Cameroon Association for the protection and education of the child
The Cameroon Association for the Protection andEducation of the Child (CAPEC) works with children/youths, parents,Government bodies and intergovernmental bodies in the promotion ofchildren affairs. It works to identify the need of children/youthsespecially the rural child, the underprivileged and the weaker sectionof the society through participatory approach.
Mission
CAPEC's mission is to promote the welfare of children and youths. To do so, CAPEC works to realise the following objectives:
*make known the Rights of the Child and to protect them through education asprescribed by UNICEF and UN Convention on the Rights of the Child;
*assist the needy child irrespective of tribe, origin, colour, sex and religion in the domain of education and social welfare;
*assist in eliminating child labour and sexual exploitation;
*assist children in confinement like prisons and rehabilitation institutions;
Scientists received a green light Wednesday to apply for use of 13 human embryonic stem-cell lines from an approved list developed by the National Institutes of Health, the government's prime medical research agency. In making the announcement, Dr. Francis S. Collins, NIH director, said the decision was in accord with guidelines adopted in July and more lines, called batches, are likely to be added in the future.
The stem-cell lines, created by Children's Hospital Boston and Rockefeller University, "were derived from embryos that were donated under ethically sound informed consent processes," Dr. Collins said. The decision gives scientists greater leeway in their ability to explore new treatments for diseases, conditions and disabilities and help test the safety of new drugs in the laboratory. Previously, they could do such work using embryonic stem cells under private grants and money.
President Obama in the spring lifted eight years of restrictions on such cells that had limited public tax money from being used on 21 previously approved lines. It was expected that the new administration would change the policies but it took time to review the batches now available. Federal law forbids the use of government money for making stem cells that require the destruction of a human embryo out of which they are formed. An NIH review panel had determined that in order to meet these restrictions cell lines would come from donated embryos at fertility clinics where parents had signed consent forms.
The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles has elected a lesbian as assistant bishop, underscoring Episcopal commitment to accepting same-sex relationships despite enormous pressure from other Anglicans to change that stand.
Saturday's election of the Rev. Mary Glasspool of Baltimore as the second openly gay bishop in the global Anglican fellowship still needs approval from a majority of dioceses across the church before she can be consecrated.
The Episcopal Church, which is the Anglican body in the United States, caused an uproar in 2003 by consecrating the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.
Breakaway Episcopal conservatives have formed a rival church, the Anglican Church in North America. Several overseas Anglicans have been pressuring the Anglican spiritual leader, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, to officially recognize the new conservative entity. "Any group of people who have been oppressed because of any one, isolated aspect of their persons yearns for justice and equal rights," Glasspool said after the vote, thanking the diocese for choosing her.
A very religious man lived right next door to an atheist
A very religious man lived right next door to an atheist. While the religious one prayed day in, day out, and was constantly on his knees in communion with his Lord, the atheist never even looked twice at a church.However, the atheist's life was good, he had a well-paying job and a beautiful wife, and his children were healthy and good-natured, whereas the pious man's job was strenuous and his wages were low, his wife was getting fatter every day and his kids wouldn't give him the time of the day.
So one day, deep in prayer as usual, he raised his eyes towards heaven and asked:"Oh God, I honour you every day, I ask your advice for every problem and confess to you my every sin. Yet my neighbour, who doesn't even believe in you and certainly never prays, seems blessed with every happiness, while I go poor andsuffer many an indignity. Why is this?" And a great voice was heard from above:"BECAUSE HE DOESN'T BOTHER ME ALL THE TIME!"
More than 50 albinos have been killed in the east African country in the last two years because witchdoctors say their body parts make potent potions. The four men were found guilty of the murder of Lyaku Willy, who was killed and had his head and legs removed before his remains were dumped in a village close to Lake Victoria in north-western Tanzania. He was one of an estimated 200,000 albinos living there. Their condition means that they have no pigment in their skin, hair or eyes.
