Just 4 Rubies

                                If there is a better way to describe the gory experience that 16 year old Tina (not real name) had in Burkina Faso; perhaps it would have brought some kind of mental and emotional relief to her at this time of her life. It may interest you to know that she is presently an undergraduate in one of Nigeria’s topmost tertiary institutions, with many opportunities to explore in order to achieve great things. Unfortunately however, the reverse is the case for her because she is completely disillusioned about life and severed from her closest ties; her parents and family. Like every young and upward looking young lady, Tina finished her secondary education at the age of 16. She was so full of life and hope for a bright and brilliant future. Her plan was to quickly proceed to the university to study law a...

Some of the kidnapped girls that escaped the terrorists camp came back pregnant  Enough of Sexual Jihad! #Bring Back Our Girls# It’s been two years and few days since the cruel abduction of some 276 innocent teenagers, the Chibok schoolgirls that were whisked away from NorthEastern Nigeria by the much dreaded Islamic terrorist group, Boko Haram on 14th April 2014. At first, the news of their abduction was greeted with disbelief. Even the government at the time, headed by President Goodluck Jonathan dismissed the incident as a carefully crafted rumour targeted at discrediting his government. And when later it became clear that the girls were indeed captured by terrorists, Nigerians went livid with anger. Men, women, youths, mothers, human right activists, students, parents, politicians, clerics and everyone stormed the streets in heart-wrenching protests, demanding that government swing into action to rescue the girls. With time the international community threw their wei...

In this concluding part of the story of Gloria Kanu's life, she warns that girls should always be on guard and never trust anyone so much as to be loose and and frivolous. she also wants parents to loosen up and get closer to their children, even as she advocates increased sensitization for both boys and girls. Her words: I feel nobody should be trusted. Nobody should be trusted because when you start trusting somebody too much, you tend to lose your security and your hold of being who you are. My parents trusted people and that costs me a lot. You cannot predict anybody. The bible says the heart of man is desperately wicked, who can search it out. Now as a girl child, you must learn to live on your own. I have observed that some girls like to lean on people, like to hug people and things like that.It might be something that she feels is normal to do but there are people that once you hug them, you send a wrong signal. When you hug them, they feel this girl wants me or th...

  Gloria Kanu (not real names), through the psycho-social support received from CEE-HOPE Nigeria is now emotionally healed. She however cautions that parents must be friends with their children so that the children can confide in them on anything that happens. Above all, she wants government to protect the girl child with everything within its power and make the punishment meted out to rapists more grievous.  She believes the girl child deserves the best because ‘when you train a girl, you have trained a nation’. Her story… At age 13, something happened again. There was this uncle that used to come from Cameroon. Whenever he comes, he doesn’t sleep in the house but when he sees that nobody is around, he would take me into one of the store houses and rape me. In fact, once he has finished raping me, he would leave me there and run out. Then, there was this other man, old enough to be my grandfather. He was in business partner with partnership with my daddy in this ...

My Parents Were Very Strict …But I was Abused For 15 Years! Gloria Kanu (not real names) is the only child of her parents. She hails from Eastern Nigeria but grew up in one of the slums in Lagos, precisely Makoko.  From age 5, Gloria became a victim of sexual abuse, even under the watch of her disciplinarian parents. Although currently receiving psycho-social support from CEE-HOPE Nigeria, a child's right and welfare NGO, her experience presents profound lessons for parents, guardians and even growing children. Hear her story: “I grew up right there in the slum where you know the norm of the day is for everybody to wake up and go about their normal chores for the day, sometimes without any particular focus in life. The slum is one place where there is so much indiscipline, where children are disrespectful and they don’t understand what it means to be educated. You cannot get a teenager of 15 or 16 years old that can even speak very good English. My parents made it ...

Despite the intense agitation for increased opportunities in terms of leadership and gender equity,  it is generally believed that the major reason why women have continued to be suppressed and treated as second fiddle in the human family is because rather than support one another, most women choose to criticize, castigate, persecute and run down their fellow women, especially those believed to be gifted and aspiring. Speaking against this unhealthy trend, the Program Director of Women Consortium of Nigeria, Mrs. Morenike Omaiboje argues that the only antidote to male chauvinism is for women to unite and fight all forms of discrimination. A formidable and amazing gender specialist, Omaiboje has continued to stand tall in the face of intimidation and rejection, upholding that such temporary setbacks should not and will not deter her from achieving greatness or impacting others for good. Excerpts:  Please tell us a bit about yourself, who you are, what you do and  ...