Nigerians and jungle justice

By Yemi Ademowo Johnson

The rumble in the Nigerian political jungle, most especially the Appeal Court judgments, seems to have blanketed every other issue that needs urgent atten tion in the polity. While not controverting Nkrumah’s saying of “seeking first the political kingdom”, a discerning mind must likewise know that security and justice are also vital as politics. One of such issues that begs for urgent attention, and if need be, legislative intervention is a form of extra-judicial killing known as jungle justice.

A scene in the Shakespearean epic play, Julius Caesar, gives a classic example of what the improper management of our five minutes psychiatric disorder could do to our sense of sane judgment. In the scene, a “perverted” mob having listened to Mark Anthony’s ode at the funeral of Caesar seized Cinna, and days after; they lynched him only to realize that he didn’t kill Caesar. But the irrevocable harm had already been done. This is a typical example of what is commonplace in many Nigerian cities and towns; the record of the Nigerian Police Force in various divisions across Nigeria speaks volume of this development. Newspapers’ headlines say it all: “Three lynched in Lagos for alleged theft”, “Five burnt alive for robbery”, “Irate youths set suspected witch ablaze”, “Teenager roasted for snatching phone set”. Guilty or not, it is undeniable that countless persons have been sent to the land beyond for being suspected of having committed one offence or the other.

If anyone is still in the dark as to the essence of writing on this topic, let’s define “jungle justice” for more clarification. Jungle justice is a form of extra-judicial killing wherein a suspect on apprehension (or being caught) is condemned to death either by beating or burning. In some cases, some are not even caught in the act but “merely suspected” to have partaken or have the intention of partaking in the act. “Instant judgment” which in most cases is death penalty is the goal of jungle justice. The mob therefore becomes the arrester, the prosecutor, the judge and the executioner. And because it is not easy to combine the duties involved in these roles without conflict, the last role, the executioner role, is prioritized over others. This usually makes the “judgment” very fast to deliver; within ten minutes, (with total disregard for judicial jargons such as fair hearing, procedural objections and cross examination), the judgment is passed and executed without option of appeal. This, undoubtedly, is man’s cruelty against fellow man!

The question is: why turn to instant judgment when there are governmental agencies to take care and possibly prosecute arrested suspects? This question is asked on the premise that it is not wrong for responsible citizens to apprehend suspected criminals. But having the duty to assist the law enforcement agency in arresting does not transcend to prosecution; citizens are simply to arrest and hand over such persons to the agency in charge of the offence for possible prosecution. They are not to beat to death nor set ablaze the suspect. One is, however, mindful of the opinion that is rife in the public arena that policemen are not trustworthy.

Take the case of a middle age man caught with his group while robbing a family and handed over to the police by a popular militia group in Lagos. Two weeks later, the same man was caught while attempting to escape after robbing a whiteman three streets from the last operation. Unfortunately for him, the mob violently resisted the police attempt to rescue him from their “blood thirsty” fury. He was decorated with two unused tyres, bathed with two litres of premium motor spirit (petrol) and then set ablaze. Although the mob that perpetrated this act may appear justified based on the fact that he was earlier spared of the dastard treatment, the fact remains that he should not have been killed! While he should not be spared of maximum shishi (serious beating), if caught in the act, he should not be burnt. Setting him ablaze, or beating him to death, does not correct him but rather it is a kind of vengeance. And since most people agree that the goal of punishment should not be vengeance but correction or reformation, it then follows that jungle justice is wrong.

Two factors are clearly responsible for the prevalence of the act (as could be gleaned from the case cited above): lack of trust in the police and peoples’ frustration. The Nigeria Police pride themselves as the friend of the public but the public seem not to have the feeling of friendship towards the police. Policemen are seen as nothing but a paragon of corruption. This unhealthy feeling of distrust is the result of the dealings of the public with the police; the countless unjustifiable arrests, victimization and prosecution of innocent citizens while criminals walk freely and enjoy police protection. The distrust in the “men in black”, as the Nigeria policemen are erroneously called because of their black uniform, results in lack of public confidence in the manner they handle criminal cases and consequently the people evolve an instant judgment scheme, that is, jungle justice, to counter police corrupt handling of criminal cases. The frustrations experienced by the public in the hands of dare devil robbers and the inability of the law enforcement agents to adequately tackle the cases, have been proffered as the second reason for the resolve to mob justice. According to the argument, the distrust is not a sole factor but also, in some cases, the incapacitation/helplessness of the law enforcement agents. More so, it has been discovered that it is mostly the economically frustrated citizens around, like the unemployed persons and the street urchins, a.k.a Area Boys, that have been battered in the search for daily bread, that vent their anger on the suspect. It then becomes an avenue for such person to ease off the bottled frustration in them.

As plausible as the two reasons might sound, both seem not to have considered innocent victims of the dastard act. Besides, the suspects are also assumed innocent by the Nigerian legal system until found guilty “by a competent court of law”. Whether deliberately shunned or ignorantly done, the law of the land must not be trampled upon for any reason. This is the dictate of the rule of law. Therefore, the law should be allowed to take its course in both directions: on the suspects and the irate mob. The suspect according to the law is innocent, even if caught in the act, until found guilty. So be it! Whoever pronounced him/her guilty in act or deed outside of a “competent court of law” violates the law; and since law is no respecter of persons or group, such should be prosecuted accordingly; such person or group of persons should be charged with manslaughter or complicity in murder.

Our polity surely craves for sanity and the only way we can instill some sanity is to, at least, tame the rampaging increase in mob justice in our polity by enacting a law specifically banning and recommending appropriate jail term/fine to deter the perpetrators. Frankly speaking, the culprits or suspects have wrecked havocs on their victims but since two wrongs don’t make a right, burning or beating them to death surely is no panacea to the problem. Rather, the Nigerian government should be more responsible in providing jobs and opportunities for the commonplace idle hands, the potential devil’s workshops, which can readily become either the suspect or a member of the “mad mob”.

Johnson is Editor, YouthSpeak, Belgium

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE - Opinion

An email from Asuquo Okon to Sam Ikpe-Itauma (CRARN), Gary Foxcroft , replies and a legal write from Helen Ukpabio.

Dear Mr Sam Ikpe-Itauma,

I just came in to Uyo two days ago from Lagos when I found this poster and other adverts especially Radio and TV, by the Liberty Gospel Church Headed by Helen Ukpabio, inviting members of the public to come for deliverance from witchcraft power. As I am writing now there is a foot-soldier rally by thousands of their members running around Uyo with flyers and loud spearkers making a hell of noise to attract the ignorant people fo the witchcraft campaign

I know, from expirience that this is another campaig to falsely identify witches and wizards. I am writing to know if there is any way you and yur organisation can rightly stop it from holding. It is highly diturbing if the Government of Akwa State is not aware of this planned rally with the high level of publicity being given to it.

I know from the study of your website www.crarn.org and news about in newspapers and internet there is a lot of work for you and your organisation, but some sensitve issues like this shouldnt be ignored. I know, too, there have been attempts on your live. Only God will protect you and the children CRARN is taking care of.

I wrote two days ago to the Governor complaining about this, I dont know if it has got to him. I wish you could please, let him know that this campaign wil not bring anything good spiritually or physically to the state; and therefore put a stop to it.

From the past where these kinds campaign and rally were held, what good result has it brought to the State or the Country apart from merely identifying people as witches and wizards or creating fears in minds of peolpe, enslaving them and sowing seeds of discord in the families. It sad that churches have stopped preaching about salvation, repentance and charity, But are deeply preaching about witchcraft as if it has now become God.

Plaese, do let me know what you think about this.

Thank you for spending time on this issue.

Mr. Asuquo Okon

______________________________________________________________________

Dear Asuquo,

I really thank you for expressing your concern to CRARN about this witchcraft belief. Undoubtedly, I am not working with government and as such I can not hold brief for them. I will forward your concern to the government. I do believe they will do something about it. At least your piece will let the people to know that we are no longer the alone in quest to fight superstition and ignorance.

I will definitely like people like you to come on board and shout to the peak to end this unfortunate belief. But I want to let you know that even the government are not only coming up with policy to outlaw the practice of stigmatisation but also going ahead to arrest those found culpable. This shows some level of concern on their part and gives credence to the fact that, contrary to what some religious leaders are saying that we want to deceive people with our strange belief about the existence of witchcraft and that no child is stigmatsed by churches and their leaders.

I want to strongly observe here that the timing of your e-mail is to a greater extent, belated, given the fact that the rally begings today. I arrived the State yesterday after a two-day journey. We discussed this briefly yester evening, and we will keep a close whatch on some religious activities and let the public know. I know it is a crime that we must continue commit - I mean letting the people know that in Akwa Ibom State, there is no civil unrest, no civil diturbances,no state of emmergency, no tribal war, no communal clashes. What we have is the branding of inncent children as witches and wizards in churches, torture, trafficking and even killing. There is no doubt about this, as we have monumental evidence to show for this.

