre-Conference which was held at the Reiz Continental Hotel, Abuja. At that Conference, the UNFPA launched a condom-safe-sex campaign entitled, “No Hoodie No Honey”. This campaign was widely reported in the Nigerian media. The campaign was also posted on Twitter, Facebook and on other social media. The campaign was targeted at young Nigerian girls in the age bracket of 14-18. The campaign was aimed at supplying condoms and contraceptives to these young Nigerian girls and convincing them that “safe-sex” is their right and therefore they shouldn’t be ashamed to practice “safe sex” even if the different Nigerian cultures and religions teach otherwise. For example, one of the inscriptions on the No Hoodie No Honey roll-up stand posted on Twitter read: “Lets push for easy access to the female condom and that a woman may buy condoms without being shamed” First: the campaign was tainted by fraud and deception. While scientific evidence consistently shows that the condoms, which contain naturally-occurring holes, do not protect its user against infections and against HIV and rarely protect against unwanted pregnancy, the UNFPA fraudulently masquerades about the cities of Nigeria and giving the Nigerian youths the false hope that condoms protect from any misdeed. This is very irresponsible of the UNFPA. At the same time, the Pfizer Pharmaceutical Inc., Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) rolled out in Nigeria and other African countries one-dollar injectable contraceptives called Sayana press injectable. Sayana press is self-injectable abortifacient. They give it to Nigerian school girls so that they can inject themselves with it and indulge in “safe-sex” anyway they like without getting pregnant.

    .About 16 years ago, an NGO called the Concerned Mothers Association, Lagos, took the Lagos State government to the Federal High Court, Lagos over the sexualization of the Integrated Science curriculum to include the techniques of kissing, masturbation, breast enlargement, abortion etc. I was one of the lawyers who appeared for the Concerned Mothers in that suit. The lead counsel in the suit was Mrs. Sylvia Sinaba SAN (of blessed memory). I remember that when the suit came up for hearing before the judge who happened to be a female, she was completely stunned by the sexualization pleaded on the writ and Statement of Claim. In her shock, she first took up the writ, held it up momentarily in her right hand and queried, “What is this?”. Silence enveloped the courtroom. Anyway, to cut the long judicial story short, the matter was amicably resolved out of court. In the spirit of amicable settlement, the Lagos State government at that time yanked off the offensive portion of the Integrated Science curriculum although I suspect that by now it has been brought back into the curriculum.

    Between March 27 to 29 2017, I attended a Conference which took place at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Victoria Island, Lagos,. One of the Speakers at that Conference was Ahmed Akanbi, a Muslim parent and a Lagos-based legal practitioner. Midway in his presentation, Ahmed did something which shocked most of the Conference attendees. He carefully dipped his hands into his handbag and brought out two English literature books containing some lewd subject-matters and showed them to the audience. He told us that the two books were recommended books for primary six pupils in the primary school attended by his daughter. The title of the first book authored by Oyekunle Oyedeji is: Tears of a bride, while the second book written by Queen O. Okweshine bears the title: Precious Child. According to Ahmed, his 9-year old daughter in Primary 6 came back home from school one day and engaged him in a conversation that bothered on some sex experiences. At first, Ahmed was utterly stunned that his 9 year old daughter was conversant with sex matters. But after he had regained his composure he asked his daughter where she learned about those sex experiences. It was then that his daughter opened her mouth and narrated to him how their school teacher has been using the aforesaid two books to teach them how to practice “safe sex” and how to gain sexual pleasure. Ahmed read to the hearing of the participants some sexy portions of the two books. The participants rose to their feet in utter shock.

    The most tragic is the introduction of the so-called Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) otherwise called sex education or Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Right or Family Life Education or teen-sex education in Nigerian schools without the consent of parents and stakeholders in education. As I scribble this, I have in front of me the CSE syllabus being used in teaching our secondary school students the techniques of masturbation, dating, putting on the condoms, sexual communications and negotiations, how to do abortion in secret, how to practice “safe-sex” in secret without getting pregnant by using contraceptives such as IUCD injectables, vaginal foams and jellies, diaphragm, hormonal implants, oral contraceptive pills, touching and examination of male and female reproductive organs, naked body images, erection, ejaculation, kissing, caressing, sterilization procedure for male by making of incision in the scrotum and by cutting and tying the vas deferens; sterilization procedure for female by cutting and tying the Fallopian tube, infertility and other immoral topics. The NGO back rolling this immoral CSE curriculum in Nigeria is called Action Health Incorporated (AHI), situate in Yaba, Lagos. The immoral CSE is being sponsored in Nigeria by a well-known international pro-abortion organization called John D. and Catherine T. MarArthur Foundation of Chicago, U.S.A. The CSE curriculum is copied verbatim from the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS)

