Image at the bottom is what results sheets in Lagos looked like. If you were on ground at the collation centres you can corroborate
RESPONSE
Mynd44: What is the assurance that everyone of that 341,151 will have voted for one candidate?
Does this make sense to you
Let's not get DISTRACTED by who could have voted for who shall we?
The POINT is that these ILLEGAL voters are an ANOMALY to the LAGOS ELECTION so if APC claims that they didn't vote for them... LET THEM BE REMOVED from the VOTES and let's see who wins??
Remember how hard it was to get your PVC? Remember how long you had to wait to do Biometric Capture?
Well in 2015 INEC allowed a whole 341,151 people whose PVC supposedly MALFUNCTIONED
341,151 people who voted WITHOUT FULL biometric accreditation.
So these people came with Real or fake cards which the card reader COULD NOT READ and whose thumb print did not correlate with the INEC database.
IF WE REMOVE these figures from APC's results in Lagos, then PDP won fair and square!
How did these 341,151 people find themselves as accredited voters? Ask the 2015 Lagos State RETURNING &Resident Electoral Commissioner COLLATION Officer, the current Minister of Health!
Corrinthians: This happens all the time with social media account handlers of celebrities, corporations, government agencies, politicians, etc.
The other day, the official handle of Samsung Nigeria was caught tweeting using an iPhone.
So I don't even understand the "busted" part of this, like he did something wrong or broke the law or denied sometime back he isn't the handler of the account.
You're conversant with social media account protocol for celebrities et al.
In many instances and to distinguish between tweets a disclaimer is made viz tweets by BOS are signed BOS...
Where such is not done it is assumed that the handlers of the account intend that the content be read as coming from the principal account holder.
SAN FRANCISCO, September 20, (THEWILL) – Ever since he took office as governor of Cross River State in 2007 and his departure in 2015, Liyel Imoke has maintained a somewhat dignified silence on his predecessor, Donald Duke’s term in office (1999-2007.
But Imoke Thursday fired back at Duke, who has been openly critical of Imoke for years. In an interview granted www.calitown.com, Imoke described Duke as egoistic, a serial failure and someone who wouldn’t appreciate efforts that weren’t his.
Read excerpts from the interview:
Thank you Sir, for accepting to speak to us. Your predecessor, Mr. Donald Duke recently insisted in an interview granted www.calitown.comthat “The Death of Cross River State Happened In 2007” when you became governor. Did Cross River State really die in 2007 when you took office?
Thank you very much.
Let me begin by saying that the reason I have not spoken all this while is three-fold. Number one is my respect for the office of governor, which we both occupied, and what it represents; number two is the commitment to the success of the Cross River State project, irrespective of our differences; and, number three – and more importantly – the fact that telling it as it is about Tinapa, for instance, would have made it near-impossible for any investor to take a second look at the project, which has cost the government and people of Cross River State over N100 billion (one hundred billion Naira) in contingent and other liabilities. I didn’t want to put the death knell on this white elephant.
One of the values my father instilled in us is humility in service and to let the works of our hands speak for us. My silence over the years in the face of unbridled attacks and false accusations by Donald would be better understood in relation to the role God used me to play in Donald’s political development.
Let me give you a bit of a background to the political evolution of Cross River State during the time under scrutiny. In 1996, a group of us came together in Lagos under my leadership to chart a new course for Cross River State. I had already served as a senator and I leveraged on the relationship and clout I had garnered during my short stint in the senate. When I suggested that he run for governor, Donald hesitated; the sentiments at the time did not favour someone of Efik origin emerging as governor especially without any political pedigree. I was thereafter now saddled with the burden of delivering an otherwise difficult candidate, in both the party primaries and the general elections. Though an uphill task, the rest is history. Senator Gershom Bassey and a few others were part of this, and I am sure they can tell the story better. He talked of a blueprint in the interview he granted, but conveniently failed to recall that the said blueprint was developed in my house on Victoria Island in Lagos. Tinapa was not part of that blueprint.
Contrary to what Donald would have everyone believe, Tinapa failed before he left office. It was poorly conceptualised and became a burden on the state in the course of its execution. There were several policy and regulatory issues that should have been addressed either before or in the course of project implementation, as Cross River State did not have the capacity and resources to carry the burden of sustaining a going concern of that magnitude.