If we are able to override ignorance and the fear arising from superstition, Akwa Ibom State will be a near-heaven State. Akwa Ibom will be 100% ok. Please, don't doubt me. For instance, the Niger Delta Militants dont have abode here, they come from neigbhouring States, including the bank robbers and sea pyrates. There is no hiding place for them in Akwa Ibom State.

You are correct to say that some miscreants are gunning for our heads. But if fighting for the right, suvival and freedom of innocent children is a crime that needs our heads, we shall continue to commit the crime.

I have just received a letter from the Evangelist Helen Ukpabio's Liberty Gospel church Lawyer demanding apology and a whooping N10Billion from CRARN or we will face prosecution from March 31st 2009. May be we will have to pack the 180 children in the CRARN Centre and give to them to mint out the money from them.

I hope to leave you now.

Thanks.

Sam Ikpe-Itauma

The President

Child's Right And Rehabilitation Network (CRARN),

Ikot Afaha-Idung Ukpa,

P. M. B. 1042 Eket, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria.

Visit our websites @ www.crarn.org or http://crarn.tripod.com

Phone (Hotline ): +2348026693099

Talk to the children direct, call +2348086754666

Regististered with Corperate Affairs Commission Abuja, Nigeria.

Charity Number: CAC/IT/No 27195

CRARN: Protecting and rehabilitating a child.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Dear Sam/Asuquo,

Many thanks for this. It seems that Helen Ukpabio is trying to show her
strength in the State and, like CRARN, Stepping Stones received a legal
writ yesterday demanding $1billion !!!!

My feeling is that we need to respond to this as quickly as possible. It
would seem that her "Crusade" in Uyo is for three days. This gives us time
to pressure the State Government to stop it or at very least monitor her
activities.

Ultimately this Crusade has the potential to cause great embarresment for
the Akwa Ibom state Government, should we choose to take the issue to the
international media, who I am sure would be very interested in the story.

Ultimately though the State Government have been taking a very commendable
lead on this so I think we you always try to focus on the positive
interventions. I just hope that they will see the need to do something
about this crazy woman and prevent further reputational damage being
rought on Akwa Ibom.

Let us not ever forget that this woman is evil and unGodly. One day soon
she will get what is coming to her.

Look forward to hearing your views on this,

GAry

--
Programme Director

Stepping Stones Nigeria,
24 St Leonard's House,
St Leonard's Gate,
Lancaster,
Lancs,
LA1 1NN,
UK.

Tel Office: 0845 3138391

www.steppingstonesnigeria.org

Protecting, Saving and Transforming the Lives of Vulnerable and
Disadvantaged Children In the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria

Registered UK and Wales charity number 1112476
Company number 05413970

____________________________________________________________________________________________
1Helen Ukpabios request N10 2Helen Ukpabios request N10

3Helen Ukpabios request N10 4Helen Ukpabios request N10

CHILD WITCHES: POLICE ARREST A PASTOR, 2 PARETNTS.

Police in Uyo have arrested a Pastor in the Mount Zion Church and two parents in an effort by the Akwa Ibom State Government to curb the rising spate of abandonment, torture and killing of children due to stigmatization that they are witches and wizards.

Pastor Samuel, 45, Mr. Udeme Atama, 36 and Mr. Samuel Okon Abia 55 from Ntak Inyang and Afaha Ekpenedi respectively in Esit Eket L. G. A. were all arrested yesterday morning. Ekemini Okon Abia, 13

Mr. Samuel Okon Abia was said to have tied Ekemini Okon Abia, 13, his last daughter with wire rope round her two ankles in a dark room, where goats and chicken are kept for more than two weeks without food and water after a pastor in the Methodist Church Nigeria declared her a witch, beat her up and disgraced her out of the church in an annual convention. When Ekemini became frail and about to die, she was bundled and dumped into the forest to die. But luck came way when the wife of the youth leader of Afaha Ekpenedi found her while searching for goats’ straw and invited CRARN to rescue her. While Abigail Udeme’s hand was forced into the fire by her father, because Pastor Eno Daniel told the father in a prayer session that Abigail was responsible family’s problem through her witchcraft power. Abigail was rescued by CRARN since 2006 having been abandoned.


Superintendent of Police in charge of Anti-Trafficking Unit, Police Headquarters, Uyo, Mr. Enoh who lead the crack team, said the Police is determined to arrest anyone who indulged in child abuse no matter his status in the society.

Speaking to news men shortly after the operation, Mr. Sam Ikpe-Itauma, the President, Child’s Right and Rehabilitation Network (CRARN) who lead the team that guided the police said they dressed in coverall, safety boots and helmets like oil company workers to
conceal their intention, as the suspects always took to their heals when they discovered police presence; and that his organization would always campaign for the survival of the stigmatized children and the right of children in general, despite the danger involved in it.

‘We will not rest on our oars. We shall continue to campaign for the survival, freedom and the right of the Akwa Ibom children, the Nigerian children. We know, our lives are under threat, but we shall not give up. These children are not witches; they deserve not death but life and respect…’ Mr. Ikpe-Itauma told news men.

In a telephone chat, the Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Aniekan Umana thanked Mr. Ikpe-Itauma for his organization’s role in exposing the activities of the phony men of God and some parents who are bent on smearing the image of the state and country for their selfish reason.

He said government would continue to fish out these criminal minded elements in the society. Mr. Umana said that all those arrested would face prosecution soon in court.

Meanwhile, the Uyo High court on Monday adjourned sitting for the hearing of ‘Bishop’ Sunday William Ulup-Aya and nine others for 1st of April, 2009.

‘Bishop’ Ulup-Aya is standing trial for the comments he allegedly made in a UK channel 4 documentary ‘Saving Africa’s Witch Children’ which he claimed to have killed 110 children.

Culled from CRARN Bulletin of 20/03/09

UNICEF Explains 2009 SOWC Report

Enugu — UNICEF Chief Field officer, Enugu, Mrs. Maureen Zubie-Okolo, last week clarified the controversy surrounding figures contained in 2009 World Children's report, about the state of children in Nigeria, saying the data were verifiable and a good instrument for advocacy.

In her opening remark at a two-day media dialogue on the State of the World's Children Report in Enugu, Okolo said the report which is produced annually with data on every country was aimed at scaling up country action on reducing infant mortality.It could be recalled that the First Lady, Hajiya Turai Yar'Adua and Prof. Dora Akunyili, Minister of Information and Communication, at the launch of the Report, had commented that the Report failed to take cognisance of government efforts to reduce infant mortality, thereby requesting for improvement on future reports.

Okolo however said the rating as contained in the Report was not aimed at ridiculing any country but to serve as a potent resource for countries to evaluate the state of their children.

"UNICEF was working with government on an Integrated Maternal Newborn and Child strategy to reduce incidences of infant and maternal mortality in the country.

"Such strategies include; massive immunisation support to government and support for the roll back malaria project to avert preventable infant deaths."

She however, called on the media to champion the advocacy of putting child survival issues on the front burner, adding that media as a partner in development has a great role to play in ensuring that children remained a developmental issue.

Speaking on the rising "Child Witches" phenomenon, Mrs Nneka Oguagha, UNICEF Child Protection specialist attributed the cause to poverty, breakdown of family structure and collapse of extended family and increase in violence against children.

She said the practice was rooted in traditional beliefs. UNICEF has concluded arrangements to establish child protection networks for prevention of violence, abuse, trafficking and child labour in vulnerable states, adding that the fund would undertake a study on the phenomenon.

The State of the World's Children 2009 focuses on maternal and newborn health and identifies the intervention and actions that must be scaled up to save millions of lives. The report details the urgent action needed to accelerate progress worldwide to meet the MDG target to reduce maternal mortality ratio by three quarters by 2015.

allAfrica.com

Child Witch Syndrome and Killing of Harmless Children

Utit-Ofon, aged seven years, and her 10-month-old sister, Utibe, were pronounced to be 'witches' by a local church in February 2008, in Uquo, a village in Esit Eket Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. The natives describe the community as a notorious haven for child witches who “fly even in the daytime.”

Disturbed by the pronouncement of the church, their mother, Mayen Sunday-John, decided to end it all with her two daughters. Mayen's decision was based on the fact that once a child is “confirmed'' to be a witch or wizard, he or she is stigmatised and until a church conducts a purification exercise, the child stands condemned in the family, as well as in the community.
Mayen, in her 30s, had just lost her husband, and to heighten her sorrow, her husband's building was razed by a mysterious fire thereafter. Her mini-mart also went down in calamity. The string of disasters must certainly be the evil machinations of her biological daughters, the church declared.

