National President of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP), Dr Femi Olomola, has inaugurated the institute’s Examination Board, which comprises 10 members who are mostly academics.
National President of the NITP, Dr. Femi Olomola (third from right), with some members of the Board: Dr Wale Alade (second from left), Mrs Taiwo Olurin (third from left), Dr Ezirin O. N. (second from right) and Mrs Esuabana E. A. (right). National Secretary of the NITP, Alex Ogbodo, is in white on extreme left
The Board was inaugurated on the Friday, July 31st 2015 in the NITP Board Room of Bawa Bwari House, Abuja with all Management Board members of the Institute in attendance.
In his inauguration speech, the Dr Olomola emphasised that members were selected purely on merit, academic pedigree and commitment to the planning profession as well as activities of the Institute.
“You should assist in bringing sanity to the conduct of the examinations and restore honour to the profession,” said the NITP president.
Members of the 10-member Examination Board are: Tpl (Town Planner) Mrs Taiwo Olurin; FNITP (Chairperson), Tpl (Dr) Ezirim O N.; MNITP (Secretary), Tpl (Mrs) Esuabana E A; FNITP (Member), Tpl (Dr) Mrs Helen U. Anazia; FNITP (Member), Tpl (Dr) Wale Alade; MNITP (Member), Tpl (Dr) A.O Afon; MNITP (Member), Tpl (Prof) Dung-Gwom Jy; MNITP (Member), Tpl Yekeen A Sanusi; MNITP (Member), Tpl (Dr) Edund Iyi; MNITP (Member) and Tpl (Dr) Peter Uyanga; MNITP (Member).
Due to flight cancellations and delays, four of the Members could be physically available for the inauguration. Other members sent in their apologies.
Those in attendance were: Tpl Mrs Taiwo Oluri; FNITP (Chairperson), Tpl (Dr) Ezirim O N.; MNITP (Secretary), Tpl (Mrs) Esuabana E A; FNITP (Member) and Tpl (Dr) Wale Alade; MNITP (Member).
The Board’s terms of reference (TOR), amongst others, are:
1) Be responsible for the conduct of all examinations of the Institute
2) Make regulations for the approval of the Council regarding:
a) Examinations
b) Preparation, security and distribution f question papers
c) Dates, centres and invigilation of by local Examiners
d) Assessment of answer scripts and publication of results and
e) Disposal of cases of examination malpractices and complaints
The Board has a four-year tenure which commenced on 31st July, 2015 to expire on 1st August, 2019.
In her acceptance speech, the Chairperson, Tpl Mrs Taiwo Oluri; FNITP thanked the National President and Management, assuring them of the committee’s continued loyalty and dedication to the development of the noble profession in general and the conduct of the Professional Examinations in particular.
She went further to register her appreciation to the out-going Examination Board members under the leadership of Tpl (Dr) Ohakwe as, according to her, she worked with the team as one of their examiners.
She also pledged the new board’s commitment to ensuring that issues between NITP and the Town Planners Registration Council (TOREC) are resolved amicably.
Finally, she on behalf of the Examination Board Members assured the National President and Institute of their loyalty and commitment that a high and up-to-date standard of planning education is maintained.
Dr. Ashraf Allam, Regional Vice President, Mundipharma Middle East and Africa region provides tips to protect yourself against MERS infections
Dr. Ashraf Allam, Regional Vice President, Mundipharma Middle East and Africa region
Are you avoiding people in your surroundings with that hacking cough, cold, or flu? Do you draw your hand back from every doorknob?
From a few sniffles to a chesty cough, headache and runny nose, any changes to air-conditioned environments, temperature and a population of constant travelers are culprits often slapped with the blame of the commonly known virus known Middle East Respiratory Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), a coronavirus which causes acute respiratory illness in infected patients.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that approximately 36 percent of patients suffering from the respiratory infection have died, since it was first identified in Saudi Arabia in 2012.
Practitioners across the world are cautioned to look out for symptoms of the virus to stop it from spreading. As there is no available vaccine or specific treatment for MERS, the best way to protect yourself is to maintain personal hygiene. This is one of the reasons why the WHOalong with many healthcare authorities in different countries, including the U.S., Canada, Saudi Arabia, and Australia, are placing a heavy emphasis on hand hygiene.