The project was financed with loans of billions of Naira guaranteed by the state and the Federal Government. The project was supposed to pay for itself; it never did, because there were no investors. Private money only goes where it makes business sense. And the fact that no one other than the bankers to the state government, who were coerced and threatened with loss of patronage, invested in Tinapa, is clear indication of its failure ab initio in both conceptualisation and execution. All in all it was at best a project not based on any economic or fiscal realities and can best be described as a fantasy of the imagination. There was not up to N80m (eighty million Naira) of private money in the multi billion Naira Tinapa, yet, it was touted as a ‘model public-private partnership project’ (PPP), without any elements of a well-developed PPP project. Tinapa was touted and advertised on DStv at the expense of the poor people of Cross River State. Local government funds were used by him for his outlandish and unsustainable project. Feasibility studies were altered to suit his convenience, as confirmed by the consultants to the project, KPMG, with last minute add-ons like Studio Tinapa. Needless to say, the state government defaulted on the N40 billion (forty billion Naira) loan repayment that had fallen due while Donald was still in office. The Federal Government guarantee was called by the banks before Donald left office, because the loans fell due and there were no investors or private sector partners to manage Tinapa and ensure the loans were serviced. Debts fell due and yet he continued to borrow even beyond the N40 billion (forty billion Naira). Tinapa became an albatross before he left office. It was a misconceived project, commissioned with equipment which was hired from abroad by a company called Dream Entertainment; all of which vanished after the commissioning. Tinapa was commissioned with no tenants, no gazette, no fiscal policy framework or regulations and no operating guidelines; this explains why the private sector did not buy into the project. It was commissioned without completing the hotel and the waterpark which I eventually completed.
In May 2007, the month I was sworn in as governor, the Federal Government made its first huge monthly debt service direct deduction of N900 million (nine hundred million Naira) from the state account. There were other loans from local banks, the ECOWAS bank and other financial institutions that had all fallen due for repayment, (some of them Dollar denominated). I was saddled with the heaviest debt burden of any state in this federation, with over 50 per cent of all the state revenues going to service the various questionable loans, thereby making it literally impossible for the state to meet its recurrent obligations, including salaries and overheads. Yet, I did not say a word of criticism. I was accused of protecting him at my own expense. Recall that in 2007, he ran for the office of president, largely on the perceived success of Tinapa. Rather than expose the facts, I chose to remain silent.
I actually incurred further debts to save the white elephant. UBA (United Bank for Africa) had called the federal guarantee, and Donald asked me to move the state account to Oceanic Bank so we could get a facility through the then managing director, Mrs. Cecilia Ibru, who he was close to. We used some of these funds to complete the hotel, the waterpark, and the outstanding infrastructure, including the dualisation of the City Gate to Tinapa Road. This is just to give you the background so you are better informed on the issues in focus.
Inspite all of these problems from the start, what did you do to ensure Tinapa the ‘white elephant’ as you describe it, did not die?
Given the huge debt burden which the state carried, I had no choice but to make every effort to get Tinapa to work to reduce the financial hemorrhaging. We took a number of steps to revive Tinapa, including our negotiation with AMCON (Assets Management Company of Nigeria) to take over the facility and bring in an investor, which was eventually scuttled by the same Donald; but that is a story for another day.
We went into a partnership with Ebony Life TV for the use of the otherwise moribund Studio facilities. We introduced a games and amusement arcade and converted one of the warehouses into a small conferencing facility.
We subsidised rents and offered further incentives to potential tenants just to increase the footfall, and in the case of T-Mart a retail outlet sponsored by Donald, rent was free.
We located the ICT Hub, ‘Tinapa Knowledge City’ in Tinapa. The hotel and the waterpark were completed and furnished and became fully operational.
We invited Silverbird and several other such companies to take up the movie theatres but they declined after doing their viability studies. In spite of all the efforts, Tinapa remained unattractive because of its initial misconception by Donald.
Let’s stay with Tinapa, as that is actually the biggest bone that needs explaining. Duke insisted that the difficult part of the project had been done. Given your hands-on experience on the project, will that position be correct?
Contrary to what Donald wants the public to believe, the brick and mortar was actually the easy part; borrow money, pay Julius Berger and they will build what you want. The hard or difficult part is making it work; and after our own analysis – which he knows – it clearly showed that Tinapa could not work for reasons earlier stated not to talk of other critical infrastructure requirements like construction of access roads into Calabar (example, Port Harcourt/Calabar road, etc), a functional, duty free, sea port and an expanded airport; all of which were outside the control of the state government and needed the buy-in and financial provisioning in the budgeting of the Federal Government.