These signs portrayed her children as witches because when a calamity befalls a family, especially in this way and in this part of the country, then there must be witches among the children. All Mayen wanted was a confirmation of her mindset, and in no other place than the church whose pastors claimed to have “cleansed the child 'witches' and 'wizards' of their evil powers for pecuniary reward.


Unfortunately, Mayen could not afford the N15, 000 charged by the church to cleanse and set her children “free” and, out of anger and frustration, she sent the daughters to a centre established by a non-governmental organisation (NGO), the Child Rights and Rehabilitation Network (CRARN). Mayen swore “never to see the children again.'' However, two weeks after, the mother yielded, at least momentarily.

So she went for the younger daughter and turned her back on Utit-Ofon, the older girl. It was not until August 2008 that the centre, situated at Ikot Afaha in Eket, and rumoured among the locals to possess “healing powers,'' reconciled Utit-Ofon with her mother.

“We don't have spiritual power to exorcise these children who are not witches in the first place. What we do is counseling and taking good care of those who become unaffected after a while,'' remarks the President of the network, Sam Ikpe-Itauma.

Yet in a run-down fishing settlement at Ibaka, near Oron, in the same state, lives Julie Isaac Usung-Urua, who abandoned her eight-year-old daughter, Comfort Edet Okon, at the centre for six years because the girl was declared a witch and a social pollutant. As in other tales of child witchcraft, Julie, 48, lived a life of comfort with her Nigerian husband in Cameroon before separation.

She had six children, but only three survived, including Comfort, the last child. She relocated with her children to Nigeria in 2003 and remarried, but lived with her relations, who later started to accuse her of bringing misfortune to the family members. “As fishermen, my relations started complaining of shrinking catches the day Comfort was brought home,'' recounts Julie. So, the “root cause'' of the misfortune, of course, was Comfort, who was later beaten to a pulp and made to “confess'' after a church had declared her a witch.

Comfort became the first child to be rescued and admitted to the rehabilitation centre in 2003, but was reconciled with her mother on January 28, this year. Observers wonder why any sane mother, after carrying two pregnancies successfully in a country where maternal and child mortality is one of the highest in the world, tag her children witches and throw them away? What would make a mother reject her child after she had lost three already?

“I was misled by a church and the community, and I fell into it because I was down and out, and there was nowhere to turn to. I regret my action and I hope my children have forgiven me,'' says Mayen. “I went back to take the younger one because I started having sleepless nights, and because of the church's hold on me with its pronouncements on my children; I became hardened against my first child.

“The other reason for the abandonment is the community that stigmatised my children, but God could not have been happy with me if I had allowed them to die,'' recalls the mother amid sobs. As she lay on her back in the thatched apartment, cuddling her children at Uquo village, Mayen recounts with nostalgia the good old days when her husband was alive. Now she is a squatter in this building, the dwelling place of her aunt and her husband.

“I need a home and money to start a small business so I can send the children to school. You only think of witches and wizards when you lack money, and that is why the church has capitalised on people's misfortune,'' she speaks through an interpreter. Mayen says since the return of her children, no catastrophe has befallen the family, attesting to the fact that all is well with them spiritually, physically and mentally.

“I now look at some of these churches as a place of deceit, though I still go to the church, not that particular church,'' she says, pointing in its direction. So government should investigate their activities,'' she adds. Her daughter, Utit-Ofon, looking healthy and oblivious of her past, expresses joy at being reconciled with her mother.

“I am longing to go back to school because I was in primary II at the centre,'' she says. If Utit-Ofon is happy, perhaps Comfort could be described an embodiment of ecstasy. After being denied parental care for six years out of her 14 years of living, she was back home at last on January 28, from the centre.

Popularly referred to as the “Mother of the Camp'', being the first girl to be rescued and brought to the centre, Comfort says: “Although I miss my colleagues, there is nothing as sweet as home.'' She was already in Primary 5 in the school run by the centre, and to ensure continuity in her education, the centre has awarded her a scholarship up to the university level. “I am not a witch, and no matter what has happened to me, I will ensure that I use my past to straighten my future and be an ambassador for child survival and protection,'' Comfort says.

Her mother is equally happy over the reunion, saying that ``her (Comfort's) absence haunted me. ``At a stage, I became convinced that she was not a witch, so I started visiting her at the centre up to 2006, and when I felt she was comfortable enough, I stopped not because I did not want her, but because I had no means to support her if I had removed her from the centre,'' she says through an interpreter.

Now a grandmother, Julie is appealing to other parents to have a change of heart and reunite with their children still living in the centre in a process that requires government intervention.
The centre has reunited at least 100 of such children with their parents, according to Ikpe-Itauma, the CRARN President. “It is sad that some churches, instead of being intermediaries, have compounded the child-witch phenomenon by diagnosing without curing. “Government and Christian associations should step into this,'' Mayen counsels.

Mayen and Julie discovered their folly in time and made attempt to unite with their abandoned witch children. There are many mothers who have been brainwashed to believe that their children are witches and wizards and therefore abandoned in homes like CRARN. Those children who are not lucky to be picked up from the streets and churches walk the streets day and night. These are abused children.

According to Mrs. Nneka Oguagha, child protection specialist with UNICEF, the child witch phenomenon is rooted in the traditional beliefs of the people of the south-south region of Nigeria. The practice, she said is based on the premise that the child is exercising or invoking supernatural powers to control people or events and involving sorcery or magic.

Speaking at a recent UNICEF workshop for journalists held in Enugu, Enugu State, Oguagha said from the research undertaken by the UN body, oral traditional stories and folklore from the area passed down believe that witches are usually frail, old people especially those who outlive their children. She said in some cases old witches would transfer their craft to their children as a means of protection.

Some respondents, she added, claim that as more and more aged witches were dying, they found it difficult to find members among the younger population who were now born again and religious, therefore incapable of being initiated. They therefore moved to the very young who are impressionable and vulnerable.


Several reasons are adduced for accusing children of being witches. They include varying range of misfortunes in the family or community such as sickness and death in the family, infertility, loss of job and poor sales in the market. Other reasons are sleep-walking and mental disorders as well as the situation where there is a step mother or father following the remarriage of a biological parent.

The accusers or those who pronounce children as witch include parents, step parents, siblings, pastors or herbalists in healing homes. The accusers may decide to carry out the local remedy or may seek help from a deliverance minister, pastor or herbalist; hence the deliverance takes place in churches, prayer homes, shrines and traditional medicine practitioners. Victims are most times forced to confess that they are witches since they had no option than to confess for fear of beating and to avoid the ordeal of further questioning. Usually, the confessions, THISDAY learnt are made under duress or even hypnosis. Questions are asked repeatedly if the victim is going to the witch world, this questioning may be accompanied by threats until the child succumbs in fear.
Mrs. Oguagha added that method of deliverance include prayer which may go on for days or months, fasting for periods of up to one week or month, administration of concoctions, tying up or chaining the victims, beating with local stem-mbritam (good at inflicting maximum pain), hot poker up the anus, torture by pouring acid, abandoning in the bush or market place as well as driving nail into the head or pouring petrol and setting ablaze. Other methods are burying alive or forcing the victim to drink mixed cement.

Experts, including Mrs. Oguagha, have identified contributing factors that is pushing the practice of accusing children as witches. These factors include financial pressure faced by parents, family conflicts and death either of the parents which most often create step parenting, poverty, breakdown of family structure and collapse of extended family, cultural practices and beliefs as well as increase in violence against children.

Investigations have also shown that the social implications if child witches phenomenon include stigma and discrimination which leaves the children with feelings of rejection and abandonment and subsequent elimination of the potential for personal development and achievements in life. Some of the children also experience severe trauma, fear, anxiety, insecurity and shattered self esteem, while others are drawn into street life being exposed to further exploitation and abuse while suffering possible lasting injury or disability.

Interestingly, many organisations are now intervening in making sure that this tragedy against children is stopped forthwith. For example the Akwa Ibom state Government is disturbed that such practices against children still exist in the state. As a result, Governor Godswill Akpabio who was miffed by the news and the involvement of the church gave a stern warn to pastors of church operating in the state to refrain from encouraging such practices. Not stopping at that, the governor accented to the child right bill as passed by the state House of Assembly as a way of protecting the children in the state.

UNICEF has also intervened in an attempt to stop the practice. The UN agency's attention was drawn to the phenomenon by NAPTIP, Uyo office, Stepping Stone Nigeria (SSN) and the child Rights and Rehabilitation Network-the non-governmental organisation currently running a shelter for about 140 child victims in Esit-Eket in Akwa Ibom State. Using the information gathered, UNICEF 'A' Field Office visited CRARN centre and provided drugs, foodstuffs and recreational materials to the children residing in the centre. UNICEF, THISDAY learnt subsequently commissioned a study on “The causes and prevalence of accusation of witchcraft among children in Akwa Ibom.”