The rash of murders - including those of children - has shocked many in the usually stable and peaceful country. "This is something which is bringing shame onto law-abiding people who live here," said an employee of a travel agent in Shinyanga town, where the men's case was heard, who gave his name only as David. "It is good that the police and the judiciary are catching up with the perpetrators. Maybe this will stop others from copying what they did." Three other men were sentenced to death by hanging in September over the murder of a 10-year-old boy.
The north-west of Tanzania is heavily steeped in traditional religions and as many as half of the population told a recent census that they believed in witchcraft. No capital punishment has been carried out in the country since 1995. The men are likely to appeal their sentence. If it is upheld, they are expected to serve life in prison.
Ghana: Don't Spend Productive Hours On Church Activities
The President of the Volta Region House of Chiefs and Paramount Chief of Asogli traditional area, Togbe Afede XIV has stressed the need for the church to educate its members on the need to work hard and blend their Christian and spiritual growth with work, and avoid spending productive hours on church activities.
He observed that some Christians were spending more of their productive hours at prayer camps and on church activities, than getting involved in socio economic activities, thereby worsening the existing poverty situation in the country. Togbe Afede, who was addressing the 150th anniversary celebration of the Ho-Kpodzi Evangelical Presbyterian (EP) Church, said "it seems Africans are now worshiping God more than those who introduced the Christian religion to us", saying even though that was the current picture, most Christians in Ghana and Africa were suffering from high level of poverty.
He continued that it was unfortunate that African countries like Ghana, which is committed to the worship of God, still have majority of the people deeply rooted in poverty, saying "why is it so because God does not like people to live in poverty".
http://allafrica.com/stories/200912020463.html
Helen Ukpabio’s "UNVEILING THE MYSTERIES OF WITCHCRAFT"
A little child is not only precious to behold, but also one among the beauties nature bestows on mankind; a child is therefore a wondrous creature and as such ought to have some dignity attached to his or her personality. It is in the light of this submission that we hereby attempt to subject Helen Ukpabio’s Unveiling the Mysteries of Witchcraft to critical and analytical crucibles.
It is expedient that we start by examining the definition of witchcraft as proffered by the author. According to Helen Ukpabio, a witch or a wizard is someone who engages in necromancy – any form of interaction with the spirit of the dead; clairvoyance – long distance transference of information or messages with the aid of the air, including telepathy; spells and chants– the controlling of another person’s actions or decisions against his or her will through brainwashing and hypnotism, and thus exhibit influence on another person’s thoughts and interference with his or her health, career and endeavours; prognostication – the ability to foretell future occurrence, including astrological predictions; skanning; palm-reading; conjurations including sorcery, invocation and divination.
The definition of witchcraft in this book differs from the metaphoric connotation of it whereby we call experts in different endeavours ‘witches’ or ‘wizards’ of such endeavours. But, perhaps we should extend the spectrum of witchcraft, as implied in the indices of witchcraft highlighted by the author, to include any act of exploring the non-physical terrain of the universe (if such exists, anyway) in order to manipulate and control occurring events in the physical terrain. In the light of what the author called ‘augurism’ (p.19), I think it behooves on any right thinking person to count the costs before embarking on any project or execute any action. Even the authors of the Bible, am sure, will advise on how unwise it would be for someone to embark on a project without weighing the costs and discerning whether he or she is financially viable enough to complete the project (this, to us, is just a matter of being prudent and not related to witchcraft in any way).
The author also highlighted what she called the four major principalities of witchcraft namely, Lucifer, Satan, Belial and Leviathan. Whereas these so-called principalities are unverifiable and their existence logically unjustifiable, Satan and Belial are characterized as being responsible for all the vices, evil machinations and wickedness of humankind. But we know that the human being is ontologically free and that thoughts that flow into the mind are often times uncontrollable. Therefore, it is natural for humans to think good or evil, but the rightness or wrongness of human acts depends on the developmental level of the person’s conscience, ethical enlightenment, moral education and psycho-social well-being. Hence, immoral and evil acts such as waywardness, crimes, falsehood, brutality, robbery, assassination and a host of other vices the author listed are mere resultant effects of maladjusted minds and not orchestrated by any principality of witchcraft. Maybe she needs a lesson in basic psychology.