    Under the so-called CSE, school pupils in open classrooms are required to touch each other’s genital saying: “I like you”. The pupils are also expected to touch each other’s private parts and find out the differences in their respective private parts. As I write this, I have in front of me the youth peer sexuality education Training Guide/Toolkit, funded by the United Nations Population Funds (UNFPA) in collaboration with other United Nations agencies. This Guide contains suggested lessons for youth to teach their peers about sexuality. (Please, visit this site to see for yourself: http://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/jahia). I gather that the Guide is already being used in some Nigerian secondary schools. On page 59 of the Guide, students are required to give to their peers a list of sexual terms, including words like “vagina,” “breasts,” “orgasm,” “pleasure,” and “masturbation.” On page 61, the youth facilitators are told to share with other youths with whom they feel more comfortable things like “Your sexual fantasies (fantasies), “Your feelings about oral sex (oral)”, “Whether you enjoy erotic material (X), “Whether you have fantasized about a homosexual relationship (gay-fan),” “Whether you have had a homosexual relationship (gay-exp)”. On page 75 there is a condom relay race activity involving boys and girls. It instructs the peer leader to “Ask two volunteers (participants or co-facilitators) to hold the two penis models” and then to invite two teams to race to put the condoms on the models. Let me add another fact that may shock you. A couple of years ago, some secondary teachers where hired and paid N20,000 each to be demonstrating in open classroom to secondary school boys and girls, with the aid of rubber penis and rubber vagina, the different technique of wearing the condoms before/during sexual intercourse. One of these teachers was traced to Government College, Eric More, Surulere, Lagos.

    A couple of years ago, a Lagos-based NGO took the Federal government, Federal Ministry of Education and others to the Federal High Court, Lagos. I was the counsel for the NGO in the suit. Why did the NGO go to court? Because the following textbooks: New School Chemistry for Senior Secondary Schools By: Osei Yaw Ababio; Revised by: L. E.S Akpanisi Herbert Igwe ; Modern Biology for Senior Secondary School By: Sarojini T. Ramalingam, revised by Lucy I Akunwa and J.BC Obidiwe and the New School Physics for Senior Secondary By: M. W Anyakoha PhD, used in many secondary schools in Nigeria were smeared with the following watermark inscriptions: “I know that My Mother is a harlot and that my Father is a Kidnapper”,“I am a son/daughter of a Harlot and kidnapper”, “I confess that my Family is bad, Evil, and a Disgrace to the Nation”, “My Parents Taught me how to love and smoke Indian Hemp, to kill and practice illegal things”. At first, I could not understand why the publishers of the aforesaid textbooks smeared the pages of the books with the aforesaid watermark inscriptions. But after we had invited the publishers of the books to our law firm and interrogated them on their mission, it dawned on me that the water mark inscriptions were part of the efforts to sexualize school pupils as well as portray the family institution as something bad.

    As we speak, the Honorable Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire (Oredo Local Council, Edo State) and the Federal Ministry of Health, in conspiracy with the World Health Organization (WHO), are distributing (free of charge, of course) dangerous abortificients, substances and sex pills such as long-acting irreversible contraceptives (LACs), long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs) contraceptives such as Depo-Provera, (DMPA), Sayana Press, Norplant, Norethisterone Enanthate, IUCD, postinor 2, Lo-femenal, Norplant, suction tubes, Vasectomy (male sterilization), tubal ligation (female sterilization), among others, to the Nigerian public and Nigerian children. You will recall that in August 2012 Federal government spent a whopping sum of $11.3 million to purchase condoms for ‘safe-sex among Nigerian children. In April 2011, the then Health Minister Prof. Chukwu flagged off an aggressive free distribution of contraceptives (including hormone and injectable contraceptives) in all public health centres and institutions in Nigeria. In 2017, the Federal Government spent another gargantum sum of N915m on procurement of contraceptive commodities for ‘safe-sex’. In July 2017 the then Health Minister Professor Isaac Adewole announced that in collaboration with its partners and the private sector, Nigeria would be spending additional $4.3 million for procurement of contraceptives in order to achieve a modern contraceptive distribution rate of 27% among all girls and all women in Nigeria by 2020. He also said that Nigeria was committed to increasing its annual allocation for contraceptives to $4 million in each of the States. At the behest of Prof Adewole, the Federal government announced in January 2018 that it was released $1m for free distribution of contraceptives for the enhancement of quality of ‘safe-sex’ among Nigeria adults and teenagers.