Dr. Ashraf Allam, Regional Vice President, Mundipharma Middle East and Africa region, provides tips to protect yourself against MERS infections:
Wash your hands frequently
Wash your hands frequently with antiseptic soap and water. This is particularly important in public toilets, when travelling, in hospital or in restaurants.
Avoid touching your face
Avoid touching your face with your hand to prevent spreading the virus after touching dirty surfaces
Practice proper hygiene at home and in public places: Use a handkerchief
When you sneeze or cough use a handkerchief or tissue to cover your nose or mouth. Dispose of the tissue immediately.
Wear a surgical mask
Wear a surgical mask when visiting people with the illness
Disinfect items in public space
When travelling, carry alcohol-based disinfectant wipes to sanitize your surroundings (overhead compartment latch, seatbelt, in-flight entertainment screen and controls, tray table)
See a doctor
If you come in close contact with someone who has the MERS infection and you have fallen sick with fever, go see your doctor immediately.
Remember the initial symptoms of MERS are similar to the common cold – fever, cough, shortness of breath. As the disease progresses, though, victims may develop pneumonia or kidney failure.
Build up your immune system by making healthy food and beveragechoices
Replace immune-damaging beverages like alcohol, sodas (regular and diet), and energy drinks with plenty of fresh, purified water.
A strong immune system can protect you against so many common ailments.
President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the commencement of the environmental clean-up of Ogoniland in the Niger Delta region, even as he inaugurated the Governing Council of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration Project (HYPREP) as well as the Board of Trustees for the Trust Fund.
Muhammadu Buhari, President of Nigeria
This was one of the actions which the President approved on Wednesday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, aimed at fast-tracking the long-delayed implementation of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) Report on the environmental restoration of Ogoniland.
According to a statement from the special adviser to the President on media and publicity, Femi Adesina, the President’s actions, which are in tandem with his avowed commitment to working for the development and well-being of all Nigerians, were also based on recommendations to him by the Executive Director of UNEP, the UNEP Special Representative for Ogoniland, Permanent Secretaries of the Federal Ministries of Environment and Petroleum Resources, and other stakeholders, include the amendment of the Official Gazette establishing the HYPREP to reflect a new governance framework comprising a Governing Council, a Board of Trustees and Project Management.
The President further approved that the HYPREP Governing Council should be composed as follows:
Ministry of Petroleum Resources (One Representative)
Federal Ministry of Environment (One Representative)
Impacted States (Rivers)
One Representative Oil Companies & NNPC
4 Representatives Ogoniland
2 Representatives United Nations System
One Representative Secretariat Headed by Project Manager
President Buhari also approved the composition of a Board of Trustees for the HYPREP Trust Fund as follows:
Federal Government (One Representative)
NNPC (One Representative)
International Oil Companies (One Representative)
Ogoniland (One Representative)
United Nations System (One Representative)
The statement from Adesina said that after a meeting held on the directive of President Buhari, it was also agreed that a contribution deposit of $10 million will be made by stakeholders within 30 days of the appointment of members of the Board of Trustees for the Trust Fund who will be responsible for collecting and managing funds from contributors and donors.
It said that a new implementation template has also been evolved at the instance of President Buhari.
At a day-long stakeholders’ workshop held on Tuesday, August 4, 2015 in Abuja, the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (FoEN) formally demanded that the Federal Government should urgently commence the implementation of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report on Ogoniland in the Niger Delta, which has suffered decades of land, air and sea degradation as a result of pollution from oil exploration. The UNEP report is four years old.
The event featured dignitaries such as Kingsley Chido (MOSOP representative in the National Assembly), Warder Ayibakuro (woman leader), Colin Roche (FoE Europe), Wale Okediran, Prof. M. T. Okorodudu-Fubara (of the Obafemi Awolowo University), Dr Tunde Akani (of the Lagos State University), Prof. Fidelis Allen and Yusuf Leke Zambuk.
Presentation during a technical session
Dr Godwin Uyi Ojo, executive director of ERA/FoEN, leading a protest march
Academic-turned-activist: Dr M. T. Okorodudu-Fubara, a Professor of Environmental Law at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife
Director General and Chief Executive Officer of the Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN), Professor Eli Jidere Bala, in an interview, sheds light on the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) initiative, which the ECN is implementing in conjunction with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). According to him, the aim is to ensure that rural dwellers have access to modern energy services by utilising the in-situ (locally existing) renewable energy sources.
