Child-rapists should have their genitals cut off -Ita-Giwa

Child-rapists should have their genitals cut off -Ita-Giwa

By Prisca Sam-Duru

Senator Florence Ita-Giwa yesterday said the best way to end rape and sexual assault in the country is by ensuring that convicted rapists get capital punishment which does not entail killing them but cutting off their genitals.

Ita-Giwa, who represented Cross River in the Senate and later served as Special Adviser on National Assembly Matters to former President Goodluck Jonathan, spoke as a special guest at 'Magenta and Black Art & Fashion for charity, a fund raising exhibition for Mirabel Centre, held at the British Council, Lagos by a group under the aegis of Friends of Mirabel. She maintained that throwing child-rapists into prison is not enough justice but cutting off their genitals will ensure they do not use them on other children.

Making reference to accounts of rape by two survivors at the event, Ita-Giwa said "The lady said she was happy that she got justice for her 4-year old daughter who was raped by two men but in my mind, if I were a judge and a man is brought to court for raping a child, he will receive capital punishment. But I will say don't kill him, rather let him live his life in pain, let his organ be cut off. He should not be allowed the pleasure of using that organ anymore. If the organ is not cut off, at the end of his term in prison he will use it on another woman. Fortunately for them, I'm no longer in the chambers but I will find a way to get it into the chambers. This is the proper way to end the evil of rape in the society.

While commending Mirabel Centre for its commitment towards rehabilitating survivors of sexual assault and rape, she pledged support to the Centre and called on all to join in the fight against rape and sexual assault.

Also speaking, the Managing Partner at Partnership for Justice and Founder Mirabel Centre, Mrs Itoro Eze-Anaba said that the situation has reached an alarming stage such that girls are no longer safe in their homes since fathers and uncles rape them. 

"Rape is not a girls' or women's issue it is a community issue because boys are also being raped daily. The implication is that if we do not end it, the abused may end up as an abuser and a time will come when the society will be filled with abusers.", Mrs Eze-Anaba said.

She called on good spirited individuals and organizations to support Mirabel Centre so as to continue with the good work of protecting children.

US supports safe return of  the kidnapped, abused by Boko Haram

 As we approach the second anniversary of the kidnapping of more than 200 Nigerian girls from their school in Chibok, the United States again calls for the immediate release, without preconditions, of all hostages held by Boko Haram.  The kidnapping of these young women, along with the kidnappings of countless others by Boko Haram, epitomizes this terrorist group’s depravity.

The United States continues to assist the Nigerian government’s efforts to locate and bring home all those who have been kidnapped by Boko Haram with intelligence and advisory support.  The United States is also delivering over $240 million in development and humanitarian assistance across the Lake Chad Basin region to provide conflict-affected populations and refugees with transitional assistance, psycho-social services, health programs, and emergency education for children displaced by violence.

British Minister visits Nigeria

British Minister visits Nigeria

UK Minister for International Development, Nick Hurd, has arrived in Nigeria on his first trip to the country. During his stay, Minister Hurd will focus on Britain’s assistance for the humanitarian situation in the northeast, as well the UK’s support for increasing the use of solar energy. Minister Hurd will also participate in a range of discussions with the Nigerian Government to emphasise the importance of good governance and accountability in ensuring poverty reduction.

Minister Hurd will use part of his visit to focus on the humanitarian situation in the northeast and will explore what more can be done to protect civilians affected by conflict with Boko Haram. He will also meet with the Bring Back Our Girls Campaign at the end of their Global Week of Action.

Over the course of the visit, Minister Hurd will also meet with industry representatives and business leaders to discuss the potential for large-scale business development in Nigeria, as well as innovative work on recycling and waste management that can improve the lives of poorer citizens. The Minister will view projects to witness the support the UK is giving to the development of Nigeria’s rapidly growing solar energy market. This forms part of the UK’s Energy Africa campaign, which aims to light up the African continent quickly without resorting to technology with high-emissions.