In the third chapter, Helen Ukpabio discussed different modes of acquiring witchcraft. She highlighted them as follows: body incisions, Chieftaincy titles, initiations, edible substance, reading of magical, mystical and occultic books, false religious spirits, mermaid possession, registration, purchase or procurement. Let us analyse just two of these fallacious submissions. Incisions on the body have cultural and aesthetic undertones. This fact can be confirmed through empirical studies of different ethnologies or cultures, especially in Africa. Recently, tattoos, for instance, especially in the Americas, has become acceptable as a style of fashion and aesthetics. Hence, longevity of lifespan, prevention of ancestral demons and water spirits as purposes for body incision, as proffered by Ukpabio, are untrue. For instance, she talked about a lady who was initiated into witchcraft by her uncle nine years after he incised her body and ascribed that as reasons for her childlessness. This is can’t be far from concocted lies for there abound uncountable cases of sterility of infertility and childlessness that merely require proper medical attention. The question to ask Ukpabio is whether the lady in question visited a genealogist on the case of her infertility. Here, Ukpabio commits the fallacy of false cause by thinking that a body incision incubated to mature into witchcraft ten years after the supposed initiation. It is also contradictory that witches would be ignorant of how a new member got to their meeting when, according to Ukpabio , witches are capable of prognostication, conjuration, augurism and specific time-lapse appearance in whatever form.
Helen Ukpabio’s book is not without some instructional message. Particularly, it reflects the pervasive belief in metaphysical entities in human mentality. Specifically, it portrays the belief in witchcraft and the pride of place accorded it in the African and, not in the least, the Nigerian trado-cultural and religious thought systems. To the average Nigerian who is mentally and intellectually bereaved of life realities, witchcraft is not just real, in fact, the fear of the witch signifies the exquisite possession of existential wisdom. The witch is believed to possess immense metaphysical powers such that he or she can metamorphose from the human physiological structure into the form of whatever animal he or she wishes to. Also the witch does not need to go through the hard and usually embarrassing process of acquiring a visa and a flight ticket and boarding an aircraft to countries and continents or wherever he or she wishes to go. Perhaps witchcraft is shorter and smoother than aircraft, for it is widely believed that the witch can take on whatever means and appear wherever he or she desires, cause havoc there and returns to her base, all within the duration of dusk to dawn. In fact, belief in witchcraft amongst a many Nigerian people can never be over-emphasized.
It is this belief and the gullibility it allows for in the minds of the people that prophets, pastors and many religious eccentrics have exploited (and are exploiting) to manipulate people by threatening them with witchcraft activities so as to perpetually put them under their bondage and control. By writing a book on witchcraft and crafting the words and theme that scare the people, the author ploys to put herself in an authoritative and influential position that appeals to witchcraft believers. In like manner, so many prophets of doom, especially in the South-Southern part of Nigeria and in Akwa Ibom state specifically, have succeeded in misleading parents/guardians in battering, maiming and burning their children by accusing their children/wards of witchcraft and attempting to dispossess them of such spirits.
The book is recommended for only the critical of minds for it is capable of harming the uncritical ones. In fact, efforts should be made to formally lodge a withdrawal case with the Nigerian Publishers Association and Nigeria Censors Board, without further delay.
‘Tola Layode, MA is the Project Officer (Research and Publications) of the Young Humanistas Network, Nigeria
Kenya: UN Pledges U.S. $ 10.5 to Fight Gender Based Volence
The 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence is an annual international campaign that began in 1991 initiated by the Women's Global Leadership Institute sponsored by the Centre for Women's Global Leadership and runs each year from the November 25 to December 10 led by a different theme annually.
The Minister in her statement said women and children are the most precious members of our society, yet they are still subjected to the most horrible crimes committed against humanity. She emphasized that GBV must begin to be seen as a development issue, not as a woman's issue and hope for a permanent end to violence in the home, violence in the work place and in every sector in our society.