Prof Eli Jidere Bala, Director General/CEO, Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN)
The project is the implementation of the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) initiative in Nigeria and it is being handled by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN).
We (ECN) have been their (UNDP’s) focal point for sustainable energy development in Nigeria and this particular project really is to provide some basic amenities to the rural communities around the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) here that will change their lifestyles, and improve their standard of living.
Living in health and education, and by social amenities around you and these things are driven by energy. Unfortunately, these rural communities are not grid-connected and even those which are grid-connected supply is epileptic and not regular to sustain a good standard of living.
Fortunately, these areas are endowed with some energy sources within their own communities and these are referred to as renewable energy, like the sun, wind and the biomass that is available to them within the area.
So, they can utilise these with modern technology to enhance their standard of living. So, what we did around these villages around Bwari Area Council is to provide them with clean water supply, using clean water supply from underground, driven by solar energy. When you drill a borehole and you get water; it has to be lifted up, it needs energy to bring it up and so the energy we use is solar energy.
Solar energy is there with them, using solar panel to drive the submersible pump to lift the water up to tank level, and this provides them with clean water to drink and for sanitation which is basic to improve the standard of living.
Secondly, we are also able to provide light to clinics in rural areas. There are clinics in the rural area that do not have power. Those who built the rural clinics did not make provision for energy supply for light.
And you discovered that deliveries were done in the night without light and of course it is injurious and dangerous to our mothers and sisters. So provided them with light from energy again and we have solar panel mounted on the roofs of those clinics stored in the batteries and utilised this light in the night.
They also use electricity from the solar PV to drive refrigerators to store vaccines; refrigerators that vaccines are stored in so that their potency will be maintained and to use in polio vaccination, so and so forth. It also provides ventilation; electricity to power fans to ventilate the rural clinics.
Over 65 per cent of the energy utilised in this country is for cooking and it is derived from biomass which is the wood cut from the forest.Now, substitute has not yet been provided, so we cannot stop people from cutting the forest as a source of fuel. We know the effect of cutting the forest, it increases the risk of desertification, as well as erosion.
So, the best we can do now for our people is provide them with cook stoves that are efficient and readily available and which they can manipulate by themselves, not high tech cook stoves. And, by this, we simply modified the conventional clay type.
Our (the ECN) Sokoto energy research centre has been doing a lot of research into improving the efficiency, its heat retention and also, redirecting the smoke which is dangerous to our mothers while they are cooking. The technology redirects the smoke outside the home; even in the rainy season, they can cook indoors.
The technology was brought from Sokoto and imparted into the rural women, who took part in the moulding, designing and installation of these stoves in their own homes.
It can also provide warmth for the people during the rain. There are two benefits, they will be warmed during rainy season and also their health will be improved.
The other thing we did is to install lights in the town halls and town centres where people congregate in the night – either in the mosque or in the church or in front of the district heads, where people come together and interact. It enhances commercial activities and keeps the youths busy. We also provide street lights to enhance security.
All entail conversion of renewable energy to electricity, and conversion of renewable energy into heat for improvement in the standard of living of our own people.
Now, this energy resource is in-situ, it is not brought from other places. If it is petrol or kerosene lamps, they have to bring the kerosene from somewhere else and it is costly and its accessibility is poor.
We believe that this project can be replicated in various locations in Nigeria for the benefit of the people.
Now, remember that the entire world is now changing from Millennium Development Goals (MGDs) to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The MDGs have so many goals relating to health, infant mortality and others. But, to drive this, energy is required and energy was never a goal in the MDGs.
The SDGs have goals 17 or 7 as one that underlines the importance of sustainable energy supply to drive health, education and to drive other goals.
The role the community will play is to ensure that these systems are safe. If there is any problem they should report to us through their community maintenance committee that has been developed with the community. If it is beyond them they can report to us.
Members of the committee had been trained alongside the installation. UNPD provides the funding but the exact amount can be obtained from them. The ECN is to provide the expertise and ensure that the project is well implemented within our country.
The challenges are maintenance aspect of it –because when they report back to us, you will discover that we are also under funded by the Federal Government, our overhead cannot sustain this project. The communities are also financially incapable. Finance is the basic challenge to most of government grant funded projects.
As regards plans to extend the project to other parts of the country, It can be extended but subject to government funding it.