Home-based writers lack good editorial management — Kole Omotosho

Home-based writers lack good editorial management — Kole Omotosho 

 By Prisca Sam-Duru 

Kole Omotosho is one of the Patrons of the prestigious Etisalat Prize for Literature and one of Nigeria’s veteran writers who has played leading roles in promoting African literature globally. In this interview, Omotosho shares his thoughts on the essence of Etisalat Prize for Literature, why no Nigerian has won the prize since inception and other sundry issues affecting writers. Excerpt.


ASIDE giving writers opportunity to showcase their debut novels, what has the Etisalat Prize For Literature done? 
try to define an area which we thought is not being catered for and also to expand the field so that its not just writers who are based on the continent and blacks writing in Englsh but writers irrespective of their language. Once the writers have ancestral link to Africa, their publishers can make their novels available. Also, to encourage quality works, we don’t deal with self publishing because of lack of critical…though I’ve known a few writers like Ken Saro Wiwa who would do incredible editing of their works as if they belong to somebody else. Yet we insist publishers make the works available. Insisting that publishers submit works of writers is just to ensure that there has been prior editing and re-editing because by the time you read a page or two of the poorly edited works you know they aren’t going anywhere. It is a major criteria that we don’t want self published works in the competition. 


•Prof Kole Omotosho 

We’ve seen Zimbabwe, South Africa and DRC Congo come tops, considering quality of their works, how would you rate African literature? 
There’s no problem with the quality of works, our problem is how do we find the market for African literature, how do we create a ready market for it, and this is where Etisalat Prize is different. This Prize has a list of more than 50 outlets, libraries across the continent where copies of these books are sent each year. I have about 5 different libraries, one in Cape Town, Jo’Burg, two in Akure, etc where I send each copy of the three final books to, each year. And I get feedback on how much people are reading them. So one of the things the Etisalat Prize does is to do the distribution to schools, state libraries and anywhere, just to make sure we find readers for African literature.

 Are you not bothered that for three consecutive times, no Nigerian has won the Etisalat Prize For Literature.?
I’m not bothered , why should I be bothered, most of the people who have been winning the Booker Prize are not all English people. People who win the Pulitzer Prize in America, Dele Olajede… we cannot begin with that limited vision. Yes, I think two or three Nigerians have appeared in the long and short list but its up to the judges, I don’t know what the result is gonna be until it is announced. None of us received the long list or shortlist. I mean I’ve just started reading these three final books and I’m hoping that by Saturday I would have finished them so that by the time the result is announced I would be able to say okay, this or that. I’m not bothered. 

Could it be that there is something we are not getting right?
Yes! there are things we are not getting right, our writings especially of those who are at home are not as tight and as rigorous as the writings by Nigerians outside. You read Teju Coal or any of these other guys and compare with what is being published in the country, you will be surprised. There is need for greater editorial management but how many publishers in this country care about manuscripts. So the writer is thrown on his or her own and that is where work has to be done. We cannot interfere in terms of who wins or who doesn’t win.

 After winning some laurels in the 80s, you moved to South Africa, what motivated such movement when you were already doing great? 
Well the circumstance of my leaving Nigeria was basically, two things, I had a primary challenge with ‘Just Before Dawn’ when it came out, the Military going all out simply threatening saying that they are not going to court, they are not going to do anything, Obasanjo went to court to stop the publication of the book because he said I said something which he said wasn’t right, so I decided to simply get out and let my publisher handle it.The second was more of a fundamental problem. As a university professor, I looked at my prospects and I looked at the children I had to train and I couldn’t see how if I continue as a university professor in Nigeria, I would be able to give them good education as I received from my parents. So, to that extent, I needed to go somewhere where I could be myself, practice my art as a theatre person, do my teaching and writing. At that particular time, South Africa was going through major changes, but teaching engagements as well as theatre in London and Lesotho kept me busy as time went on. One of the things that happened was that I did a small advert for an emerging phone company, Vodacom that became one of the major companies in the world and that cut on, for almost 15 to 20 years, I was involved in that and of course that gave me a greater profile in the country. That means that profile can aid Nigeria, aid Nigeria literature and aid Nigerians in South Africa, giving a totally different positive image of people from the country