Needless to say none of which was provided for during the three year project development and construction phase of Tinapa. That to my mind is the hard part. Shopping malls are built on the basis of signed agreements with anchor tenants who will open shop immediately upon completion, but there was none. There was not a single anchor tenant in Tinapa at commissioning.
So, Donald failed to do all that was necessary, but instead busied himself building brick and mortar without thinking about how the project would work. So he commissioned the project with fanfare and at great cost, and there was no Walmart.
Well, he insisted you drove away Walmart. Did you?
He is accusing me of driving Walmart away! But there was no Walmart! An organisation like Walmart would never commit to operating in a place like Tinapa with all the issues I have enumerated above. Only an illiterate would think that this could happen. If in the three years of project development and construction and up to commissioning, Walmart was not in Tinapa, how do I get accused of driving Walmart away? Furthermore, free trade zones are on the Exclusive Legislative List, and state governments can neither legislate nor regulate free trade zones. And yet Tinapa was a free trade zone. So Donald puts billions of Naira of state funds into a project over which the state has no operational or regulatory control. During the three years of construction, he did not think it wise to either partner with the Federal Government or get the federal government to approve a special fiscal policy or regime for Tinapa’s operations. To him, it was obviously an afterthought.
I eventually obtained the gazetted regulations for Tinapa, which were unfortunately inadequate, from the new administration of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua in 2008, more than a year after Donald had left office, by which time Tinapa was already in its debt throes. Of course Donald’s nonchalance and arrogance to the President-elect at the commissioning of Tinapa certainly did not help our case.
Just to ensure I gave the project a fighting chance howbeit slim, I retained the managing director, of Tinapa, who Donald appointed, for the purposes of continuity for the duration of my tenure. That MD was Bassey Ndem. I must give Bassey Ndem credit for literally making a little out of nothing. He kept the place running, howbeit with heavy subsidy from the state government for power, staff salaries and other sundry expenses. It is instructive to note that it was also the same Bassey Ndem who managed the project during the construction phase.
....
There was the issue of the Reserve Fund, which he alleged was squandered on ‘useless projects’. Can you please also throw light on this?
We need to relate the Reserve Fund to the debt burden. How much was in the Reserved Fund when he left office and how much was the state debt? We had a Reserved Fund into which the state contributed N50m (fifty million Naira) monthly, and the 18 local governments each contributed N1 million ( one million Naira) monthly. These contributions were sustained and invested. The challenge was that we had a huge debt burden. So you have a Reserved Fund with maybe a billion Naira, but a debt burden of over N100bn (one hundred billion Naira). So, why has Donald never made any reference to the debt burden that he left? Why is it just the Reserved Fund?
The Reserved Fund was not exclusively owned by the state Government, it belonged to all the parties (investors); and its utilisation for projects as it were, was in compliance with the law, as amended. The state government and local governments who are investors in the Fund approved the utilisation of those funds for projects like the Institute of Technology and Management (ITM) in Ugep, a necessary and practical intervention for the development of middle level skilled man power direly needed in the state. It is visible and functional today.
The Fund was valued at close to N5bn (five billion Naira) when I left office. Donald’s estimated value of N190bn (one hundred and ninety billion Naira) is clearly a fiction of Donald’s imagination.
Duke also called you a “serial failure”, to quote him in that interview, he says you “failed as minister and in Cross River State.” Is that correct?
....
Throughout my political career I have provided purposeful, selfless leadership and enjoyed popular support that led to Donald’s success at the polls against all odds. For a governor who left maybe a few hundred million Naira in the Reserved Fund and a debt of over N100bn (one hundred billion Naira) and outlandish but unsustainable projects all over the place, he certainly didn’t have the best interest of the people at heart.
We established a debt management office to manage the huge debt over hang. The Debt Management Office negotiated the restructuring of those debts, lengthening the repayment period and found ways to manage the debt, pay salaries and still invest in projects and programs in the state. The State DMO worked in collaboration with the Debt Management Office of the Federation, and I can tell you that as of today Cross River State is still paying Tinapa’s debts. We must all agree that when a state carries such a huge debt burden the people suffer, because their future has been mortgaged.
I have reliably been informed that he is even trying again to put the state in further debt by endearing himself to the current governor, Ben Ayade, and getting Ben Ayade to guarantee another loan for Tinapa even as we all are still reeling from the debt burden which he left for us. However, I know that Ayade is smarter than that; he will not further mortgage the state to satisfy Donald’s over-inflated ego.
Another sore point is the Convention Centre, which he questioned because Tinapa was already there. Why did you go ahead to build the Convention Centre and the monorail?