NAPTIP, Uyo Zonal Office this year arrested three suspects on the issue. Two of the suspects are being investigated by the organisation against human trafficking. Both suspects were caught with nine children dubbed witches being taken to a prophet in neighbouring Abia State for deliverance. All the children are from Anambra State and have been reunited with their families. The third suspect was handed over to the police for further investigation and the 17 children were rescued from him. The suspects, it was learnt, collects money from people to deliver children from witchcraft.

However, just as Mayen demands, Julie also wants government to empower indigent parents to check the rampant abandonment of children. “It is only among poor people that cases of child witch and wizard exist,'' she says. Observers also note that at last, the state government has waded into the issue, with the arrest and the prosecution of some pastors, the construction of rehabilitation centres and the strengthening of the law to protect children from all forms of abuse and neglect has been put in place.

A child rights advocate, Mr Adewole Adeoye, wants the government to identify the children at the rehabilitation centres and return them to their parents as well as fund their education without further delay.

Their parents should be offered jobs and loans to start their lives afresh, while the government should step up its enlightenment campaign against the child witch trend, he suggests.

THISDAY ONLINE

Elitsa will die if she doesn't receive a Stem Cell Treatment, please help.

A friend of mine on Care2 sent me a message about one of her friends on Care2 that is living in Bulgaria. Her name is Elitsa Kostadinova Borisova, she has Spinal Muscular Atrophy - SMA Type 2 is also called intermediate spinal muscular atrophy. She is 28 years old, a year older than my daughter.

This is the message she sent my friend:

Hi my precious friends! I am writing you this card to tell you 'I love you and Good Bye for ever" because I am dying. As a SMA patient my condition rapidly got worse and my lung muscles do not have any power to work and my whole body system breaks down.

The only one chance for me to stay alive and recover is a stem cell treatment in China which costs $30 000 but I do not have this money so I am waiting for my end. That's why I want to tell you that it was a great pleasure to know you and take part in this fantastic community! Good Bye my sweet sweet friends! I love you!!!

SMA type 2, also called Intermediate SMA, is the most common type of SMA. It allows for a longer lifespan than SMA Type 1, but a shorter-than-normal lifespan overall. Lifespan may go until the 20s or 30s. Respiratory infection is the most common cause of death in type 2. SMA type 2 begins either between 6 and 18 months or after the child has demonstrated she or he can sit without support (after being placed in a sitting position).

Symptoms of type 2 include deformity, motor delay, enlarged calf muscles and tremors in the fingers. Proximal muscles that lie closest to the spine are affected with weakness first; the legs will become weak before the arms. Children with type 2 SMA will never be able to walk without assistance. The good news is that the child with SMA will most likely be able to perform tasks with their arms and hands, such as keyboarding, feeding, etc. It has been observed that children with SMA type 2 are very intelligent. Physical therapy, assistive devices and power wheelchairs can go a long way toward contributing to a meaningful life for children with SMA type 2.

Here is my life story:

I am 28 and when I was a child, I was diagnosed as a SMA Type 2 patient (a disease which weakens your muscles so fast and fatally that you are not able to walk and move alone at all). Since then, every minute of my life is a terrible fight to achieve my aims and prove my skills in the ‘tolerant’ Bulgarian society. Despite being treated as a rubbish all the time, I managed to become an English tutor thanks to my parents who could hardly make the both ends to pay for my education because none of the teachers wanted to visit me at home free of charge. Since 2003 I have been teaching English at home and I became so good at this action that I did not have enough vacancies for all the pupils who needed my lessons. In the course of my work I made lots of friends and I gradually put up with my hopeless condition. But in June 2008 my life changed totally when I heard that my disease is possible to be treated by stem cell transplants in Beike Hospital, China and the chance for me to be recovered is 70 – 80%. Unfortunately the treatment cost $30 000 for 7 stem cell injections (the maximum amount suitable for destroying SMA) and continues 25 – 35 days. The same kind of treatment is offered by the Repair Stem Cell Institute http://www.repairstemcells.org/Home.aspx with the cost of $10 000 - $24 000 and after consulting it, I was defined as suitable for it. When my ‘friends’ and pupils heard about that they were missing without a trace being afraid of being asked for a possible financial support for me – they changed their phone numbers and deleted me from their Skype list as if we had never known each other. Only my parents and my 17 year old brother stand by me and fight every day to raise the money I need in spite of our relatives who left us considering our aim as doomed. After my father’s ask for a loan was rejected by all the banks, businessmen and even his employer with the argument that our monthly family income is too low to pay the loan off ( my dad’s salary as a high-skilled electrician is $350, my mum is unemployed because she looks after me permanently without having any financial support by our country for that and my disability pension is only $60) there were two variants in front of us – to sell our small flat or a new job for my dad abroad. We chose the second variant and since August 23, 2008 my dad and brother have been living in Dublin, Ireland (the country with one of the highest living standards in Europe called the new ‘economic tiger’) After lots of difficulties my father managed to find a well paid job in a small building company and he saved the first 2 000 euro for me but the world crisis froze the building process there and he lost his job … Then the situation got worse because Ireland used series of repressive obstacles against my dad and brother who is the most excellent student in Rossmini High School there. That country refused them any children allowance, dole (unemployment benefit) and rent allowance with the argument that my dad does not have social insurance and Work Permit (a document which gives the Bulgarian and Rumanian people rights to work legally in Ireland). My father applied for a Work Permit but the authorities did not give him one because they said that Ireland did not need new immigrants especially Bulgarians in this world crisis … And without having this document my dad and brother do not have any rights for financial support there and now they are starving and wondering how to survive … But apart from these obstacles that we believe are caused mostly by the world crisis, we like Ireland very much and the aim of our family is to settle there forever after the end of my possible treatment because this country can offer us a calm way of life, good climate, big opportunities for education for my brother and of course a perfect medical care for all of us … Corruption, crimes and poverty are not the image of Ireland as they are shown in Bulgaria and therefore we plan to live there together. Above all we believe that my dad will succeed in raising the sum I need but because of my permanent lung infections that are characteristic for all the people with SMA, my organism weakens every minute and if I do not speed my departure to China I may be too weak to endure this treatment (I am 160 cm. tall and 35 kg. weigh) and thus missing my last chance to walk. Therefore I would like kindly to ask you to help me visit whatever of the both hospitals described above giving us a financial support … If you help me, my whole family will do our best to contribute to your organization by all financial and other means till the end of our life because we are honest and hard working people who always keep their promise given.

Thank you in advance and wish you all the best!

Elitsa Borisova

Here is her medical information:

Medical History and Current Treatment

Disease / Injury History:

[This should be a very detailed statement of the patient’s medical history and include Primary Diagnosis information]

ELECTROMYOGRAPHY TEST NUMBER 198

ELECTROMYOGRAPHY

CONSULTING

ROOM

TEL. +359(2)4344-525/395

MUSCLES AT REST AP VOLUNTARY AP

FIB. SHARP+ WAVES DURATION OF AMPLITUDE FORM DATA

m/sec. mV

M. ABD. DIG. V. SIN. 10-12-15, THREE-PHASE, POSITIVE

M. ABD. POLL. BR. SIN.

M. DELTOIDEUS

M. GASTROCNEMIUS

M. EXT. DIG. BR. SIN.

M. ABD. HALL. DEX.

M. TIB. ANT. SIN. SINGLE, AP

M. BICEPS. BR. SIN 15-20, POLYPHASE,A SINGLE

M. QUADRICEPS. FEM. SIN GROUP, AP 4, REINERVATION,

STRANGE

FLOW RATE ON THE MOTOR FIBRES AND DISTAL LATENCIES

NERVES FLOW RATE DLF M-ANSWER F-WAVE

m/sec m/ sec mV ms uV

STANDARD STANDARD

N. ULNARIS SIN. 65 46-60 4 2, 5 – 4, 0

N. RADIALIS SIN.

N. MEDIANUS SIN. 75 46-59 4. 2 3, 0 – 4, 5

N. AXILLARIS SIN. 4. 0 – 5. 0

N. FIBULARIS SIN. 43-66 7, 0

N. FIBULARIS DEX.

N. TIBIALIS DEX. 41-60 7, 3

N. TIBIALIS SIN.

SENSE PERCEPTION LATENCY (m/sec) SNAP (uV)

N. ULNARIS SIN. 2. 7 102

N. MEDIANUS SIN. 3 28. 3

N. SURALIS SIN.

CONCLUSION: M. QUADRICEPS. FEM. SIN SHOWS “STRANGE” BURSTING WHEN IT IS AT REST. THE SHOULDER GIRDLE MUSCLES HAVE SINGLE REINERVATION AMPLITUDE AND SINGLE ACTION POTENTIALS WITH A LONG DURATION AND HIGH REINERVATION AMPLITUDES (A TYPICAL NEUROGENE RECORD). WHEN N. FIBULARIS. SIN IS STIMULATED, THERE IS NOT M-ANSWER GIVEN BY M. EXTENSOR. DIG. BR. SIN AND M. TIBIALIS. ANT. SIN. THE FLOW RATE ON N. ULNARIS SIN AND N. MEDIANUS SIN AND THE MOTOR AND SENSUAL FIBRES, IS STANDARD.