"We want them to be taken to court. We want them to be prosecuted and to be treated just like any other criminal," Murugi said. She also stressed the importance of reporting incidences of violence and called on Kenyans to take the 16 days seriously. In their efforts to fight against violence women, the UN pledged a sum of US $ 10.5 million. The funds, which were announced while marking the UN's International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on November 25, will assist 13 initiatives in 18 countries and territories.
The UN Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence against Women, overseen by the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), will disperse the grants. The UN also launched the Network of Men Leaders, a coalition of public and private leaders working to stop violence against women. Prominent members of the Network include Nobel Peace Prize laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, and Brazilian novelist and UN Messenger of Peace Paulo Coelho.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200912020387.html
Mary Slessor:The Saviour of Twins Killed in the Name of Belief
Mary Slessor, Scottish missionary in eastern Nigeria, was born in 1848 in Aberdeen. Her father, a shoemaker, was an alcoholic and her mother a deeply religious woman. The family moved to Dundee in 1858 where Slessor began working in the linen mills at the age of eleven. She joined the local Christian youth club and became convinced of a call to be a missionary.
In 1876 the United Presbyterian Church agreed to send her to Calabar as a mission teacher. She worked first in the missions in Old Town and Creek Town but in 1888 went alone to work among the Okoyong. For the rest of her life Slessor lived a simple life in a traditional house with Africans, concentrating on pioneering. Her insistence on lone stations often led her into conflict with the authorities and gained her a reputation as somewhat eccentric, but she was heralded in Britain as the 'white queen of Okoyong'. She was not primarily an evangelist but concentrated on settling disputes, encouraging trade, establishing social changes and introducing Western education.
Slessor frequently campaigned against injustices against women, took in outcasts and adopted unwanted children. In 1892 she was made vice-consul in Okoyong, presiding over the native court and in 1905 was named vice-president of Ikot Obong native court. In 1913 she was awarded the Order of St John of Jerusalem. Slessor suffered failing health in her later years but remained in Africa where she died in 1915.
Mary Slessor lived for a long time among the efik people in Calabar in present day Nigeria. There she successfully fought against the killing of twins at infancy.
Witchcraft and superstition were prevalent in Nigeria when she arrived there because traditional society had been torn apart by the slave trade. Human sacrifice routinely followed the death of a village dignitary, and the ritual murder of twins was viewed by the new missionary with particular abhorrence. Her dedicated efforts to forestall this irrational superstition were to prove a resounding success, as photographs of Mary with her beloved children testify.
She died there in Calabar in 1915 and was given a state burial
Feelings of the yuletide season has enveloped Germany. Time for Christmas - time for the family - time for a lot of christian traditions. Right now, people here are going out on the streets to collect donations for the poor people, for example, in Latin America, to help them. Donations around Christmas are wellknown to all of us. Very nice "rituals“ and sometimes very Christian. But looking to Africa, I cannot think about any family tradition or Christian rituals in a good way. How about the Christianity we can find nowadays in Nigeria? How about pastors, who did force parents to beat and kill their children because of the allegations of their being 'witches'? How about all these ill beliefs when people are longing just for one thing: Money and power? It is shameful, how much power people can get milking the poorest.
Children branded as witches are blamed for causing illness, death and destruction, prompting some communities to put them through harrowing punishments to "cleanse" them of their supposed magical powers. Some common traits in children accused to have witchcraft are: stubbornness, learning disabilities, physical disabilities such as epilepsy, unruly behavior and not taking school seriously. Many of these traits deemed “witch-like” are usually considered normal adolescent behavior in the West. Children suffering from diseases such as AIDS and malaria are also prime targets of witchcraft accusations.It is a growing issue worldwide, among not just African communities, but in countries such as Nepal as well.