As an eternal optimist, I made a last ditch effort to save the white elephant called Tinapa by siting the award-winning Calabar International Convention Centre (CICC) within the precincts of Tinapa and linking the Tinapa Hotel in particular and mall to the Convention Centre. Cross River State has become a destination for meetings and conferences and needed a facility to attract top-notch events. Again, it was a last ditch effort to create a tourism hub around Tinapa. I think most people appreciate that; but I’m sure Donald will never appreciate that.
In his interview, he also mentioned the monorail. You will recall that the monorail was another outlandish and unsustainable project of Donald’s which the banks refused to finance because of the faulty feasibility studies. Donald’s feasibility studies was based on the presumption that 3000 (three thousand) people will ride on the monorail daily going directly from the airport to Tinapa. This meant that a minimum of 60 (sixty) full flights daily would land and take off in and from Calabar Airport with every passenger going directly to Tinapa on the monorail.
The Afreximbank (African Export-Import Bank) and several other banks were approached by Donald to finance the monorail project adding to the already huge debt burden. All the banks rejected his request for financing for obvious reasons. Unfortunately I was stuck with the project since billions of Naira had already been invested in faulty feasibility studies and some procurements.
We tried making it viable by proposing alternative traffic routes connecting Watt market, UNICAL and other heavily populated parts of the city unsuccessfully. Rather than let it all waste I thought to use the tracks that had already been ordered by Donald but paid for by my own administration, to link Tinapa to the Calabar International Convention Centre, and by so doing, to bring Tinapa closer to the city. A recurrent complaint by the few prospective investors was that Tinapa was too far out from the city. So I tried to use the monorail to link those facilities, create a hub and of course, make the best use of what I was already stuck with, which was the tracks for the monorail. I recall that in my dilemma, I took a former president to the CICC project site when we started construction; and I told him what my thoughts were on the project. And after my effort at explaining it to him, he looked at me and took a deep breath; he looked across to Tinapa and said to me ‘Liyel, I understand what you are trying to do; you’re trying to paint a white elephant black.’ Need I say more?
The erstwhile Managing Director of AlphaBeta, the Lagos State consultant on IGR took to twitter to share his petition to the EFCC via the law firm Adetunji Shoyoye and Associates.
He Accuses the firm among other things of corruption and money Laundering.
This user registered on Tuesday (7th August 2018) and his very first post 2 days after calling to question a document WAEC deposed to in court hits front page.
With dodgy contrived online portal as proof!
We should all be careful how we use our resources to play politics.
“Circumcising her will enable her to control this (sexual) urge so she can stay with her husband without jumping from one man to another,” Muniyat Lamidi rationalises female genital mutilation (FGM).
A petty trader in Oyo, one of the south-west states with a high prevalence of female genital mutilation, Lamidi is adamant and convinced that a woman’s sexuality should be guided, tamed – or it might bring her downfall.
“If it is not done, the girl will be promiscuous and her sexual urges will be too high that she will begin to sleep around,” Lamidi tells Sola Fagurosi of the OneLife Initiative for Human Development, a non-governmental organisation that campaigns against FGM.
Lamidi is not the only one who holds this view, it is the popular narrative of those in defence of mutilation.
Her view finds its roots in the patriarchal structure of the Nigerian society where inequality of the sexes manifests so blatantly that even a gender equality bill promoting equal education opportunities has failed to become a law.
Women’s sexual needs and urges, especially in rural communities, are demonised, policed or at best seen as secondary to a man’s sexual needs.
To prevent promiscuity, Muniyat as well as many other “cutters”, believe the clitoris must be done away with.
And even though it has been internationally recognised as a violation of the human rights of girls and women; and criminalised in Nigeria, FGM still occurs on a scale of massive proportions, especially among the less educated.
According to data from the Nigeria Demographics and Health Survey, 24.8 percent of Nigerian girls and women aged 15 to 49 have been circumcised, with states in the southeast region accounting for 45 percent of FGM cases; and south-western states accounting for up to 55 percent.
Osun state has the highest prevalence of female genital mutilation/cutting in Nigeria with a prevalence of 76.6%, Ebonyi comes next with 74 %, Ekiti has a 72.3% prevalence rate while Imo has a 68 % rate and Oyo, a 65. 6% rate.
The report also shows that cutting occurs mostly at early childhood with 82% of women in Nigeria getting circumcised before the age of five.
One of such cases in the south-west, Ondo precisely, is that of Janet Ajanni, a teaching support staff.