ELECTROMYOGRAPHY TEST SHOWS A FRONT HORN DAMAGE / CLINICAL DEFINITION OF SPINAL MUSCULAR ATROPHY TYPE 2.

DR. B. ISHPEKOVA

Signature:

UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL

BIALO MORE 8 STR., SOFIA, BULGARIA

Past Surgeries and / or Rehabilitation Treatments:

[Include type of treatment received, date of the treatment and overall outcome]

There are not any

Current Symptoms:

[Include the patient’s current condition and physical problems he or she is experiencing]

Can sit without support but can not walk at all.

Current Medications:

[Include Name, Dosage and Reason for using]

No medicines/drugs are taken

­­­­­­­­

Does the patient have any metal plates / rods?

[If yes, please describe along with the location]

[If yes, please bring copies of the most current MRI/CT films for review. These can be the actual films or an electronic copy]

No, she does not

Does the patient have any allergies to medications and / or other substances?

[If yes, please explain and provide details about the symptoms and allergic responses affecting the patient]

No, she does not

Does the patient have any communicable illnesses such as HIV, Hepatitis, TB, Herpes and sexually transmitted diseases?

[If yes, please explain and provide details about the illness history]

No, she does not

Is there or has there ever been a presence of malignant or benign tumors and / or cancer in the patient?

[If yes, please describe in detail]

No, there is not and there have not been any of these

Does the patient have a pacemaker?

[If yes, please explain why and what type]

No, she does not

Does the patient have a continuous medication pump?

[If yes, please explain why and what type]

No, she does not

Does the patient have a feeding tube?

[If yes, please describe the type of tube and type of pump used, and if it is used for feeding and/or medications]

Note: Not all pumps are compatible with electrical currents in China. Plan to bring adapters for all pump supplies. Please also bring additional supplies for gravity feeding in the even the pump fails.

No, she does not

Is the patient on a ventilator? No, she is not

Does the patient have a tracheotomy? No, she does not

Does the patient require suctioning? No, she does not

Does the patient currently have any bed sores? No, she does not

[If so, please describe in detail] Is the patient a returning client?

[If yes, please detail all past stays including hospital location, dates, number of injections and price you paid]

No, she is not

Has the patient ever received cells from another treatment company?

No, she is not

What are the patient’s hopes for this treatment? I hope that I will be able to walk without any support

How did the patient find out about this treatment?

[Please be specific in your explanation]

I saw some clips in UTUBE

Thank you for your interest in stem cell treatment. We will have a response in 48 to 72 hours.

If you think that I lie you, you can contact this hospital and ask them if I have contacted them for a possible treatment. They told me that I was suitable for such kind of treatment. And here is the Chinese hospital detailed information for the real good stem cell cell treatment rezults and treatment prize:

On this information sheet below you will find information about our patient experiences of those who also have Spinal Muscular Atrophy and have sought treatment, and detailed information about our treatment plans and prices. We understand it is important for you to have as much information as you can to make an informed decision. Please do not hesitate to contact me at matthewbeikebiotech@gmail.com with any further questions you have as well as to register for treatment.

Sincerely,

Matthew Ungar

Possible Improvements

When discussing improvements, it is important to remember that improvements might greatly differ from one person to another. Improvement cannot be guaranteed. That being said, most Spinal Muscular Atrophy patients show visible signs of improvement. Spinal Muscular Atrophy patients, utilizing the combination of stem cell therapy and rehabilitation, have gained improvements in the strengthening of back muscles, strength and movement of legs and arms, bladder control and hand movements.

Patient Experiences

Perhaps the greatest tool at your disposal for deciding if stem cell therapy is right for you comes from reviewing other SMA patients’ experiences. You will be able to not only view the many improvements they displayed, but also review their experiences coming to China and thoughts about if coming for treatment was the right choice. For not only these patient experiences and blogs, but those of other patients with SMA who were treated by Beike, visit www.stemcellschina.com. Most patient experiences are also accompanied by videos of their treatment and progress, and I highly recommend you view these.

“She could now tell when she had to go to the bathroom up to one or two minutes before she had to go. She could hold a pen, hold a telephone and could even write. Her leg became bigger and almost looked the same as the right leg. The right leg became better because now she would use both legs. She could stand much longer with support but still could not walk. David was most happy about the improvement in her bladder control and her hand movements but for her parents, the most important thing was that the disease stopped its progression.”

- David Loredana’ patient experience

David’s patient experiences and videos:

http://www.stemcellschina.com/content/view/361/177/lang,en/

“By the end of a month in China, Elena had made great progress. She had much greater control of all the muscles in her body and was much stronger overall than before. She was now able to sit up without support and hold her head upright for extended periods of time. She was able to move her head from side to side repeatedly, before she had only been able to move it to one side, but not back. After the treatment she was able to hold her arms out by herself, especially her right arm, though she also got more improvement in her left one. She was also able to move her arms across her chest and touch her shoulder, something she had never been able to do before. She had more power in her leg muscles and was able to use them to push against things.”

- Gologan Elena’s Patient Experience

Gologan’s patient experiences and videos:

http://www.stemcellschina.com/content/view/725/417/lang,en/

Prices of Treatment

The following prices are valid from March 15, 2008 to June 15, 2008. Please note: Prices for treatments in China are reviewed on a quarterly basis and are therefore subject to change. All prices are in US dollars.

Basic Treatment Program (25-35 days)

The choice of how many Stem Cell Transplants (SCT’s) to have is ultimately up to the client but we do advise that you follow the recommendations of your medical consultant.

> 4 SCT’s are $20,000.00 USD (20K) …20 day stay

> 5 SCT’s are $23,300.00 USD (23.3K) this is a savings of $200.00 USD if the arrangements for 5 SCT’s are made at the time of your registration …25 day stay

> 6 SCT’s are $26,300.00 USD (26.3K) this is a savings of $700.00 USD if the arrangements for 6 SCT’s are made at the time of your registration …30 day stay

> 7 SCT’s are $29,300.00 USD (29.3K) this saves you a total of $1200.00 USD if the arrangements for 7 SCT’s are made at the time of your registration …35 day stay

**These discounts do not apply if you wait until you are on site to opt for additional stem cell transfusions**

Included are free transportation to and from the hospital and the local airport and free accommodations at the hospital for the client and one caregiver. We also offer a complementary rehabilitation program. This therapy which is customized for each individual patient is provided free of charge and may be 1 to 2 hours done 4 to 6 times per week depending on the patient’s ability to participate (Sunday’s off). Meals and laundry service are not included. Meals are not served at hospitals in China. You can have your laundry picked up and done by an outside service at a reasonably low price.

*Additional transfusions booked at least one month prior to treatment (this is on a case by case basis depending on room availability) are US $3,500 each. Each transfusion may require an additional 2-5 days in the hospital. This option is only available to those already participating in a full treatment program.

*If up opt for additional transfusions outside of the above parameters and/or during your hospital stay they will be $3,900 US each. This may require an additional time in the hospital and/or that you stay in a hotel near the hospital, which would be at your own cost. This option is only available to those already participating in a full treatment program.

Transportation by Ambulance: If you are not able to be transported in a van and will require transportation by ambulance, there might be an additional cost of $800 per trip (one way). This must be arranged in advance so please let us know if this is a concern for you.

Electric Wheelchairs: We advise that you bring the lightest and most compact chair you have. Large, heavy, non-folding or non-collapsing chairs are very difficult to travel with and to transport in our SUV type vans which do not have ramps or lifts.

Please donate what you can so that she can live and please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

Africa needs development, not God By Leo Igwe

MY attention was drawn to an article "As an Atheist I truly believe Africa needs God" published on December 27, 2008 in the Time On-line in the UK. Personally, I found that piece deeply flawed, shallow, narrow and potentially misleading. The article is a misreading of the situation in Africa, and a misinterpretation of what Africa needs to walk tall in this 21st century.