Belief in witchcraft thrives worldwide. And pastors have been accused of worsening the problem by claiming to have powers to recognize and exorcise "child witches," sometimes for a fee. Even churches who didn't use to 'find' child witches are being forced into it by the competition. They are seen as spiritually powerful because they can detect witchcraft and the parents may even pay them money for an exorcism.There is a growing trend around the world of children being accused of witchcraft. Once accused of witchcraft, a child is punished, beaten, starved and sometimes killed.
What is pushing the trend? Families are often extremely poor, and sometimes even relieved to have one less mouth to feed. Poverty, conflict and poor education lay the foundation for accusations, which are then triggered by the death of a relative, barreness or loss of a job.When communities come under pressure, they look for scapegoats. It plays into traditional beliefs that someone is responsible for a negative change ... and children are defenseless. Unfortunately, witchcraft has also been used as a pretense for abandoning unwanted children.
The sanest question here is: Why must human beings have such a need to abuse others for their selfish sake? Why do we envy so much, of the others? Why do we find, quite often, so much attrocities behind belief and guided rules of religions? Is it just the case of feeling innocent behind a curtain called faith? Or, is it just that people are not allowed to think freely? Is it just that people trust and believe everything in a stupid way without any doubt as this way is much more easier than a self-reflection?
Christmas is a time of helping hands, of charity and running to get all gifts ready before the last shop is closed. I hope we will also find some time in between, just to think about our need for charity to Christmas. Is it just the time of harmony which makes us more sentimental and sensitive for people in danger, for people with less possibilities than we have? I hope not. I wish that people develop an understanding and sense for equality and support not only within the Christmas season. It should be an ongoing process without any time limit, without an "I have donated twelve Euros to Christmas, Im a better person“ image. I hope people take care because they are really taken care of people in their surrounding, of their family members and people around the world.
As no-one can help these children better in Nigeria and everywhere else in the world than we can. Yes, we can.
Merry Christmas!
Silvana Uhlrich
Saving 'Childwitches' from Pastoral Terrorism
Witches are feared in most part of Africa, Asia, America and Europe for being harbingers of misfortunes, badlucks and calamities. Be it he or she, a 'witch' is never loved by any but treated shabbily based on the presumptions that they are being treated in the same measure they treat others in the coven.
As could be gleaned from the foregoing, the fear and the shabby/inhuman treatment meted to 'witches' are based on an assumption that there is a 'place' caled coven where witches converge, mostly at nights, to decide on the quantum of wickedness to be inflicted on individuals, and groups, for whatever wrong they have been adjudged to be guilty of.
In the past, most alleged witches are old women and the bravest of the women folks. Hence, many feminists have accused males of imposing their male 'machismo' ideology on the society by accusing the wise old women and brave women of being witches so as to eliminate them from the society, as punishments for their effontery against the patriachial societies.
This resistance buoyed by the intensity of gender/feminist advocacy has now made 'men' to turn to children. Today, many children are alleged as witches in different African and Asian countries (where the belief in witches and wizards are still existing). According to recent report released by the Stepping Stones Nigeria, UK, thousands of children have been killed, brutalized and stigmatized as being witches in Nigeria. Events in Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda have all shown that the African child is faced today with another uphill task of transcending witchcraft stigmatization, amidst other wants that has stunted their psychological growth.
Blamable in all the cases reviewed so far are the pentecostal pastors who have demonized virtually all objects and acts as 'witch-induced'. IHEYO, as a group, should team with other NGOs working with these children to ensure that they are weaned from these criminals, parading as 'men and women of God', and feeding fat on peoples' ignorance. It wont be out of place for IHEYO member organisations to assist in highlighting/popularizing this new 'pastoral terrorism', so that the pastors involved could be treated as 'terrorists' and prosecuted as such to save many children from the agony of a stigmatized future.
Onward!
'Yemi Ademowo Johnson, Editor
Suicide bombers kills scores at Pakistan mosque
Two suicide bombers blew themselves up in a mosque and two other militants fired on worshipers near Pakistan's military headquarters after Friday prayers, killing at least 40 people, including army officials. The mosque is frequented by military officials in the town of Rawalpindi, home to Pakistan's military establishment and only a 30-minute drive from the capital Islamabad.
