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8000 Ogoni cases go to Nigeria's human rights panel (Archive)
Subject: 8000 Ogoni cases go to Nigeria's human rights panel
From: dawnstar@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Mon, 23 Aug 1999 16:59:00
Perhaps some day TOTAL will be found guilty of direct and indirect
violations of human rights and obliged to remunerate the victims in a
human rights damage settlement involving billions of dollars, equal to
and more than the sum of what they have already invested in the
regime-partnered project. Since the world knows well enough what's
going
on, anything less than that is sheer hypocrisy. Is Burma headed to a
Mandela turn the page and forget the past, heal the wounds solution, or
more on the lines of what's now going down in Nigeria. Something to
think about. Or will TOTAL and the FRench try to broker a deal in their
best interests, a peace and profits deal. Who knows? In any case, the
Nigerian example should not be overlooked as a sign of the
times.Remember, apart from Shell, Nigerian drug gangs were high on the
list of world drug traffickers.
MOSOP International Secretariat wrote:
Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People
(MOSOP)
27 Odu Street, Ogbunabali,
Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria
Ph/fax (+234) 84 230 250
e-mail: mosop@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Press release 13th August 1999
MOSOP
Files 8,000 cases before Human Rights Panel
The Nigerian Human Rights group
MOSOP, today filed a massive record of
human rights abuses which have
occurred in the south western region of
Ogoni since 1990. The submission
includes testimony of over 3000
serious incidents, primarily at
the hands of the Rivers State Internal
Security Task Force which
occupied Ogoni between 1994 and 1998.
Women Entrepreneurship and Development: The Gendering of Microfinance in Nigeria
Presented at the 8th International Interdisciplinary
Congress on Women,
21-26 July, 2002, Makerere University, Kampala-Uganda.
By
Ngozi G. Iheduru (Mrs.)
Head, Department of Accountancy
Abia State University
Uturu, Nigeria
Introduction
This study is an attempt to investigate the ways in which
microfinance programmes, both governmental and non-governmental, have driven
financial sustainability and integrated community development among women in
Nigeria. In the process the study examined the extent to which programmes have
resulted in women's economic, social, and political empowerment. Women are
generally considered to be at the lowest rung of the poverty ladder in Nigeria,
the study extrapolated the effects of microfinance on the mitigation of
poverty. Finally, the study examined the policy implications of microcredit
financing of women economic activities within the broad framework of gender
stereotypical milieu of these enterprises. In order to accomplish accomplish
these goals, I explored the theoretical bases of microfinance analysis with the
overarching context of gender/feminist literature. This approach is important
because of the low economic status of women in Nigerian society. As I proceed
to argue here that there is a general likelihood that the microfinance approach
is targeted at women, I also explain the underlying rationale for this approach
from the Nigerian perspective. To realize this and test our propositions, I
selected three microfinance, one non- organization and two government assisted
microfinance organizations: Country Women Association of Nigeria (COWAN), the
Peoples Bank of Nigeria, and Family Economic Assistance Programme. The latter
two are both federally operated institutions of the government of Nigeria aimed
at providing credit to those who ordinarily would not get them and by so doing
raise their economic status and help to eliminate poverty. The propositions
that are made in this study are (1) there a direct relationship between
microcredit availability and economic development; (2) there is a direct
relationship between microcrdit and women empowerment in Nigeria; (3) the
availability of microcredit facilitates income generating activities among
people and contributes to their increased standard of living; (4) that there is
an association between microfinancial institutions and the development of
financial sustainability among Nigerian women; and (5) that microfinancial
institutions are directly associated with women leadership development in
Nigeria.
Umaru Musa Yar’Adua
Umaru Musa Yar’adua was born in Katsina Town, Katsina State on 16 August 1951. He started his primary education at Rafukka Primary School, Katsina in 1958. He left Rafukka for Dutsinma Boarding Primary School in 1962 from where he completed his primary education in 1964.
Between 1965-1969, Umaru Yar’adua was at Government College, Keffi in present-day Nasarawa State for his secondary education. He then moved to the famous Barewa College, Zaria for his Higher School Certificate between 1970-1971. For his university education, Yar’adua attended the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria from 1972-1975 where he obtained the B.Sc Education/Chemistry. He returned to the same University from 1978-1980 for his M.Sc Degree in Analytical Chemistry.
Umaru Yar’adua’s working career began at the Holy Child College, Lagos for the mandatory one year National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) between 1975 and 1976. He was a Lecturer at the Katsina College of Arts, Science and Technology, Zaria between 1976 and 1979. He moved to Katsina Polytechnic, also as a Lecturer in 1979 and was there until 1983 when he left the public service.
Yar’adua’s movement to the private sector started at Sambo Farms Ltd in Funtua, Katsina State as its pioneer General Manager between 1983-1989. He served as a Board Member, Katsina State Farmers’ Supply Company between 1984-1985, Member Governing Council of both Katsina College of Arts, Science and Technology Zaria and Katsina Polytechnic between 1978-1983, Board Chairman of Katsina State Investment and Property Development Company (KIPDECO) between 1994-1996.
Umaru Yar’adua served as a Director of many companies, including Habib Nigeria Bank Ltd. 1995-1999; Lodigiani Nigeria Ltd. 1987-1999, Hamada Holdings, 1983-1999; and Madara Ltd. Vom, Jos, 1987-1999. He was Chairman, Nation House Press Ltd, Kaduna between 1995-1999.
Yar’adua’s foray into party politics began as a Lecturer when he became an active member and mobilizer for the defunct Peoples’ Redemption Party (PRP). During the Transition Programme of President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, Yar’adua was one of the foundation members of the Peoples’ Front, a political association under the leadership of his elder brother, the late Major-General Shehu Musa Yar’adua. That association later fused to form the Social Democratic Party (SDP). Yar’adua was a member of the 1988 Constituent Assembly. He was a member of the party’s National Caucus and the SDP State Secretary in Katsina and contested the 1991 Governorship election, but lost to the candidate of the National Republican Convention.
At the inception of General Abdulsalam Abubakar’s transition in 1998, Yar’adua founded the K34 political association which later teemed up to form the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He contested and won election as Governor of Katsina State in 1999 and was re-elected in 2003.
(culled from http://www.yaradua2007.com)
In December 2006, Yar'Adua became the presidential candidate of the ruling PDP for the April 2007 presidential election through the scheming of the incumbent President Olusegun Obasanjo. He later won the presidential election with 70% of the votes, becoming Nigeria's first university educated leader in 40 years. On June 28, 2007, Yar'Adua publicly declared is assets to be NGN856,452,892 and became the first Nigerian President to do so.
He delights in referring to himself as a servant leader with the utmost regard for the rule of law, but his Achilles' heel has been his health. In March 2007 just before the April election, he was flown to Germany for medical reasons. He was absent at the United Nations General Assembly Meetings in September 2009, he had to travel to Saudi Arabia for a brief treatment. Currently, he is still in Saudi Arabia receiving treatment for pericarditis (inflamation of the pericardium, the fibrous sac around the heart) since November 23, 2009.