From his experience living with missionaries in Africa and returning 45 years later to witness the work of a British Christian charity, Pump Aid that helped rural Malawians install pumps and keep their village wells sealed and clean, Matthew Parris concluded that missionaries not aid money or the secular NGOs. God, not education or training was what Africa needed to grow, develop and emerge in this Century. He maintained that Christian faith was what Africa required to conquer fear, anxiety, a tribal belief system that has ground down their individual spirit and curiosity.

I mean, nothing can be farther from the truth. First of all, I want to know, when Parris says Africa needs God, which God is he talking about. As an atheist, he doesn't believe in the existence of God. So how did he come about the God he thought Africa needed?

Maybe a 'simple pump' in a rural community suddenly became an evidence of God's existence? Or the relative security he enjoyed near mission houses while travelling through Africa'? Or the missionary schools and hospitals in African villages? I mean, if these missionary schemes were enough to shake or embarrass Parris' growing belief that there is no God, then he is not a confirmed atheist.

Alright, let's assume that Parris has suddenly realised that God exists. Which God did he think Africa needed that the continent does not have? Is it the tribal God? We have it in thousands. Or the Jewish God? Or the Christian God? Or the Islamic God? Which bloody deity does he think Africa lacks? None. In fact Africa is filled with Gods. The black continent is a den of deities. Obviously Parris meant the Christian God - the post reformation and post Luther Jesus God. Particularly that brand packaged and propagated by European missionaries through the installation of pumps and building of schools and hospitals. At this point I want to state that missionaries have been coming to Africa for centuries. In Nigeria, missionary work is over 200 years old. In fact some parts of Africa like Nigeria and Ghana have started sending locals to go and re-evangelise and bring God back to Europe and America. (I mean which Africa is Parris really talking about).

In his article Parris failed to differentiate missionary God from missionary good or better what appears to be missionary good. The missionary god, like all other gods is a myth, a sacred fantasy and an illusion. While the mission good is real - a real attempt to spread and propagate the 'God delusion'. And I want to stress that the missionary good is not an evidence for the existence of the missionary god. Parris just allowed himself to be carried away or be seduced - by what he witnessed as some missionary good. He refused to take a critical look at it.

No doubt missionaries have executed many humanitarian projects on the continent that have impacted positively on the lives of Africans. But these projects as helpful as they are or may appear to be are Trojan Horses. They are baits - evangelising weapons which missionaries use to get Africans to embrace Christianity. Missionary schools are religious indoctrination centres. Missionaries do not educate Africans to think for themselves or to exercise and express their individual curiosity and thought. They educate Africans to become slave to Christianity and to accept blindly and not to question, or challenge the Christian god, the Christian doctrines and the Christian dogmas.

In most cases, missionaries locate their projects in rural areas. And these are places where people are not just desperately in need. These are places, where people are very ignorant, very gullible, and prone to being exploited. In most cases missionary schools and institutions are located on lands acquired and appropriated by force, without compensation or under false pretences like furthering the work of God, from poor rural peasants.

It is true that at missionary hospitals they heal the sick. They also kill by denying women their rights to abortion and to reproductive health services. Missionary hospitals in Nigeria carry out forced baptism on infants and forced conversion on death bed and forced administration of sacraments on patients. It is important to note that, in these hospitals, missionaries heal the sick using scientific medicine not prayers or the power of God. They provide water by installing pumps, not by striking the rock with a rod as Moses did in the wilderness. But they will not teach Africans, the science behind their medicine or the technology of pump installation. Instead they attribute their work to god-the Christian god. So, the truth is that God has no hand and no place in the missionary work in Africa and Parris was greatly mistaken to have thought otherwise.

I agree with Matthew Parris that African thought is driven by anxiety, fear of evil spirits, of witches and wizard etc. The same is applicable to Christianity and also to all religions so, Christian evangelism cannot liberate the African, mind or help cast off the crushing tribal group-think that hampers its development. The removal of Christian evangelism will not turn Africa into a place of chaos, confusion and superstition. (The continent is already a basket case with missionaries everywhere). Because Christianity is a superstition - a mind-enslaving and intellect-numbing superstition. What Christian evangelism has done and is doing in Africa is to replace one superstitious system with another or to reinforce the existing ones. Christian evangelism sanctioned and sanctified witch hunt, sexism, the persecution of gays, oppression and discrimination against non-believers, and other atrocities and crimes against humanity.

To emerge in this 21st century, Africa does not need God or a re-invasion by missionaries. Africa needs the Good. Africa needs good governance, good infrastructure, good roads, good schools, college, and universities. Africans need a sound education and training system that would make them to think, create, criticise debate, invent, and innovate freely. As Francis Bacon said, knowledge is power. Africans need an educational programme that empowers them to discover, express and actualise their potential.

Africa needs freedom. And this includes free mind, free society, free speech, free will, free expression of intelligence and free choice. Africa does not need a religion that shackles their minds and chains the intelligence. Africans need to rediscover and restore their humanity and human possibilities to the centre of their global perception ethics, education and belief system.

So Africa needs humanism, skepticism, rationalism, positive atheism, and free thought. Africa needs reasons, not religion, not Christian evangelism or Islamism or spiritualism or supernaturalism to experience genuine rebirth, renaissance and transformation. A popular adage says "catch a fish for a child and feed the child once, teach the child how to fish and feed the child forever. It would have been wonderful if Pump Aid had gone to Malawi not only to install pumps but also to teach young Malawians at the Polytechnics in Blantyre or at the University of Malawi how to install pumps.

So, all development aid, projects and programmes in Africa must be such that they teach, educate, inspire and empower Africans to fish, (not catch a fish for Africans) so that the people on the black continent can feed themselves forever. This is what Africa needs, not God.

Igwe is the executive secretary of the Nigerian Humanist Movement

Guardian Newspapers

A call for Papers

I received this from Leo Igwe from CRARN.

NIGERIAN HUMANIST MOVEMENT

National Conference on Witch-hunt, Christian Fundamentalism and Child Abuse

A call for Papers

The Nigerian Humanist Movement is calling for papers and oral presentation at its conference to be held in October 2009 in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.

Theme:

WITCH-HUNT, CHRISTIAN FUNDAMENTALISM AND CHILD ABUSE

Sub themes:

* Religion and Child Abuse

* Witchcraft and the Nigerian Law

* Witchcraft and Superstition

* Witchcraft and Pentecostalism

* Witchcraft and Exorcism

* Witch-hunt in Akwa Ibom

*Witch-hunt in other States/cultures

* Witchcraft and Womenʼs rights

Paper presentations should not be more than 5 (A4) pages and abstracts should be submitted on or before 30^th June, 2009.

Please send all abstracts of not more than 100 words to:

The Executive Secretary

Nigerian Humanist Movement

P.O.Box 25269, Mapo Ibadan, Oyo State

Email:youth4humanism@yahoo.com,lordjim4start@yahoo.com

Humiliation on the Hunger Index

Nigeria has recently been ranked on the Global Hunger Index (GHI) as the 20th hungriest country out of 118 hungry countries in the world. In response, the National Assembly has expressed concern over the desert encroachment in some Northern States capable of aggravating the already worsening food crisis in the land. While we consider desertification as a major threat to the environment, which we have discussed on this page, we think the correlation between the scourge and this poor ranking is rather too simplistic.

With her vast fertile farmland and population, Nigeria has no business on the list. It is also curious in the sense that the agriculture sector had the highest growth rate of the economy by about seven per cent in 2008.

However, it is highly disturbing that in the last few years, Nigeria has consistently been featured on the negative side of the different Human Development Reports in the world. These reports indicate that life expectancy in Nigeria has drastically reduced; real income of most families has woefully reduced; unemployment is scandalously high; Nigeria is topping the list of countries with malnourished children and that the quality of health and education services in the country has deteriorated beyond belief. Only two weeks ago the United Nations International Children’s Educational Fund (UNICEF) raised fresh alarm about Nigeria ’s increasing maternal and infant deaths.

And now Nigeria is ranked as the 20th hungriest country in the world. Beyond expressing mere concern, the government should initiate realistic agricultural activities capable of raising the low level of food production in the country. We don’t even need outsiders to tell us that we are hungry.

Various Nigerian governments have embarked on programmes towards promoting agriculture but they failed to yield the maximum results due to corruption, structural weaknesses, mismanagement, and undue politicization.

Agriculture is beset with many fundamental problems. Yes, deteriorating climatic condition is a factor, but there are many more factors. Rural-urban migration has depleted the labour force in the rural areas where farming is practised. That is partly because even at this age, farming is still the crude back-breaking practice and inputs like fertilizer and tractors cannot be afforded by many. Poor transportation, now a national headache, has made it difficult for farmers in many parts of the country to reach the markets readily to sell their crops. After the long toil, the crops rot away in the farms, thereby discouraging commercial farming.