The attack in what should be one of the most secure areas of Pakistan was the latest challenge by militants against the writ of the state. A local television station said people were executed in cold blood. "There are children among them who had come to pray with their fathers. There are also elderly, retired security officials," said military spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas. "We have reports of some security officials killed or injured but we are confirming that." He said an army major-general was killed.
Abbas put the death toll at 36. Four "terrorists" also died, he said. Rescue services and a senior police official said 40. But it's not clear if that figure included the four militants. Pakistan's army is fighting Taliban fighters blamed for bombings that have killed hundreds of people since an offensive was launched on their stronghold South Waziristan in October. The nuclear-armed country faces mounting U.S. pressure to root out Islamist militants operating along forbidding border areas to help in the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Swiss minaret ban discriminates against Muslims, says UN expert
An independent United Nations expert on religious freedom today voiced regret at the Swiss vote to ban the construction of new minarets, stating that such a prohibition clearly discriminates against Muslims. “I have deep concerns at the negative consequences that the outcome of the vote will have on the freedom of religion or belief of members of the Muslim community in Switzerland,” Asma Jahangir, the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, stated in a news release.
“Indeed, a ban on minarets amounts to an undue restriction of the freedom to manifest one’s religion and constitutes a clear discrimination against members of the Muslim community in Switzerland,” she added, also noting that the UN Human Rights Committee stated a month ago that such a ban is contrary to the country’s obligations under international human rights law. “This vote reminds us that no societies are immune to religious intolerance,” stressed Ms. Jahangir, adding that “it is therefore more than ever necessary to continue raising awareness and educating people about religious diversity, enabling all societies to adopt an enlightened and progressive attitude towards the beliefs of other communities.”
Doing so will help to eliminate the grounds for “irrational fears” towards Muslims, which have been exploited in Switzerland for political purposes,” she warned. The Special Rapporteur urged authorities in Switzerland, which has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to take the necessary measures to fully protect the right to freedom of religion or belief for the Muslim community.
Ms. Jahangir, who carries out her work in an independent and unpaid capacity, reports to the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council.
It is hard to imagine, today, that cases of witch-hunting can still be so commonplace in the face of global techno-scientific advancements. Yet, it is a reality that many children and aged women are subjected to humiliating conditions, and even killed sometimes, for being witches. The fundamental goal of the YHN-HAWK Project is to prevent a recurrence of happenings in the dark ages when many are tried and summarily executed at stakes for witchcraft allegations.
The three cardinal focus of this project are:
P- Prosecution (of erring religious leaders and parents) for deterrence
E- Enlightenment to wean the public from the con religious leaders feeding fat on their ignorance
R- Reunification of the stigmatized with their families for future's sake
The YHN-HAWK Project is supported locally by humanists and human rights individuals and groups, and internationally by the Human Etisk Forbund, Oslo section and HAMU, both in Norway.
With just about six years to the deadline for meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), and eleven years to the expected realisation of Nigeria's Vision 20: 2020, one cannot but wonder if indeed there is a future for the Nigerian child! One only needs to travel around the country observing the lots of the children to arrive at this conclusion.
The journey from Ibadan to Uyo and Eket reveals this much at least. For instance, within the University of Ibadan one will notice children, around seven years in age, hawking pure water (sachet water) to make some money that will augment the family’s income. At various points during the journey, the gory sight of children eking out their means of livelihood through the sale of pure water and canned/bottled drinks, at the various bad portions of the road when vehicles are forced to stop, cannot also escape one’s attention. In addition, seeing children from some of the villages along the highways leaves one wondering how qualitative the education they receive is, when even their counterparts in the city cannot totally boast of receiving an “up-to-standard” education. Finally, at the sight of the children at Child’s Right and Rehabilitation Network (CRARN) centre, and upon hearing their various bizarre stories- the torture, and stigmatisation they have suffered- the reality of the abuse of children’s rights in the country comes vividly alive. These children, no doubt, are the portion of the Nigerian population still in shackles, even as Nigeria celebrates 49 years of political freedom.