Ajanni narrated her daughter’s ordeal as a victim of FGM to Fagurosi.
She said her daughter would have been long dead had it not been the intervention of medical consultants and surgeons at the University Teaching Hospital in Ibadan.
Ajanni said her mother-in-law caused the circumcision of her daughter, something she tolerated because she had been totally ignorant of FGM and its effect until 2003 when she got married, got pregnant and had the baby.
As many cases of FGM, this case did not end well.
“Six months after I left Ondo for Ibadan, Oyo state with my baby,” Ajanni narrated, adding that it was not until her daughter turned three years that she discovered a growing bump on her Instruments.
“When my girl turned three years, I noticed that where she was cut had swollen. I wondered what it could be whenever I bathed her. By the time she was 8-years-old, it had grown very big.”
Ajanni said when her kid turned eight, she decided to inform her mother-in-law who proffered a re-circumcision as the solution.
This time Ajanni did not heed but by 2010, when her child turned eight the keloid had grown so big that it was alarming.
That was the beginning of the rather tortuous journey to healing, healing that will never be complete as Ajanni’s daughter had got part of her Instruments cut – an act that is irreversible.
“I took her to a clinic in our neighbourhood and was opportune to see a matron. She inserted a syringe into the keloid and said it was mucus that accumulated in it. She recommended some drugs, I paid for her drugs and it was administered on her.”
The drugs made Ajanni’s daughter so drowsy that she slept through school on that day and afterwards, Ajanni said her daughter began to “lose her memory”.
“This made me stop the medications.” she said.
The swelling was still there showing no signs of abating, so Ajanni decided to talk to someone about the situation.
“I explained to one of my customer that works at the University College Hospital, Ibadan post-mortem department,” she said.
“He exclaimed and chastised me for keeping it to myself. I followed his advice and took her to UCH, Ibadan. After the back and forth at the hospital, we eventually saw the doctor who referred us to the laboratory for test. After these series of test, we were asked to come for drugs. (First of all, it was) monthly, then bi-monthly and then weekly.
“When we are almost rounding off her treatment we were asked to see the doctor again, he tested her and told us that the keloid had to be operated.”
Ajanni spent N35,000 naira on the surgical procedure to take out the keloid that was caused by the FGM procedure which cost just N500.
“Without the surgery at the hospital. I would have lost my daughter from complications that followed her circumcision.”
FGM 2
Ajanni’s daughter’s life is no longer in danger yet the circumcision and the attendant trauma cannot be reversed.
Ajanni then decided to stay off circumcising her other child.
“Her sister who I had after her is not circumcised and she is fine,” she said with a tinge of regret in her tone.
In Kajola, a local government with the highest FGM prevalence rate in Oyo, a certain reverend simply identified as Olawuwo, defended the FGM as a fundamental aspect of culture.
Olawuwo, like the other Oyo residents interviewed during this project, believes circumcision upholds a woman’s virtue – stops her from being promiscuous.
He had tattoos on his arm that carried the name of his sisters. He explained that the tattoos were in commemoration of his sister’s circumcision.
“If I had two girls, I would circumcise one and not the other and will warn the uncircumcised one that immediately she shows sign of promiscuity, I’ll get her cut,” said the reverend.
A slightly different reason for FGM in the south-south
In Cross River, the reason for female circumcision is slightly different. FGM, in that culture, signifies a coming of age for women, a readiness for marriage and then preparation for marriage. Yet it is rooted in a culture that deeply ties a woman’s worth to marriage and the appearance of her Instruments.
According to UNICEF, some of the other social and cultural factors for FGM include it being considered as “a necessary part of raising a girl, and a way to prepare her for adulthood and marriage.”
“FGM is often motivated by beliefs about what is considered acceptable sexual behaviour. It aims to ensure premarital virginity and marital fidelity. FGM is in many communities believed to reduce a woman’s libido and therefore believed to help her resist extramarital sexual acts. When a vaginal opening is covered or narrowed the fear of the pain of opening it, and the fear that this will be found out, is expected to further discourage extramarital sexual intercourse among women with this type of FGM. Where it is believed that being cut increases marriageability, FGM is more likely to be carried out.
Gift Abu, a social worker at the Centre for Social Value and Early Development explains that this practice is done in Cross River state for a number of reasons.
“It is a thing of pride and recognition and a sign that the girls who are mutilated have become women”, she says.
Another anti-FGM advocate, Margaret Onah of safe haven Nigeria, says ending FGM in the state is a daunting one as it is deeply entrenched.