    It beats the imagination that in a country like Nigeria where malnutrition and kwashiorkor are taking their highest toll on the citizenry; a country in which medical statistics reveals that 2,300 under-five children and 145 pregnant women are dying day owing to lack of access to basic primary health, the Federal Ministry of Health, which was established to develop health policies and programs that will, inter alia, strengthen the country’s health system and our successive Ministers of Health , have chosen the path of infamy by conspiring with foreign organizations be supplying to the Nigerian populace the aforesaid dangerous drugs which are harmful to them.

    More importantly, the Nigerian crisis is also a crisis of improper parenting. Sexualization of our children is self-inflicted. It is the outcome of irresponsible parenting. We now live in the so-called post-truth age or so-called global human rights age that permits all sorts of choices. Juvenile delinquency is no longer the only known vice holding us captive today: adult delinquency equally wrecks our society. The causes of most societal vices are traceable to poor parenting and dysfunctional families. Most young parents are not good role models for their children. Many modern women, for instance, now argue (although irrationally and illogically) that they are the owners of their bodies and therefore nobody should dictate to them how they should use their bodies or dress their bodies. Some married women, with the greatest respect, dress like street prostitutes. Nowadays it is not difficult to see married women in their 60s or 70s, who ordinarily should have been an exemplary grandmother, gallivanting around town in their respective revealing mini-skirts. Not to talk of married men who go about bare-chested and in ordinary pant that exposes their protruding beer stomachs. Where are those dignity, respectability and candour that are synonymous with proper parenting? What has happened to the age-old wisdom of parents admired in those days when men were men and women were won by those who deserved them? Where are those cherished family tradition and family values which bring honour and respect to the family? We have lost everything. And that is why some children can have the effrontery to summon their parents to a meeting to scold them, sorry, to advise them on why they should be good role models for their children and for society.

    So, we must begin to parent the parents. Parenting is an art. Only parents who have learned the art of parenting can become successful parents. It is not enough to bring children into the world. Even animals bring their offspring into the world too. If most young parents do not have proper parental upbringing they cannot properly parent their own children to be responsible citizens. How do lawyers say it again in Latin? Nemo dat quod non habet (Nobody can give what he or she doesn’t have). By analogy, irresponsible parents cannot bring up responsible children. Once upon a time someone I know attended the graduating ceremony of a certain co-educational school. The obscenity he saw at the school almost killed him. Amid the obscene music, some girls of the school bent down and opened their buttocks for some boys of the school to be violently sexing them or fucking them from behind (sorry for the language) to the cheering of their visiting mothers. Time was 3.30 pm. Traumatized by what was going on, he quickly left the school and went home. In the past, the family provided the bridge that allowed the youngsters to graduate from childhood to adulthood with a certain sense of security. In the past, motherhood was revered. Decency and modesty were synonymous with motherhood. Unfortunately today, many youngsters cannot rely on the formation they are getting from their parents because their parents were not properly brought up. Our values are warped. In some homes, the parents shamelessly watch internet pornography with their children. Therefore to reinvigorate the family, parents, especially young parents, should be parented to enable them to parent their own children to be responsible citizens.