Students of the University of Benin have achieved a major feat: they built a car. The vehicle was built for the Shell Eco-marathon competition. It was exhibited recently at the 2015conference and exhibition of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) in Lagos.
Eloghosa Iyamu (left), a student of the University of Benin, with former Adviser to the President on Petroleum, Dr Emmanuel Egbogah, inspecting the car at the 2015 conference and exhibition of the NSE in Lagos.
On the occasion of the fourth year commemoration of the release of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) Assessment of Ogoniland (4 August 2015), the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) and other groups have called on the administration of General Muhammadu Buhari to tackle the myriads of environmental challenges besetting the Niger Delta.
Achim Steiner, Executive Director of UNEP. Photo credit: www.spiegel.de
The ERA/FoEN, Amnesty International, Centre for Environment, Human Rights, and Development (CEHRD), Friends of the Earth Europe and the National Coalition on Gas Flaring and Oil Spills in the Niger Delta (NACGOND) urged Buhari to tackle oil pollution and corporate impunity that has plagued the Niger Delta for decades.
In the letter, the groups said: “We are pleased that in its first one hundred days your administration has raised this important issue and convened a stakeholder meeting on 28 July between the government, UNEP, the oil industry and representatives of affected communities. We hope that this meeting signals the start of a meaningful process to implement UNEP’s recommendations.”
UNEP’s scientific study exposed the large-scale, continued contamination of the water and soil in Ogoniland, and the serious threat this poses to human health. In one case, UNEP found that a community drinking well was polluted with benzene, a cancer causing substance, at levels 900 times above the World Health Organisation guideline.
The report presented to the Goodluck Jonathan administration on 4 August 2011, also confirmed that the oil company Shell has systematically failed to adequately clean up pollution for which it is responsible. UNEP found that Shell’s clean-up methods in Nigeria, and the maintenance of its infrastructure, do not meet international best practice or even comply with the company’s own standards.
UNEP recommended the establishment of an Ogoniland Environmental Restoration Authority tasked with overseeing a clean-up operation, funded by an initial $1 billion contributed by the oil industry and the Nigerian government. It also recommended strengthening regulation of the industry, monitoring public health, and emergency measures to address the grave risks faced by the people of Ogoniland from contaminated water. In addition, UNEP made clear that Shell must overhaul its remediation procedures in Nigeria so that clean-up of oil spills is effective.
However, four years on, these recommendations remain almost entirely unimplemented while the people of Ogoniland and the wider Niger Delta are forced to live with the devastating effects of oil pollution. For 50 years, pollution from the oil industry has damaged the health, the livelihoods, and the environment of the people of the Niger Delta.
The groups urged the Buhari administration to make the implementation of the UNEP report a priority, even as they specifically demanded the:
Establishment of an Ogoniland Environmental Restoration Authority as an urgent priority;
Establishment of the Environmental Restoration Fund with at least $1billion of initial financing. Shell has said that it will commit funds but not until a Fund has been set up;
Ensure that communities are fully involved in the implementation process and that it is totally transparent.
Despite the severity of the findings of the environmental assessment of Ogoni environment by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) four years ago, very little has been done by way of implementation of its recommendations, the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) has said.
Oil pollution in the Niger Delta area. Photo credit: greengrants.org
In a media statement on Monday, the group said that the response of the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan was the setting up of the Hydrocarbons Pollution Restoration Project (HYPREP) whose “anachronistic” name and its being domiciled in the Ministry of Petroleum Resources (a key polluter) effectively rendered it dead on arrival.
“The HYPREP was set up a year after the UNEP report had been issued and its most visible accomplishments have been the installation of billboards on oil theft and ubiquitous signposts in Ogoni communities to keep off their contaminated communities. Perhaps the only salutary step may be the ongoing consultations on what to do about the UNEP report a full four years after the fact of its submission,” says HOMEF director, Nnimmo Bassey.
He recalls that President Buhari pledged that his administration would implement the UNEP report, adding that this fourth anniversary is a good time for the Federal Government to commence the process in a more tangible manner indicating the grasping of the emergency nature of the toxic environment in which the Ogoni people have been forced to live in.
“Provision of potable water remains a key emergency requirement in this situation. We note that while the UNEP Report on Ogoniland is yet to be addressed, other communities in the Niger Delta, notably the Egi community in Rivers State, have demanded for a ‘Forensic Environmental Audit of Egi Land’,” Bassey notes.