. Can you be more specific? 
Well, I’ve been lucky my children are all successful and yes, in a way its almost like being able to bring up kids in a different environment but where they don’t forget home. If you watch any of Akin’s films, or you read Yewande’s novels, or the poetry that Folayon writes (his children), you will know that as Niyi Osundare always calls me, ‘We carried everything with us from Nigeria…’ In any way, I feel fulfilled that so much has been done. The challenge I have now is how does one make up in old age, for going away. The going away on a personal level, very successful, but on the more social Nigerian based level, I feel dismayed. 

makes you think they wouldn’t have been successful if you didn’t leave the country?

The systems in which Yewande, Akin and Folayan studied and operated in allowed them to build for themselves and succeed but that is what is lacking in Nigeria. Our system here does not work. So many of our young people are talented but that talent is not picked up by the system that should pick it and that is where the problem is. That is why we are trying to see how can we set up infrastructure that would help us to build, that will make it possible for our young people to move forward. So, that is it but it is obvious that being outside Nigeria, helped a lot.

Yoruba Lalokun, promoting indegenous language in Nigeria

Yoruba Lalokun, promoting indegenous language in Nigeria

by Prisca Sam-Duru

When Adesewa Oyinkansola, student of Yaba College of Technology Secondary School, performed two poems in Yoruba language to the delight of the audience at the quarterly cultural programme, Yoruba Lakotun, the applause that followed proved that her dexterity was highly appreciated.

The applause turned into a standing ovation when she said, “I challenged my Mum that I do not want to be a stranger to my culture. My Mum agreed and today, I prefer to read my Yoruba Bible and wear Yoruba clothes.”

Her performance paved way for discussions and lamentations of how Nigerians are fast losing their indigenous languages to those of foreigners.

It was however, observed that Parents are responsible for creating a gap between children and their roots through the systematic neglect of their indigenous language.

Speaking at the cultural event hosted by Olutayo Irantiola last week at the Ethnic Heritage Centre, Ikoyi, Lagos, Mr Ayoade Okedokun, author of Ika Abamo, Omo Elede and other books in Yoruba and English languages, said, “there are certain words that cannot be translated into Yoruba language because it has no equivalent in English and vice versa.

He lamented that “Parents pay schools to teach the children English language, while the children should learn Yoruba language from their parents and immediate community. Unfortunately, many people muddled up these roles which are distinctly separate. Parents should both cooperate to ensure that their children understand the language so as not to be separated from their roots.”

Also, Ms Adebunmi Adeniran, Chief Executive of Nailangs, a virtual keyboard that can type 12 Nigerian languages with the tonal marks, expressed shock at the rate in which Yorubas make it compulsory that their children speak English when Yorubas in the Diaspora are keen about making their children understand the yoruba language.

She stressed that “Our mother tongue needs to be a reference point for many generations to come and we have to ensure that it is preserved with the use of technology and also orally as passed down from one generation to another.

The programme was dedicated to Benin Republic, a country where Yoruba language has just been adopted as the second language. Although, there is a slight variation of their Yoruba with that of those at the core of the language, it is a right step in the right direction.

Participants at the event called upon the Nigerian Government to emulate this idea rather than making International languages compulsory at the expense of Nigerian languages at all levels of learning.