In Cross River where she spreads the anti-FGM campaign, she says it is an expensive rite to passage of womanhood and indigent parents actually “stretch themselves” to ensure their girls go through a practices that involves a girl stay in a fattening room where she is fed food to make her appealing for marriage.
“FGM is an initiation to womanhood and if you do not do it you are regarded as incomplete,” Onah claims.
“It is usually done in these communities on eight day old girls and even on adults. In some communities it is done when the girl is between ages 10 and 15. For some, it is done on the night when the bride price is paid and in cases where the girl gets pregnant and she is yet to be mutilated, it is done seven months into the pregnancy.”
Gift Abu explains that there have been a number of deaths and complications arising from effects female genital mutilation. It is, however, difficult to prove to locals who patronize Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) and hospitals as they allude the cause of death and complications to other reasons.
Are the laws efficiently putting a stop to FGM?
After nearly 13 years of trying to make a law against FGM in Nigeria, the government of Goodluck Jonathan finally outlawed FGM in 2015.
This was a milestone in the talk and walk against FGM as it signified a governmental backing against a practice that held sway in Nigeria.
Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act (VAPP) 2015, the anti-FGM law, was endorsed by the Nigerian senate on May 2015.
FGM Imo State A victim narrates her experience in Imo state
According to the law, “a person who performs female circumcision or genital mutilation or engages another to carry out such circumcision or mutilation commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a term of imprisonment not exceeding 4 years or to a fine not exceeding N200,000 or both.”
But till date, no one has been convicted despite the prevalence in Nigeria.
According to Rachel Arowolo, whose parents are firm believers in FGM, it is simply hard to condemn or report family members who are usually the culprits of female genital mutilations.
For FGM, as with many other gender based crimes, it stays in the family.
“It will be difficult for one to take anyone to court because of how closely knitted our society is. We must do more in terms of bringing about behaviour change”
Why FGM should stop
FGM has no known medical benefits to women and girls. In fact, according to the UNFPA, the attendant consequence of FGM are dire.
“Complications include severe pain, shock, haemorrhage, tetanus or infection, urine retention, ulceration of the genital region and injury to adjacent tissue, wound infection, urinary infection, fever, and septicemia. Haemorrhage and infection can be severe enough to cause death,” UNFPA says.
“Long-term consequences include complications during childbirth, anaemia, the formation of cysts and abscesses, keloid scar formation, damage to the urethra resulting in urinary incontinence, dyspareunia (painful sexual intercourse), sexual dysfunction, hypersensitivity of the genital area and increased risk of HIV transmission, as well as psychological effects,” the organisation continued.
Some key FGM facts
Female genital mutilation (FGM) includes procedures that intentionally alter or cause injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. The procedure has no health benefits for girls and women. Procedures can cause severe bleeding and problems urinating, and later cysts, infections, as well as complications in childbirth and increased risk of newborn deaths. More than 200 million girls and women alive today have been cut in 30 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia where FGM is concentrated1. FGM is mostly carried out on young girls between infancy and age 15. FGM is a violation of the human rights of girls and women. There are four types of FGM Type 1: Often referred to as clitoridectomy, this is the partial or total removal of the clitoris (a small, sensitive and erectile part of the female genitals), and in very rare cases, only the prepuce (the fold of skin surrounding the clitoris).
Type 2: Often referred to as excision, this is the partial or total removal of the clitoris and the labia minora (the inner folds of the vulva), with or without excision of the labia majora (the outer folds of skin of the vulva ).
Type 3: Often referred to as infibulation, this is the narrowing of the vaginal opening through the creation of a covering seal. The seal is formed by cutting and repositioning the labia minora, or labia majora, sometimes through stitching, with or without removal of the clitoris (clitoridectomy).
Type 4: This includes all other harmful procedures to the female Instruments for non-medical purposes, e.g. pricking, piercing, incising, scraping and cauterizing the genital area.
This project was done with support from Code for Africa and with research materials from Sola Fagurosi of OneLife Initiative for Human Development.
Female genital mutilation still a big threat to Nigerian girl-child survival, development
Though it appears Africa is winning the war over diseases that are posing great threats to the survival, development, protection and participation of the child, as obtainable in other climes, female genital mutilation and cutting (FGM/C) still poses a huge challenge.
Recent happenings in the country show that the African child, especially the girl-child, is still subjected to some out-dated practices and traditions that threaten their right to development, protection and ultimately survival.
