Nigeria

BOABAB for Women’s Human Rights, a Nigerian-based NGO, has stressed the need for the society to accord women the respect due to them.

The organisation states that women deserve to enjoy their human rights in a male dominated world where men decide affairs including making some fundamental decisions and choices for women, thereby oppressing them.

A Geneva-based housing rights group, Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), has urged Nigerian authorities to provide ‘adequate emergency shelter’ for thousands of people displaced by deadly violence in the central city of Jos.

"Those displaced as a result of the recent violence... must be provided with adequate emergency shelter while efforts begin to provide a permanent solution to their housing problems," says COHRE.

Civil Society Organisations in Nigeria have declared that they reject the perpetration of lawlessness by a clique and decried suggestions of take-over of power by the armed forces following the continued absence of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua on medical grounds.

They point out that, "We note the vacuum created in the day-to-day running of government due to the president's failure to transmit powers to Vice President Goodluck Jonathan as constitutionally stipulated.

Delta State Action Committee on AIDS (DELSACA) will disburse N36 million to 12 NGOs in Delta as grant for fight against HIV.

DELSACA project coordinator, John Osuyali, says that more than 140 NGOs applied for the second trench of the grant to carry out HIV related activities in the state.

"We have about N36 million for NGOs to carry out HIV related activities and only 12 NGOs will be eligible for the funding," explains Osuyali. 

Nigeria’s Children and Youth Democratic Electoral Model (CYDEM) says it has placed the necessary machinery on ground to educate children and youths on the basic tenets of democracy and the electoral process.

The CYDEM project initiator, Temitola Odetola, says that the programme is geared towards changing the negative stereotype that democracy and good governance is synonymous to bribery, corruption, rigging, injustice and violence.

A NGO, the Prison Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), has concluded plans to establish a N400 million Jubilee Rehabilitation Centre for ex-prison inmates.

PFN executive director, Barrister Benson Iwuagwu, says that centre will consolidate the activities of his organisation in its quest to re-integrate ex-inmates into the society.

"As there is no policy that guarantees the survival of ex-convicts, coupled with the stigmatization they face, we are disarming the crime in inmates and ex-convicts as the society is less caring," he explains.

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has given the Nigerian government seven days ultimatum to commence collection of overdue revenue from six multinational oil companies including Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) or face legal action.