File:13/03/2016\Yoruba Language (Pix) 13/03/2016/Yoruba Language

With Sandra and Child, 3,000 children have access to education

With Sandra and Child, 3,000 children have access to education — Sandra, Miss Globe

By Prisca Sam-Duru 

WITH the view to helping the Nigerian child through with quality education and entrepreneurship skills, Sandra and Child, a non-governmental organisation has flagged-off its Project 3,000 initiative tagged, “Lifting up children from poverty”. Vanguard encountered the founder of the organisation, Miss Sandra Ogbebor, during the launch of her pet project in Lagos. “The Project 3000 is an intervention and timely initiative especially owing to the high level of poverty ravaging homes due to the economy crisis the country is facing leading to drop outs and children used as child labour. Also, the project is timely as it is a positive response to reducing the rate of youth involvement in societal vices such as kidnapping, ritual killings, oil pipeline vandalisation and Boko Haram insurgency which have become prevalent.

 The Project 3,000 involves teaching at least a child who in turn teaches at least two or three other with the skills learned. Sandra and Child is poised to assist the Nigerian child in all areas of life particularly education and entrepreneurship. Its objective is to help bring up children such that they learn skills that will engage them positively as they grown up. The organisation has realised the uncommon importance of education to any given society and so, is committed to ensuring that the Nigerian child gets affordable and quality education. As education plays a major development role in the child and society, we believe entrepreneurship is also important to tag along with the quality education that Sandra and Child is giving to the children. It included the entrepreneurship programme owing to the overwhelming level of unemployment in the country. On a yearly basis, tertiary institutions graduate individuals who are pushed into the labour market so, it has become necessary for us at Sandra and Child to use our God-given talents, opportunities and contacts to assist them through scholarships to live a meaningful life. This is purely to save the Nigerian child from untold bleak future that lies ahead of them even after graduation. The centre believes that applying entrepreneurial trainings to the Nigerian children would help them become self reliant and in turn, become employers of labour.” She said.

Cyndees in amazing walk through Badagry Slave Centre

Cyndees in amazing walk through Badagry Slave Centre
 By PRISCA SAM-DURU 

In its renewed efforts towards addressing the vaccum created as a result of the removal of history as a subject from the school curriculum, the management and staff of Cyndees International Schools, Ewu Owa Gberigbe, Ikorodu, Lagos, took a practical step recently,when it took the children on an excursion to the Badagry Slave Centre. • The Children at Late Chief Seriki Williams tomb and slave museum The excursion had the primary objective of ensuring that the students and pupils are equipped with historical knowledge about Nigeria. The visit to Badagry, a small coastal town located between Lagos and Seme Border, Benin Republic with an atmosphere so serene, was an amazing experience for the children who were perhaps, enjoying for the first time, the opportunity to learn some of the events that shaped Nigeria’s history as well as some of her beautiful culture and heritage. Badagry is truly home for the most educating blend of stunning art and history and as the local tour guide took the students from one point to the other, their excitement grew. Children love story telling and the guide cleverly utilised this method to drive home every point. 


They were taught history in a very entertaining style. The tour kicked-off with a visit to Badagry Heritage Museum which habours comprehensive collection of slave trade history and relics. There, the children viewed images that vividly describe what really happened during the slave trade era. Welcome to Badagry Heritage Museum, the place where Christianity was first preached in Nigeria, the slaves drinking pot, Henry Townsend’s statue, Brazillian Baracoon Building, Art Work displaying the sorrowful tears of a slave in the Barracoon are some of the notable signs and features of the centre. The students were taken to see the tomb and Slave Museum of Chief Seriki Faremi Abass Williams, the slave who later turned a merchant after his freedom. They were shown the place that served as room where the slaves where kept for about forty days before they were sold to foreign slave masters. The visit to Late Chief Seriki Williams Abass’ Museum largely relived the ugly memory and the mind-boggling account of how some of the forefathers of Nigeria were traded for commodities such as pots, umbrella, mirror, wine, etc. After that, they saw the first story building in Nigeria and the first Bible that the missionaries brought to Nigeria. They proceeded to the Aquatic jungle where many of them enjoyed the privilege of seeing an aircraft live and also entering into it. “Education of the children is not meant to take place only in the classroom”, the Headmistress Admin, Cyndees Montesorri School, Mrs Flora Olika began explaining. According to her, the excursion became necessary because “Sometimes you find out that children just grow up within the confines of their immediate environment. They do not have the opportunity to know how life outside their environment looks like. So, it was a great opportunity for them to see what Badagry looks like. In most of their text books, they’ve read about slave trade in Nigeria so, for them to see things real in Badagry, makes more sense to them. The aquatic jungle was more than fun to them. The knowledge about something is better registered when children are taken through practical things that was the major reason for taking them to Badagry.” “The excursion was also to teach them some of the events that shaped Nigeria’s history. There is no way Nigeria’s history would be mentioned without slave trade being mentioned. It is part of teaching the children our history. We have been telling them stories about what the colonial masters did in Nigeria. Pictures and statues of some of the people that participated in bringing about what is known today as Nigeria and the man who actively participated in slave trade are on display at the centre and that make more sense to the children. Study of history is very important. I’m totally against the removal of history from the school’s curriculum and I support that it should be reintroduced in the school’s curriculum. For instance if all the things in Badagry Slave centre are not kept there for tourists, they would have been long forgotten. I know those things happened early in the 19th century or even before and many of our parents were not born by then much less most of us. Those things there help the younger generations and those to come after, to know what happened in the pre-history and history of Nigeria.”