This is an unbridled contravention of the international Child Rights Act adopted by Nigeria in 2003 to domesticate the convention on the Rights of the child. Despite the fact that some states have passed it into law, it is still a daunting task fighting FGM/C in the Southwest.
In February 2016, the First Lady, Mrs. Aisha Buhari, launched a national campaign to end FGM/C, imploring all parties to work together to halt the harmful practice. Though government intervention underlines the need for collective action, very little is done in this regard.
National statistics reveal that 27 per cent of Nigerian women between the ages of 15 and 49 are victims of FGM/C. And though the prevalence has decreased in some parts of the country in the last 30 years, not in Ondo and Oyo States.
The issue was, however, once more brought to public consciousness, when last December, a middle-aged woman and mother of two, Mrs. Oluwakemisola Falade, passionately cried out for help.
Falade, who lives in Ifira, Akoko South East council of Ondo State, was threatened with banishment by community youths and leaders for her refusal to allow a forcible circumcision of her two daughters.
The disagreement with family elders, she recounted, started when her first daughter, who was born in 2008 clocked four and relatives reminded her of the cultural practice, which must be undertaken between the ages of six months and 10 years.
She was summoned to a meeting by family elders in September last year and instructed to prepare her daughters for the custom by December.
“Much as we tried to educate and convince the elders and youths, our explanations fell on deaf ears, as they refused our request for our daughters to be exempted from the cultural practice,” she recalled.
The Akoko community, despite international outcries against the cultural practice, threatened to attack and banish them, subjecting the victims to serial abuses and dehumanisation.
Out of despair, the couple had no option than to concede to the community’s demands, though they knew it was an abuse of their daughters, womanhood and humanity at large.
The parents of the five- and nine-year-old girls yielded to communal pressure last month because the appeal to the state government, Ministry of Women Affairs, CSOs and other humanitarians to come to their rescue was not heeded.
Scholars and activists have insisted that a cultural shift is needed to abolish the scourge, premising their advocacy on data from 2004 to 2015 for women aged 15 to 49 years with 64 per cent zero tolerance.
Similarly, in Lagelu Local Government Area of Oyo State that same year, one Mr. Isaac Oluwatope Oluwabamishe and his wife had a harrowing experience with their extended family, who vowed to wipe off the entire family through diabolical means for not circumcising their daughter.
Oluwabamishe, the father of Joanna, who lived at Road 2, House 7, Liberty Estate, Olorunda Aba Road, Akobo, narrated his ordeal to The Guardian in April 2017, when the incident assumed a dangerous dimension.
According to him, the family reminded him of the custom of circumcision, when Joanna was born in November 2015. Oluwabamishe, who was a banker with a new generation bank, said the custom stipulates that every girl-child must be circumcised between ages of three months and two years.
He explained that every attempt and persuasion employed at dissuading the family members from the archaic practice met with stiff resistance. He was summoned to a council of elders’ meeting in January 2017 for the purpose.
Showing our correspondent the life-threatening letter written to warn him for the fifth time on April 17, 2017 by the head of the family, Mr. Olisa Olotu, he said they admonished him to align with the tradition or face grievous consequences like a kinsman who disobeyed some 49 years ago.
The letter read: “I am using this medium to warn you about your refusal to circumcise your daughter. This is the fifth time we are warning you on this issue. I believe you know our family tradition, as laid down by our ancestors; and we are telling you emphatically that no civilization can change our tradition.
“Your forebears who defied the tradition of our fathers paid dearly with their children, who came down with terrible ailments. This is why I am imploring you to change your stance on this issue and submit your daughter for circumcision due to the love I have for you. And this must be done immediately before your daughter clocks two years.
“If you refuse to heed our demand before your first daughter clocks two years in November, 2017, we will initiate the family rituals and invoke the spirit of our ancestors against you, your wife and daughter; and you know the repercussions.
“You can confirm this from your brother, Damilola, who lost his wife and daughter before he ran away from home because he refused to obey the family tradition like you are doing now. This is the candid warning of the entire family to you.”
Leading the battle against FGM/C in Nigeria, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), condemned people’s conservative attitude in propagating the menace, urging collective efforts to end it in the country.
The UNICEF Communication Officer, Lagos, Mrs. Blessing Ejiofor, in the build-up to mark the 2017 International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM/C, explained that it comprises all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female Instruments, or other cutting of or injury to the female genital organs.
Saying there is a zero tolerance against it globally, as it is harmful to girls and women, she described FGM/C as a violation of human rights causing infertility, maternal death, infections and loss of sexual pleasure.
The UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, Mr. Mohamed Fall, said: “Every study and every bit of evidence we have shows there is absolutely no benefit in mutilating or cutting any girl or woman for non-medical reasons. It is a practice that can cause severe physical and psychological harm.
“It violates a woman’s rights to health, security and physical integrity, the right to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and even in some cases, the right to life.”
According to UNICEF, five states in Nigeria have high rates of FGM/C that are more than 60 per cent, with Osun and Ebonyi leading at 77 and 74 per cent respectively, according to the 2013 National Demographic and Health Survey.
Fall added that the other states are Ekiti, 72 per cent; Imo, 68 per cent and Oyo, 66 per cent. He explained that UNICEF is partnering other stakeholders to stop the menace.
“Support is growing for the national campaign to end FGM/C. With the support of state governors’ wives, Imo and Oyo State Houses of Assembly are currently working on draft bills that will prohibit the practice of FGM/C and any custom or tradition promoting it,” he said.
The National President of Inter-Africa Committee (IAC), the Nigerian chapter campaigning against Harmful Traditional Practices, including Female Genital Mutilation (FGM/C), Prof. Modupe Onadeko, also kicked against the practice.
“Harmful Traditional Practices (HTPs) often result in premature death of girls and women, as well as leave many physically, medically, psychologically and emotionally damaged for life,” she said. “To my knowledge and experience, and I have been in this for 26 years, there is no good thing that can be gained from mutilating girls and women.”
Onadeko lamented that the prevalence of FMG/C also results in marital crises, as the victims “are often frigid and cannot respond well during sexual intercourse with their husbands. In fact, this may be the reason many husbands get frustrated and seek solace and sexual satisfaction elsewhere outside their homes.”
She stated that the average national prevalence rate is 41 per cent, but reiterated, “our ultimate goal is to get it to zero level, that is, no girl or woman should ever be subjected to female genital mutilation.”
The Executive Director of Girl to Women Research Development Centre (G2W), Mrs. Olamide Falana, attributed it to ignorance and negative cultural practice threatening the lives of over 10 million girls and women in the country.
She said: “Africans generally hold the belief that partial or total cutting of the female Instruments will dissuade acts of promiscuity. However, research has shown that the mutilation of the female Instruments does not affect sexual behaviours positively.”
Okay, Tinubu's position is perfectly understandable seeing as how much he has benefited from Abacha's death. A second term for Buhari means he gets to keep benefiting!
On the death of Abacha, Tinubu inherited Abacha's Business Partner
"Chagoury was a close associate of Nigerian dictator, General Sani Abacha, who helped his business interests in the country. After Abacha died in 1998, Chagoury returned an estimated $300 million to the Nigerian government to secure his indemnity from possible criminal charges." https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB122973023139522863
C&C Construction were responsilbe for: Banana Island Ocean Parade Towers The National Assembly Complex in Abuja, The State Security Headquarters Building in Abuja, Federal Secretariat Complex
Chagoury purchased Eko Hotel formerly Eko Le Meridien which belonged to Lagos State. Lekki-Epe Expressway (incomplet) SouthEnergyX - Eko Atlantic City Bar Beach Shore Protection Kings Tower (The Office Development on Alfred Rewane built on the Site of former Eti-Osa LG Secretariat) Oshodi-International Airport Road - Airport Road Ajah Flyover Abule-Egba Flyover
Can anybody guess what Hafsat, Abiola's daughter is apologising to Buhari on behalf of her father for?
When some tell you that Abiola was a runs man, and sponsored change of Government others will be here beating their chests and crying more than the bereaved.
If you don't know, learn. No one can take that from you. Insisting on not knowing is pure unadulterated folly.
Sad, coming from what is supposed to be a reputable lawyer and alleged human rights activist.
There is a reason we have rules, laws abnd laid down protocol in our land. That is why it is called a democracy.
That one is willing to forego proper rules because of one's personal interests, emotional, sentimental or otherwise means that you will tolerate bending the riles as long as it favours you.
Mr Fala a, nobody said Abiola shouldn't be honoured but you by bending the rules are sullying the very essence of the so called fight for democracy...
Unless it wasn't democracy you were fighting for....
It seems some Nigerians will wage war on corruption as long as it doesn't favour them...
Politics › Re: See INEC Data Showing How PDP Won 2015Lagos Presidential & Governorship Election by three(op): 7:04am On Dec 20, 2018*. Modified: 7:44am On Dec 21, 2018