But by far, the key factor remains the reason why a largely agricultural country like Nigeria which was a major exporter of groundnuts, cocoa and palm nuts, could find itself on the list of hungry countries: It is the ruin the dependence on crude oil has caused. Successive governments have been concerned about sharing the national cake than supporting cake baking and the diversification of the economy.

Deservedly, food security is an item on the Yar’Adua government’s 7-point agenda. But more than that, the crash of the oil market has underscored the foolhardiness of reducing a highly endowed nation to a mono-cultural economy.

It is time for the nation to ‘ go back to the land’ by supporting, in all possible ways, our farmers to produce more and also attracting the many jobless youths in the cities back to farming. Government must also pay more attention to biotechnology, described by experts as a veritable means of creating wealth and ensuring food security.

All said, Nigeria has no business on the list of hungry countries. All efforts should be made to delist the country immediately.

THISDAY ONLINE

When Children Become Victims of Witchcraft Allegations in Nigeria

The 'plights of the Akwa Ibom Children', as the Punch Newspapers editorial of 15 January, 2009 described the madness in the name of child-witches hunting and exorcising going on in the state, need the attention of every rational being on the surface of the earth. For as Guardian Newspapers editorial of December 21, 2008 suggested, it is nothing but a 'debacle on Child Rights', a situation that have taken away self-esteem and psychologically demean many children in the state to the extent that they are far too conscious of every of their daily acts everywhere and anywhere for the fear of being tagged witches or wizards. This is totally unacceptable. Hence the question: who is a witch?

Witchcraft, according to Bertrand Russell, is 'a composite phenomenon drawing from folklore, sorcery, demonology, heresy and Christian theology'. The World Book Encyclopedia describes it as 'the use of supposed magic powers generally to harm or damage property". From these two definitions, we can move on to deduce a definition of a 'witch' as a person who is supposed to have received such powers from 'evil spirits', that is, power to know all things, power to destroy lives, among others. While 'witch' is a general name, the word has a gender connotation. A 'male witch' is called wizard, while a 'female witch' is called 'witch'.

The belief in witchcraft is not recent, nor is it a product of the popular Harry Porter series. Rather, according to Godffrey Parrinder, it is "one of the great (sic) fears from which mankind has suffered". The belief has appeared in many parts of the world, in one form or the other. While it became particularly prominent and developed in Europe in the later middles ages and renaissance periods, the belief in witches and their evil powers have remained with Africans for centuries before then. For Africa, therefore, till today, witchcraft belief is a great tyranny spreading panic and death. This unhindered, thriving, belief, which is devoid of any commonsensical scientific ratiocination, is being buoyed by the excruciating and pitiable living condition of many Africans that they found unexplainable; hence the need for scapegoats, the 'witches'. Thanks to the modern day fraudsters, the Pentecostal pastors.

The advent of Pentecostalism, and the healing Christian, churches have contributed in no small measure in reinforcing the belief. They accepted the existence of witches and witchcraft and claimed they have the power to protect against its evil powers. All manner of social, health and economic problems are readily carpeted as having 'spiritual' dimension blamable on 'witches', who are usually aged women and unwitting teenagers. To market their churches, most of these pastors have now resorted to demonizing innocent children, as witches that must be 'delivered' and 'saved' from the power of darkness. This uncritical scapegoating is gaining momentum more than ever before because of the seemingly irredeemable economic condition of living of sub-Saharan Africans. The many frustrated sub-Saharan African people are brainwashed to believe that their major enemies are not corrupt government officials, inhuman government policies nor their, personal, inability to cultivate and explore the best of their potentials in the 'here and now' world. Rather they have been sweet-tongued into believing that it is the 'witches' in their families and their homes that have been working against their fortune spiritually. Based on the 'prophesies', the unfortunate scapegoats, those accused of being witches, are given two options: either to confess to their 'countless heinous sins' and be saved/delivered after severe beatings or risk being killed, which in most cases mean being stoned to death.

In the Akwa-Ibom situation, confession is often preferred. Why? The 'Prophets' and 'Bishops' of God must eat! All you need to imagine is a steady ten thousand naira, N10,000, minimum income, almost every other day for tagging an unfortunate child a witch. Let's not forget that some pastors like Bishop Sunday Ulup-Aya charge as much as between N30,000, thirty thousand, and N400,000, four hundred thousand, naira for their services. But how, for instance, can one be sure that these children are witches, as these prophets claim, and not mere victims of the poverty ravaging the material and psychological fabric of their families and that of the prophets?

To answer this question, we took a field trip to the affected towns and villages early last month. The product of the 'expedition' as friends have retorted to calling it, is revealing. Our very first respondent in Eket, Mr. Edet claimed to have participated in "dealing with not less than 7 'confirmed' child witches", one of which was burnt by the mob beyond recognition.

"Who confirmed them as witches?" we inquired.

"Our pastor is a man of God and when he prayed, the Holy Spirit arrested the children".

"Is it the holy spirit that pushed them to the front of the congregation to confess?"

"Sometimes, they cried of fire burning all over their bodies and sometimes, to be sincere, the look on the faces of members of the congregation is enough to push them to the front"

We then asked the question that pissed him really, really off:

"Don't you think these allegations are fictitious and merely being fabricated by pastors to make some money and lure people to come to church for protection?"

Silently, I wished we never asked the question.

"You are possessed! Are you saying my pastor is a liar? Who you be sef? (meaning who are you?).I see that the devil is really disturbing you like that stupid Sam Ikpe (referring to the Director of CRARN, Child Rights and Rehabilitation Network, where some of the alleged child witches live). Now get off my bike!!"

With that last sentence, I need not tell you his profession. Well, Mr. Edet is a professional motorbike transport operator; he takes people from one location to another on his bike for a fee. He is married with four children and lives in a two-room apartment, shared toilet, shared kitchen. His average income is a bit over $5 per day, but about $4 sometimes. After Edet, we had some other interviews at the bar, at the market (buying what we don't really need sometimes only to give them to other respondents), at a popular burukutu (local beer) joint, in canteens and church environs.

What is glaring from all the responses to our questions is that there seems to be element of aggression and frustration, which is being vented on these innocent children. The belief in witchcraft has stunted the growth of unchained creativity and made many Akwa-Ibomites to recoil unnecessarily to fate, visiting only pastors, Alfas (the Muslim witchdoctors) and the the traditional witchdoctors to ward off and cleanse themselves of the 'curses or family jinx' trailing them. Lean income, rather than been spent wisely are given to these modern day 'fraudsters' who ride in big cars for the spiritual 'protections services' they provided. In some cases, micro-finance loans, and financial compensations provided by the oil companies like Mobil Oil Unlimited, have been used in funding 'witchcraft cleansing rituals' rather than the small scale business that it was disbursed for. Some even 'swore by the their fathers, grandfathers and great, great grandfathers' that they will kill any child witch found in their families. Pathetic, enh?

So, what is the fate of these children? We sought audience with handful of local officials in charge of child welfare in Eket, Esit Eket and Ibeno local government areas and the youth council officials in Eket Zone. Specifically, we met the General Secretary of the Eket Youth Council, who also doubles as the Chairman of the Ibeno Youth Council, Mr. Ebong Edem and some of his executive members.

The local social workers opined that although they are convinced that these children are witches, yet as their duties demands, they are willing to help them, most especially in providing psychological counseling and rehabilitation, mostly biblically colored, for them. It was as if they have all rehearsed the same statement for 'journalists' (what we claimed to be). What is baffling is: how can a child, someone less than ten years old, think of seking 'psychological counseling'? That to us is complete bullshit!! Why not offer the counseling to their parents and friends, we thought. Those are the people that need counseling. The representatives of the youths that we spoke with exhume hope and skepticism yet they can't voice them. One sure fact, however, is that they are willing to do something about it.

That is exactly the kind of spirit that we need in our attempt to clear the slur on our image and stall the attempt to regress us back into the European middle ages. The people, as we observe, need to be enlightened on the provisions of the Child Rights Act, although ignorance of the law is not an excuse. The Akwa-Ibom State Ministry of Information needs to run campaigns that will inform and educate Akwa-Ibomites on the provisions of the Child Rights Act, passed by the Akwa Ibom state House of Assembly and signed by Governor Akpabio, which criminalise childwitch hunting and stigmatizing. The provision that deals with this reads: anyone caught or suspected to be involved in any form of torture, trial by ordeal or inhuman treatment of a child, purportedly to cure, purge or exorcise such a child of witchcraft would be liable to 10 years imprisonment without an option of fine. This to us is a precious and timely addition to subsisting Section 207 of the nation's Criminal Code Act Cap 38(2004) which criminalize any trial by ordeal and Section 208 which stipulates that any person who directs, controls or presides at any trial by ordeal which is unlawful, "is guilty of a felony" and is liable on conviction to severe punishment.