Security: Fastanet launches new telematics solution software

Security: Fastanet launches new telematics solution software

by Prisca Sam-Duru

In a bid to assist various security agencies tackle issues of insecurity in the country, Fastanet Ltd, an NCC licenced GPS tracking service provider has launched a new high-end tracking device known as Fastanet 1.
The new cyber software which took the company two years to assemble, is a robust and versatile server platform essentially for telematics solutions which involves human and vehicle tracking, fleet management and other machine to machine communications.

The server project secures not only vehicles, but tracks a whole rang of phones and tablets including Androids, Phones, iPhones, Blackberry, windows as well as pets, humans, goods on transit, objects that are not mobile such as billboards, containers in the high sea and trains. And to beat the negative effect of inadequate power supply, the software depends on solar system to locate items being tracked across the globe.

Fastanet Chief Executive Officer, Olisa Anele, explained that the urge to support the government in their own little way to end cases of kidnapping, insecurity in general, informed launch of the software which is already helping police to carry out rescue of kidnapped victims, adding that “The company is collaborating with the police, Federal Road Safety, Standard Organisation etc to ensure safety of lives and properties of the people.
In other words, Fastanet 1 is an affordable and advance cyber platform added to the tracking business to ensure Nigerians enjoy value for their investment and also stay safe or be rescued when in troubled.”

“Fastanet 1 does more than simply tracking vehicles, it is launched in response to the teeming security challenges faced by Nigerians and law enforcement agencies on a daily basis. The telematics solutions inform the police of the whereabouts of kidnapped victims and the kidnappers. The new method now used by kidnappers is to use their victims cell phones to reach out for ransom so as not to be tracked but with Fastanet 1, in the victims device, the police are able to arrest them.

Also, telematics solutions inform users about drivers' behaviours, time to service the vehicle, the temperature of engine, gives accurate fuel consumption with the price of fuel bought or used etc.

At the moment, Fastanet is providing Abuja railway line with tracking devices to avoid accident with the use of hybrid devices.” He said.

My love for African literature pushed me into digital library—Gersy Ejimofo

My love for African literature pushed me into digital library—Gersy Ejimofo 
By PRISCA SAM-DURU 

Uk-based Gersy Ifeanyi Ejimofo is the founder of Digitalback Books, an e-book subscription service with a catalogue of comprehensive collection of African stories. With a BSc (Joint Hons) from the University of Birmingham and a Masters from the London School of Economics, Gersy left her career in the technology industry and launched into the world of digital subscription service that offers instant and unlimited access to literary works from across Africa and the Diaspora. Gersy who has worked on many projects for global publishers developing and implementing digital strategies internationally, spoke to Sunday Arts. Excerpts. 



