The government of Cross River state has resumed clearing precious rainforest land as part of the construction of the superhighway. While some community members are losing their forest and properties, others are advocating for their right to their land. Individuals and members of civil society stand in solidarity with communities in the face of the continued works.
Compared to their male counterparts there are a limited amount of women vying for political positions in the 2019 Nigerian elections. In this article, the writer tries to analyse how these women are faring in the social media space as they take their campaign online.
Even after the 2015 elections supposedly marked a democratic consolidation in Nigeria, a toxic mix of voter apathy, identity politics and money continues to raise questions about the necessary reforms that would instill credibility in the country’s elections.
Is it possible to conceive, write, edit and publish a book in 5 days? The Heinrich Boll Stiftung Nigeria office brought together some big names in Nigeria to write about the country they know and love so well. They ended up with a book called Nameless. What is Nameless you ask?
“Nameless is a city. A country within borders. Abound less space of ideas. A cosmos with realities, stark and painful, quiet and loud. A space crippled by fears. Nameless is populated. West African. It is in the minds of its people, black and proud. Sometimes Nameless is human. An idea. Sometimes it is in the past. Often times it is the now. Other times, it is the future”.
As part of the foundation’s commitment to bringing difficult topics into public attention to start a debate, the Heinrich Böll Foundation had the first public screening of New Morning, a movie about domestic violence.
Apart from being rich, famous, widely successful and being recipients of numerous national and international awards, what could Omawumi, M.I Abaga, Waje and ElDee have in common?
Well, we found out when the four of them came together to sing on one album and lend their voices to the cause of ending violence against women.
The Challenges
In the past ten years of its democratic rule, Nigeria has experienced some major steps in initiating a political, social and economic reform process. Both public health and pension scheme have been implemented, tax reforms are under way to make the Federal and State Governments more independent from oil revenue, the revolution in the telecommunication sector improved the livelihood of millions of people in both rural and urban areas. With the contribution of the civil society, the Government was able to introduce a medium-term expenditure framework, to improve public procurement procedures and to establish a budget transparency office. The Foundation actively supported its partners to contribute to the development of these processes.
Despite all these efforts, lack of transparency and accountability, which weaken the capacity of political institutions as regulatory agencies for development, are still a major concern for all Nigerian citizens. This problem is further deepened by their inability to obtain reliable information from their government and public servants and to fully participate in political decision making.
The Good Governance and Popular Participation program continues to emphasize on awareness and capacities building of civil society and parliamentarians at state level. It supports the collective efforts of the civil society, policy makers and legislators to develop pro-poor and gender-sensitive economic policies and to monitor their implementation. We support activities like town hall meetings; research on key sectors of government reforms; training on legislative and oversight functions of the legislators.
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