    Solution: I have carefully studied the various Nigerian laws and international laws and there is nothing therein guaranteeing sexualization of children or teen sexual right or condom teen “safe-sex”. Instead the various sexual perversities and sexual assaults are punishable under the Nigerian law with or without the option of a fine. Therefore the Federal government should stop implementing the adolescent sexual reproductive which sexualizes Nigerian children. Hon. Minister of Health Ehanire and the Federal Ministry of Health should be stopped forthwith from promoting sexual promiscuity among Nigerian children by distributing to them (free of charge, of course) dangerous abortificients, substance and contraceptives. The family institution, unarguably, is indeed the fundamental unit of society. Therefore destruction of the family may lead to economic failure. Therefore the family institution should be reinvigorated. As I earlier said, we must begin to parent the parents. How? By organizing family orientation courses for parents to enable them to become capable of parenting their own children to be responsible citizens. Another way is by organizing marriage courses for would-be parents and for young people who are about to get married. Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) otherwise called sex education or Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Right or Family Life Education or teen-sex education should be banned in Nigerian schools. Any school teacher caught luring school kids into sexual immorality should be arrested and prosecuted. The Federal Ministry of Health should be revamped. Staffers of the Federal conspiring with the WHO to sexualize our children should be fired. Sex-related textbooks such as Tears of a bride, Precious Child should be banned for use in our schools. The UNFPA should be expelled from Nigeria. Ditto for Marie Stopes UK abortion international. Moral instruction should be a compulsory subject in our secondary schools.

    Our future is built on the triumph of the potential of our children. Therefore if those potentials are ruined in sexual immorality our future is invariably ruined. To destroy the character of school children is an unpardonable crime. School children constitute the real treasure of Nigeria. And the greatest crime anybody can commit is to destroy the treasure of the country.

  • Death on a Friday – By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    Death on a Friday – By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    This week is marked in Christendom as the Holy Week. The Holy Week reaches its apogee on Good Friday when Jesus Christ is crucified to death on the Cross, and was buried but on the third day he rose from death. Through his death and resurrection, Jesus Christ has wrought salvation for the whole mankind. Though he was in the form of God, Jesus did not regard his equality with God as something to be grasped. Rather he emptied himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a Cross, and was buried, but rose from death on the third day. If Jesus Christ has not risen from death, writes St. Paul, our Christian faith would have been in vain. By dying on the Cross, Jesus conquered death, but by rising from the death he restored our life. Thus the Cross is the emblem of Christianity. Ecce lignum Crucis (Behold the wood of the Cross). Behold the wood of Cross on which hangs the salvation of the world. The tree upon which life was taken became the tree upon which life was restored.

    By his death and resurrection, Jesus Christ has taught us to render selfless services to our neighbors and others including those who cannot directly repay us in this life for those selfless services. Therefore let us turn a new leaf. Let us hearken to the assistance of our neigbours and others. The greatest obstacles to the promotion of the common values of justice, equity, fairness, love and mutual reliance are ethno-religious hatred, suspicion, official corruption, unbridled individualism, greed and passivity. Therefore the struggle against these miseries is crucial to the future of our country Nigeria. Certainly, a system that creates loopholes for many public office holders to loot the public treasury certainly calls for a change. Also a system that keeps widening the gap between the rich and the poor is considered loathsome. Worst still, a government that folds its hands and allows anarchy to reign supreme in the land is an irresponsible government. It is sad that kidnappers, bandits, miscreants, arsonists, separatists and the so-called unknown gun have virtually overran different parts of the country at the moment including the different Nigerian villages, clans, communities and kindred. In fact most Nigerians are no longer visiting their respective villages because they are afraid of being killed by unknown gun men and criminals who are presently occupying their respective villages, clans and communities. When Nigerians especially those from the South-East refuse to flee to their respective villages for safety and succor it means that things have completely gone bad in Nigeria. Therefore the citizens must erect a new framework of human solidarity that would guarantee the safety of lives and property in Nigeria.

    It is imprudent to rely only on the government to rebuild the social order since oftentimes the government is not so responsible. The civil society or private-public partnership should be engaged to carry out some public tasks that are beneficial to the people. Government should stop pretending that it has the competence to do many things. It should be humble enough to admit its failure. It should seek help from civil society. Civil society dominates modern political thought and the political space under different names and varying acronyms-Village Assemblies, Town Unions, Neigbourhood Associations, Non-governmental organizations (NGOs), Not-for-profit Organization (NPO), Charities, Company limited by guarantee, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), Social structures, socio-cultural organizations and Mediating structures (as they are called in the U.S). Today the civil society, if you like, has crystalized and reached its highest crescendo in strengthening the social fabric and erecting the necessary formidable blocks for alleviating human suffering.