What is Digitalback Books all about? 
Digitalback Books was launched in December 2014 and is an e-book subscription platform which offers a comprehensive collection of books written on Africa by African writers from across the world. We work with publishers from across the continent and the diaspora, to get content from them to make sure they are easily accessible. We have books from Kachifo, Z Books, African collectives and the idea behind it is that we Africans need to be more proactive about creative content. We have great writers here, great publishing houses and we have companies like Etisalat Nigeria which sponsors and encourages writing but we have a big problem around distribution as well as piracy in the country.  For me, having a digital library that people can access on their mobile device and choose subscription to enable them read the book, is something exciting. That is, to use technology to circumvent all these distribution challenges that we have.
 Isn’t this coming as a response to fears that hard copies may soon be history?
I think at the heart of, its really about finding a way to circumvent the distribution challenges that’s one thing but yes, people are moving towards digital reading in the West. Certain genre lend themselves better to reading digitally but I think in Nigeria and the continent, you can’t just walk into a bookshop and find the book you want to read, also ordering it is a challenge. So we are going digital to find a model that will circumvent the challenges. When exactly did you commence operation? Digitalback Books was soft launched in May till December 2014 and by soft launched, I mean that we launched first for a proof of concept. We wanted to show the market, that is the publishers that this is a product. With that you are not buying the books, you are buying access to a wide collection of books. So, since then we’ve been working really hard to get publishers to get more of their books. Now we have over 400 books and we are discussing with more publishers. Interestingly, we got shortlisted for the Etisalat Prize for Innovation and I’m so excited about it. 
What informed your idea of a digital library? 
Well I attended Federal Government College, Onitsha and I remember then that it was difficult to access books. Also during those days in boarding school, when people brought fiction books to school, people rushed to read, it was like gold. So, the challenge of getting books was something I remembered, it was frustrating even when we had fantastic books out there. Also, the kind of books that were available; Enid Blyton, Secret Seven were really good but now that I have kids I recognise the need for them to also read African literature as a way of exposing them to a wide variety of content. This forced me to make that available. 
Before Digitalback Books, what where you doing? 
Before the launch of Digitalback Books, I spent the first ten years of my career working in technology sector, serving the banking and insurance sector. At a point, I thought about what I want to do for the next ten years and I thought about what I’m so passionate about, what excites me, where can I add value and that’s when I made the transition but still within technology. The seed of Digitalback Books was planted many years ago when Heinemann announced the discontinuation of the African Writers Series. So, recognising that Africans need to take a more proactive approach to their creative content, and my love for African literature pushed me into starting this journey into digital distribution of books and its been very exciting. 
What’s the response like? 
The response has been fantastic. We’ve got a lot of feedback from the media, its a fantastic idea. Its a new business model having something that is focusing on African writing because there isn’t any such thing that collates our content in digital library. There’s also a lot of work to do in terms of getting classics, people want Achebe, Soyinka, Buchi Emecheta all those classics. The journey has started and we want to work for as many publishers as possible.
 Why settle with distribution, what about delving into publishing?
I think there are fantastic publishers out there and everybody has different areas where they can add value. There are self published authors and great publishers but I don’t think I can add value out there. I think it is in distribution, to connect the dots, and that’s where I see technology being very relevant. 
How does it work?
When you go online, you can select the subscription period of one to nine months, depending on how long you want to read and you pay up front. Then you read as many books as you want.
Isn’t this an easy meal for piracy? 
Not at all. Aside subscribing to read online, you can also download our App to enable you read offline as well and at the end of the subscription period, the book disappears. So you see, you don’t own the book but just using the content.
But they say reading culture of Nigerians is poor…?
I don’t think so. People are reading and there are good books it depends on what they are looking for or what they are reading. 
How do you rate African literature? 
People write different themes. Its a journey and I think Africa literature is very exciting. We’ve been focusing on fiction but publishers forum have been encouraging publishing houses to look at other genres rather than focusing on literary fiction.