The maltreatment of the witchchildren in itself can be traced to the imbalance in the socio-political situation of the Nigerian state. This is so because the parents/guardians are frustrated. Frustrated because the social, political and economic situation in the country, which is not so favourable especially to those on the lower rung in the society, takes its toil on the parents and the children, being weak and defenceless, often become the cabbage can on whom the parents/guardian visit their anger. In the search for explanation for the failures experienced in their lives, the parents visit spiritualists and are told “O, the pest troubling the vegetable is on the vegetable itself.” What follows is that the children become victims of what they know not and in an attempt to ostracise the “evil spirit(s)” responsible from the children they are thrown into all forms of harrowing experiences- endless days of fasting, burning of fingers with candles, immersion in hot water, acid bath etc.- and are made to confess to what most of these children, being so young, are still unable to conceive or conceptualise.
Apart from the physical torment that these children, accused of being witches, are subjected to, there is also the more devastating psychological trauma that becomes their lot as a result of the stigmatisation. Sings Celine Dion, “I believe the children are our future, treat them well and let them lead the way, show them all the beauty they possess inside, give them a sense of pride to make it easier….” The stigmatisation of some children as witches in Nigeria fails to meet up with these requirements. It fails to realise that the children are the future. Obviously, it amounts to not treating them well. And worst of all, it demonises them as bestial with no worth inside and this in turn affects their psychological wellbeing. Life consequently becomes torturous. Really, it is rather highly unfortunate that instead of making these children grow in an atmosphere of love, and acceptance, which would have boosted their self-confidence, they are subjected to maltreatments which tell on their psyche. What can be worse than this since our mental attitude constitutes a major force in surviving and thriving in life. Once the mental battle is lost, our lives as humans often become meaningless and we become first useless to ourselves and consequently unable to make any meaningful contribution to the development of our society. If we may infer from this, the stigmatisation therefore translate into a situation in which the children, who are likely to develop a low self-esteem, become useless for themselves and the society. The implication of this is that attaining development in Nigeria will somehow be affected since these stigmatised children that constitute the future of Nigeria would not have sufficiently attained self-discovery, self-mastery, and personal-development, which are essential if persons within the country are going to make meaningful contribution to the development of a country.
Attaining the MDG and Vision 20: 2020 therefore means that there is so much for Nigeria to do towards the promotion of the welfare of children in the country. The welfare package should not be “generalistic”- It should have its focus not only on such issues like education, but also its spotlight must be shed on the section of the population that are stigmatised as witches. They must be rehabilitated properly and integrated into the society as normal persons. Attention must therefore now be seriously paid to making these children persons who believe in themselves, who have an important place in the scheme of things. Much still needs to be directed at concentrating on the psychological aspect in order to fully integrate them back into the society and ensure that they lead meaningful lives.
Apart from rehabilitating these children and integrating them into society as person, however, much still need to be done to stop the menace of accusing children as witches and the torture they are subsequently subjected to. To this, end I propose that there should be public awareness campaign pursued with the same zeal as that given to “Rebranding Nigeria” (It should take place in all religious centres, schools, public gatherings; must concentrate heavily on the villages, where the practice is more severe; and must make use of the print media and electronic media among others). These campaigned should emphasise that all Nigerian children are okay and should not be stigmatised and tormented as witches. It should make parents realise that the only reason why they themselves are alive today is because they were lucky to have parents that did not stigmatise them and have them tortured and sent out of home.
Finally, the need for prosecution cannot be overemphasised. Except a few, parents and pastors, are brought to book and made scapegoats they might not deterred from this barbaric act. This might require that government have a special task force responsible for arresting and prosecuting suspects. These much they could do for the sake of the future of the Nigerian child!
Temidayo David OLADIPO is doctoral candidate, department of philosophy, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. temmiedee@yahoo.com