In a letter dated 14 July 2015 and addressed to President Muhammadu Buhari and copied the United Nations Human Rights Council, the Egi Joint Action Congress (EJAC) states, among others, that they are “host to Total Elf Petroleum Nigeria Ltd (TEPNG). With about 12.5% of the total on-shore oil production of Nigeria, Egi Land is the highest oil producing community in Rivers State, and in Nigeria.”
An accompanying report by EJAC regrets that “TEPNG having contributed largely to the environmental and socio-economic destruction of Egi Land by its oil and gas activities over the period 1964 to 2015, as a result of insincerity in carrying out its social responsibilities, is reportedly making surreptitious efforts to divest its equity interest apparently to a foreign company, without due regard to the sorry state it has plunged Egi Land.”
A community leader, M.T. Igwe, says: “It is glaring that exploration of mineral resources brings wealth and prosperity to the nation but to the Egi man it brings destruction, doom and death, marginalisation, degradation and hazards.”
HOMEF notes that the cry of the Egi people against land grabbing in their communities, gas flaring, oil spills and waste dumping are emblematic of all other communities ravaged by oil exploitation related environmental incidents. The EJAC report states for instance that the environmental damage caused by an oil/gas blowout at Obagi in 1972 is yet to be remediated a full 43 years after, the group adds.
“As we mark a sad passage of four years of inaction on the UNEP report, we believe that further delay will be immoral, unkind and cruel,” says Bassey.
“President Buhari has a golden opportunity to fulfil his campaign promise to implement the UNEP report and should do so expeditiously. The call for a forensic environmental audit of Egi Land should also be responded to with a Niger Delta wide environmental audit and consequent remediation. Further delay passes a death sentence on both the land and the peoples of the region. Just as the polluter Shell Petroleum Development Company paid for the assessment of the Ogoni environment, Total Elf Petroleum Nigeria Ltd should pay for the assessment of the environment of Egi Land. Likewise should Chevron, ExxonMobil and others in their territories of despoliation,” Bassey stresses.
Rural communities within the federal capital territory are being provided access to clean and renewable energy for cooking, lighting, water supply and health care delivery under the SE4ALL initiative
Let there be light: Villagers at Tokulo display the solar powered home lighting system
Night is fast descending on Zhiko Village. But Bako Ayuba’s pace is slow, as he meanders his way among the bushes, heading towards the health centre. It’s a journey he has gotten used to – the short, post-dinner trip from home to the community hospital.
The night is pitch-dark and moonless as Ayuba, a Junior Community Health Extension Worker (JCHEW), arrives at the hospital and settles in for the night shift. He dozes off in the darkness. But he is soon jerked out of his reverie by noises – panicky footsteps and urgent voices. He puts on the kerosene lamp, but the light flickers briefly and goes off. He realises the lamp has run out of fuel.
But there is no time to attend to that now, for a heavily pregnant woman obviously in labour in the company of her husband requires his urgent attention. He fumbles in the desk drawers and fishes out a torchlight. The woman’s companion holds the torch as Ayuba attends to the patent.
Ayuba’s story is a typical scenario of events prevalent in rural communities prior to interventions by the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) initiative. He still looks shaken as he recalls his experience that fateful night.
A water storage tank in one of the villages
“The baby was safely delivered, and mother and baby were okay. But it was quite an experience delivering a baby with a torchlight. But that is all in the past now. We now have light constantly and I now treat and attend to patients all through the night. In fact, we have more effective treatment, delivery of babies and administration of injection.
“Before now, we got our vaccines at great expense from elsewhere (Abuja or Bwari). But we now store and preserve our vaccines, such that we now have more potent drugs,” he says.
Early this year, the Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) initiated a project on “Expanding access to off-grid renewable energy (solar and biomass)-based SE4ALL in Bwari, Abuja”, with the villages of Tokulo, Zhiko, Sunape, Yaupe and Goipe as beneficiaries. The overall objective of the project is to utilise the existing renewable energy resources available in the select
After a little misunderstanding with her parents in Calabar where she is based, Hannah ran away from home. She soon got “lucky” when she was offered an “honourable” and “well-paying job” – abroad. She was eventually recruited from Edo State and, in the company of other girls and a male chaperone, travelled by road for several days through the Sahara Desert to Bamako, Mali.