Obviously, these children are mere victims of poverty ravaging the country and the inactivity of the state ministry concerned in dutifully informing the populace even when a very proactive measure have been taken by the Governor. We are, therefore, duty-bound as responsible global citizens to, by all moral means, assist in freeing these children from the shackles and bondages of poverty and ignorance they have been conditioned to live. We can do it!

Onward!

American Chronicle

Nigerian children branded as witches in deadly purge

EKET, Nigeria (AFP) — Jeremiah, 10, stares blankly at a window, tears rolling down his burn-scarred cheeks recounting how his father doused him with petrol and set him ablaze accusing him of witchcraft.

He is just one of hundreds of children in southern Nigeria's Niger Delta oil region thrown out of their homes, tortured or even killed after they are branded witches by a new crop of self-styled religious leaders.

Around a dozen phony pastors have been arrested -- one on murder charges after he confessed in a documentary film to having killed 110 child witches. He now says he killed only the witches inside the children, not the children themselves.

At a centre in Eket, Akwa Ibom's oil town, Jeremiah and over 170 other children -- aged between 18 months and 16 years -- have sought or been brought to emergency shelter. Many bear scars of physical torture -- machete cuts, burns or a nail drilled into the head.

It has been more than a year since Jeremiah fled from his home, but he suffered months of abuse at the hands of his parents after he was accused of sorcery.

"We were having a revival at church one night when from nowhere, the pastor's wife stood up to say I was a witch," recounts Jeremiah.

He was immediately locked up at the pastor's house, starved and assaulted with clubs as part of the exorcism exercise.

When he moved back home his father tied a noose around his neck and led him to a nearby school grounds, but apparently developed cold feet.

In minute detail he recounts how over several weeks, his parents locked him up in a room and starved and flogged him. That was before the father torched him, accusing him of being behind his losing a job with an oil firm.

"One day my father came in with a jerrycan and poured petrol on my face and my clothes and lit matches. I was burnt and for several days I could not open my eyes and my mouth," he said, before slipping into a long silence, and then sudden gush of tears.

Despite the seriousness of the burns which left him permanently scarred, he was not allowed to seek medical care. Days later, he sighted another jerrycan of fuel in the house and knew it was time to flee.

His father was arrested for attempted murder and faced 14 years in jail.

Jeremiah asked for the charges to be dropped on the grounds that he was the sole breadwinner for his three sisters.

Sam Ikpe-Itauma, head of the Children's Rights and Rehabilitation Network (CRARN), counts Jeremiah and the others at the centre as the lucky ones.

"Some die, they are thrown into the sea. Many are forced to eat a poisonous wild berry, in the belief that if you eat and don't die, you are not a witch, if you die then you are a witch. But there are hardly any survivors," he said.

As in many other parts of Africa, the belief in witchcraft is not new in Nigeria, but never have children been targets of witch-hunt.

Some experts blame Christian extremism and polygamous rivalry for the child factor in witch hunting.

Locals say the main factor is greed on the part of the self-proclaimed pastors who have proliferated in the area in recent years.

"You have to be seen to spiritually powerful to draw the crowds and in the process collect lots of money in offerings," said Ikpe-Utauma.

The phony pastors who claim to exorcise the children also get paid in cash or kind for deliverance and counselling sessions.

Eket could pass for Nigeria's pentecostal church capital. Every 50 metres (yards) banners on palm trees or telephone lines advertise dozens of churches such as the Deliverance Tabernacle, the Eagles Domain or the Chariots of the Holy Spirit, some of them just makeshift shelters covered in tarpaulin.

"There is an explosion of fake evangelists," said Herbert Batta, a university lecturer in the state capital Uyo, adding that the self-made pastors know very well there is nothing wrong with the children they brand.

"Some people are making brisk business out of defenceless children. It's greed, targeting gullible and susceptible rural people," said Akwa Ibom State spokesman Aniekan Umanah.

Religion "is the only industry we have in Akwa Ibom outside oil," said a local taxi driver.

Reverend Prince Antai, an Anglican in Akwa Ibom describes as "very disturbing" the practice by people "trying to create jobs for themselves" while tarnishing the image of Christianity.

Chigbo Ekwealo, a university of Lagos philosopher and witchcraft specialist emphasised that the inhabitants of Akwa Ibom rank among some of Nigeria's poorest and are easy to exploit.

Just three weeks ago state authorities raided a church on the outskirts of Uyo and rescued 30 children -- some of them triplets, some autistic -- who had been locked up there for weeks on suspicion they were witches.

Caroline, 13, who has a machete cut scar on her chin, recalls how her father threw her on the rooftop of their home then followed her up and pushed her to the ground suspecting she caused an accident he had had with his fuel tanker.

Last year Mary, 5, was thrown out of the family home after her mother died.

"My father called somebody to the house who said I am a witch. He beat me up, and I ran away," said Mary who was spotted one early morning while wandering along the seashore.

Two-year-old Favour, was last year dumped at the shelter along with her sisters aged six and four -- by their mother believing they were all witches and wanted nothing to do with them.

AFP

Nigeria Pushes to Eradicate Polio, Vaccinates Millions of Children

A Nigerian health education organization, says the Nigerian government must go beyond encouraging compliance and compel all Nigerians to immunize their children

Nigerian health workers Saturday began house-to-house immunization of 25 million children under the age of five in a new drive to halt the spread of polio.

Polio jingles fill up the airwaves as thousands of men and women in green and white aprons fan out across Nigeria administering polio vaccines to those under the age of five years old.

In a calamitous setback in mid-2003, Nigeria's northern states halted the vaccination campaign for a year after rumors swept the region that the vaccine contained the AIDS virus or was part of a Western plot to sterilize Muslim girls. Within a couple of years, scores of once polio-free countries have had outbreaks traceable to Nigeria.

Aminu Ahmed, a polio victim, heads the polio victims association in Kano, a city hit particularly hard by the virus. "If I reach your house, first of all I will ask you 'do you like your son to be like me?' If you say yes we are leaving you to go. If you say no okay give your children to [be] immunized. You survive your children because you don't know the time polio will 'arrest' your son," he said.

Despite efforts of people like Ahmed, polio rates are climbing in Nigeria. So far this year, Nigeria has had 30 cases of polio-induced paralysis, compared to 19 in the first two months of 2008.

The Rotary Club is one several polio partners. Its northern Nigeria district head Gordy Antai says some health workers are not sufficiently committed to polio eradication. "We really need to get the political will. We need to talk to the government so that we can ensure that the right people are sent to the field. Because some people are complaining they are not prepared, some people are complaining they are tired and so on," he said.

Polio vaccinations in Kano resumed in 2004 after clinical trials in and outside Nigeria proved the vaccines were safe. But many people are still skeptical and refuse to administer polio vaccines to their children.

A Kano resident, Isiaku Gumawa, says the high priority for polio innuculation to the detriment of more pressing diseases has contributed to the rejection of polio vaccinations in parts of the north. "I will prefer they take up malaria and sometimes Guinea worm, and one of the sicknesses which is very common and in every home. If the general public realizes that what is disturbing them has been tackled, what they don't know they will give attention because they have seen the benefits. Now everybody has malaria, they didn't care about malaria but they come to polio, which is not in every home. In my opinion, this is the mistake the authorities made," he said.

Generally, an increased number of people are now willing to allow their children take polio vaccines as a result of sustained vaccination campaigns. Even radical Muslim clerics, who led the 2003 boycott, are now campaigning for the acceptance of polio vaccination. Ibrahim Mohammed is the Jumat Imam of Karfo community in Kara Local Government Area of Kano state. Speaking through a translator, he said "He uses a lot of strategies to inform people, especially the stand of taking vaccines in Islam; He is able to bring out the Koran and the Prophet's book which we call Hadith. He is able to make sure people realize what Islam says about prevention. And then he writes sermons during Friday's prayers to speak to people that attend the mosque about the importance of preventing polio."

The immunization campaign in Nigeria is part of a $67 million United Nations-supported program spanning eight other countries in the region: Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Mali, Niger and Togo.

U.S. billionaire Bill Gates was in Nigeria recently to announce a $50 million grant to support polio eradication.

A veteran polio fighter in Kano, Dr. Lola Mobugunje, says with the availability of more funds and the commitment of campaigners polio eradication will happen sooner than later. "I am very positive that we will see the end of polio eradication the way it was done to small pox. It is a matter of time. We will see the end of it," he said.

Poliomyelitis is a highly infectious disease mainly affecting young children. It is caused by a virus transmitted through contaminated water or food.

The World Health Organization has listed Nigeria, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan as the only polio-endemic countries in the world.

VOA News