    We must recognize that each one of us is no more human being or less human being than other human beings. Our common humanity dictates that we team up with others in finding solutions to the problems of the society. As St. Josemaria Escriva, the founder of Opus Dei, aptly puts it in his book Christ is Passing By , “a man or a society that does not react to suffering and injustice and makes no effort to alleviate them is still distant from the love of Christ’s heart. While Christians enjoy the fullest freedom in finding and applying various solutions to these problems, they should be united in having one and the same desire to serve mankind, otherwise their Christianity will not be the word and life of Jesus: it will be a fraud, a deception of God and man”

    If Jesus Christ has allowed himself to be crucified on the Cross in order to redeem us, we have to reciprocate that sacrifice by sacrificing ourselves for the good of others. We cannot shut ourselves up in our religiosity oblivious of the sufferings of our neigbours. Life is a gift we receive only when we give ourselves to the service of our fellow human beings as Jesus did. Somehow in Nigeria we have grown accustomed to tolerating all sorts of abnormalities and laughable spectacles. While the country is sick of lack of focused leadership, many Nigerian people have become victims of dangerous passivity. For example, the 2023 elections are fast approaching. Most of the politicians who ruined Nigeria in the past are gathering again to see how they can bulldoze themselves into power in order to continue to steal government money and acquire ill-gotten material wealth. Some have indicated their interest to run for President. So this is the time for the citizens, especially our social media critics, to do everything legally possible to ensure that none of these corrupt and never-do-well politicians and political office holders returns to power in Nigeria. Silence may be a sign of prudence, but the ominous silence we are witnessing in Nigeria at the moment in the face of moral crisis could be construed as a sign of cowardice if not a sign of dangerous despondency. Evil thrives, we have been told, when the so-called good men sit back and do nothing.

    Holy Week invites us to bring light to the dark land; hope to the hopeless; justice to the oppressed and integrity to the wasteland. It is no use putting up a show of big penance when the heart is filled with dead men’s bones. It is no use abstaining from food without abstaining from bribery and corruption. It is pharisaical abstaining from food without abstaining from cheating our neigbours. “The bread of the needy is the life of the poor; whoever deprives them of it is the man of blood. To take away a neigbour’s living is to murder him; to deprive an employee of his wages is to shed blood” Sirach 34; 21-22). Therefore let employers pay just wages. Let employees render good service commensurate with their pay. Faith without work, we have been told, is a dead faith. Charity itself is the bond of perfection. As St. Augustine explains, “Everyone can make the sign of the cross of Christ; everyone can answer, Amen; everyone can sing Alleluluia; everyone can have himself baptized, can enter churches, can build the walls of basilicas. But charity is the only thing by which the children of God can be told from the children of the devil. Those who practice charity are born of God; those who do not practise it are not born of God…”

    Considering the scandalizing human miseries and other miseries in Nigeria, a new humanitarian strategy must be adopted for promotion of human welfare in Nigeria. There are many Nigerians dying of hunger, illness, frustration and poverty. This Holy Week is an opportunity to visit them, console them, share with them our human warmth and offer them our spiritual and material assistance, if we can. Any development unaccompanied by adequate social concerns for these seemingly helpless members of the society is not a true development. It was H. G Wells who said in 1901 that “if the universe is non-ethical by our present standards, we must reconsider those standards and reconstruct our ethics”. Therefore I think we need to reconstruct our ethics in Nigeria at the moment. There should be concern for the social order. For example, we should learn to feed the man dying of hunger otherwise we would be slowly killing him. We should build a strong solidarity for the welfare of the poor, weak, sick, prisoners, elderly, lonely and the frustrated. We cannot live in our little cocoons unmindful of the plight of our neigbours. If man is said to be a social animal he should always socialize with his neigbours as well as hearken to their assistance in times of need. The poor and the suffering around us should move us to pity to team up with others to alleviate their suffering. That is the true meaning of human solidarity which we have seen demonstrated in many countries.

    Our world is claiming the lives of many people through war such as the Russia-Ukraine war and other man-made disasters. Therefore we must lend a helping hand; we must hearken to the assistance of our needy neighbours; must start giving as music legend Michael Jackson is wont to sing. This is the only way to win the human race.