Yury Fedotov, Executive Director, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
But, alas, once in Mali, she was forced to prostitute – albeit without restraint, while her madam takes virtually all the money. It was a situation akin to slavery as she had no choice but to “work” long hours so as to make enough money to refund the madam’s “huge investment” on her.
After several attempts to escape, Hannah was eventually rescued by officials of Nigeria’s National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) – but, according to them, there are still hundreds of hapless Nigerian girls in Bamako prostituting for peanuts.
Bukola, a Lagos-based journalist, travelled to the United States on official assignment. But she was convinced by a US-based Nigerian she’s betrothed, to stay back after her mission – even though she lacked the legal status to do so. She agreed.
A considerable number of Nigerian girls trafficked to Europe engage in prostitution
Soon after, she became an object of exploitation by her “husband”, who made are to do menial jobs and collected the money paid her. Indeed, he exploited her vulnerability: she could not go around freely, could not get a decent job, nor operate a bank account – she stayed indoors doing hairdressing work and having no say on how her income is spent.
Unable to withstand the situation any longer, she eventually fled home and sought help from government and civil society officials, who rehabilitated her.
Both Hannah and Bukola were victims of Trafficking in Persons (TIP) and Smuggling of Migrants (SOM), but now actively involved in campaigning against the menace. They voiced out their predicament recently in the company of a team of communicators at a Media Roundtable organised by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Calabar, capital of Cross River State.
Abimbola Adewunmi of UNODC explained that the event presented an opportunity for the anti-human trafficking agency to network with the media in order to fashion out ways of addressing the numerous cases of human trafficking and irregular migration in Nigeria.
Sylvester Atere, also of UNODC, said the mass media represents an opportunity for better visibility and reportage on the interventions of the anti-human trafficking activities in Nigeria, therefore the extent of the partnership with the press cannot be over-emphasised.
Director of Public Enlightenment at the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Arinze Orakwue, underlined the need for constant interaction between law enforcement agencies and the media so as to better equip them and build their capacities towards ensuring better human trafficking reportage. He said such mind rubbing sessions would help identify the root causes of TIP and SOM and fashion more pro-active solutions to them.
Godwin Morka, the NGAX41 Project Coordinator, said government is resolute is bringing down TIP and SOM but also counting on the support of the press whose responsibility it is to spread the word. According to him, the project is coming to an end but the media should continue to carry on with the fight through their platforms.
Atere made an attempt at defining the two technical words of TIP and SOM and their inherent relationships, saying TIP and SOM happen in tandem and sometimes it is very difficult to tell the differences. He also identified that clandestine nature of human trafficking and the complexities.
At the close of the two-day forum, participants resolved that there should be prompt update of partners and media practitioners on the emerging issues, as well as press releases or events from NAPTIP. Journalists as media partners should be involved in major developmental issues of TIP and follow-up mails and phone calls should be made where necessary.
It was also agreed that the media partners be involved in the processes of the annual TIP Reports of the government, in the light of its importance for better media coverage of the report.
Besides creating and operating social media platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp for prompt disseminations of information and networking, participants also underscored the need to imbibe professionalism with particular reference to the electronic media.
Similarly, it was agreed that regular dialogue, media briefing and capacity building of the media partners on identifying victims to be done by the government.
Other resolutions at the Roundtable include:
Sponsorship of media to prosecute first hand and special reports on TIP. This is necessary to keep the public abreast of the developments in human trafficking;
Create a group camp to build momentum;
Ensure periodic media briefing on new convictions, inform media on the prosecution of major cases of human trafficking for better reportage;
Set up platform to enable partners’ access to audio/visual bites to authenticate stories of human trafficking;
Factor traditional and cultural values/practices in the identification/prosecution of cases of TIP;
Mark special International Days like the annual human trafficking day, women’s day, children’s day etc. with the media for better amplifying of the plights of the victims and special reportage on such day;
Ensure public enlightenment of cultures to stem stereotypes against activities of NAPTIP as regards domestic values;
NAPTIP should set up a media mentorship programme for the media partners in a bid to build capacity on the technicalities of TIP and the dynamism of the crime; and,
Traditional/citizen media be engaged in disseminating TIP and SOM Documentaries to the people.
