The Four Little Girls story of murder of African-American school girls in Alabama in 1963 made the country take stark notice of civil rights crimes in America. But what about an estimated 276 girls kidnapped from school three weeks ago in Northern Nigeria?
The citizens have noticed, but till now the government is still in the dark in how to get the school girls back safely. And the world seemingly has yet to take full notice.
Standing With the Kidnapped Girls in Nigeria
NPR: Fate of Schoolgirls Still Unknown
Oprah and Bono (my guy) have lent star power to the issue of girls' education in Africa. But it has largely been unchanged in sub-Saharan Africa, where less than 57% of all children, even less for girls, go to primary school. That includes Nigeria, which was rated as the ninth most deadly place to be a child in the world.
Is the future (and only hope for sub-Saharan Africa, sans South Africa) if girls can rise to be women and women leaders?
Bono thinks so in his essay on Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in Time 's 100 Most Influential People Issue.
The situation is dark in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa litterally, too. This re-run post cam after last year's Super Bowl at Cowboys Stadium.
Cowboys Stadium Uses More Electricity than My Country
5 comments:
I like what Bono says about Okonjo-Iweala in that she steps into the most difficult position a Nigerian can hold in the most stressful of times, as Nigeria's future hinges on her actions and the success or failure of them. while i believe that the weight of Nigeria's successes or failures are not hers alone, she has made it a personal goal of hers to end what she sees as a detriment to Nigerian stability
I personally thought that this article was super interesting. I think it goes to show that the government in Nigeria [at least in my opinion] isn't a legitimate regime. This post is a prime example of the civil rights issues that exist in Nigeria today. Girls aren't given as much as a fair chance as boys (in educational aspects at least). They're being kidnapped and sold for $12 as wifes and the government can't even figure out a way to retrieve the missing girls or punish Boko Haran. That displays signs of a failed state: that the government can't even enforce laws or protect its citizens. I think it's good that the world is slowly and very gradually starting to take notice (this was featured on New York Times five hours ago: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/06/world/africa/nigeria-kidnapped-girls.html?_r=0) But it's sad that it didn't garner attention in the first place because no one really cares about Nigeria.
For the video where Dr. Ngozi talks about Nigeria, I felt that she might have portrayed Nigeria in a slightly more positive light than it really is in but I DO think she has a point. Nigeria is only 54 years old so we can't expect a ton of change to happen all at once. The US wasn't even in a great state at 54 years old so how can a poor African country that started out with poverty and virtually no allies, ever even be held up to the same standard? Personally, I think there's hope for Nigeria yet. Dr. Ngozi seems to be in the right in that aspect.
I really admire Okonjo-Lweala because she took on a very difficult task trying to repair a country that has some serious issues. It's sad that the Nigerian government can't control these escalating issues. However in contrast, 500 people on average are killed due to gang violence in Chicago, so it is hard to pass judgment.
The fact that over 200 high school girls have been missing for weeks is a clear sign that Nigeria is a failed state. This is just an embarrassing display of how little control the military and government have over the people. I believe that education of young girls can be extremely beneficial for growth in Nigeria. Women naturally think differently than men, and by having educated women in high power positions as well as educated women in a family will help Nigeria develop into a more conscientious and forward-thinking nation, starting in childhood. Ngozi danced around a lot of the questions and often compared Nigeria to other nations who are struggling as well rather than just give an answer, but again this goes with a lack of transparency in the Nigerian regime. They admit that there is a corruption problem, but they try not to talk about the details of how the issue will be resolved. Yes Nigeria is young but there is still a lot that they could be doing to help themselves, they just have to get the movement started.
I completely agree with what Caitlin said about how more than 200 high school girls are kidnapped, and the government of Nigeria can do nothing about it. This is, as Caitlin said, the sign of a failed state. As the clip said, the people are accusing the Nigerian government for doing nothing, and rightfully so. The clip said how the local officials are scared to go to the site--that is a huge problem in my opinion that government officials cannot even control the people of their country due to fear. In addition, is is appalling these 200+ girls were kidnapped and then they suspect they were sold into slavery for as little as 12 dollars. This goes to show how failed the state of Nigeria is at this time, and what extent people go to for the money.
The NPR clip was as equally astounding as the first clip. It spoke about the inability of the military to save the missing children. This is a major problem that Nigeria is facing, and it has to be resolved. They also included a fact that said that the kidnapping of the girls is the 3rd major incident in 17 days--less than 3 weeks. This is a huge red flag to me that obviously something is not right. It was said that the president had supposedly taken a "security measure" but that did not even work, because there was an incident that occurred right near the new "security measure". In addition, after a few days over four months, more than 1500 people have been killed. The people do not know what to do because the government is saying that they are assuring security in Nigeria, yet things keep happening, and too many people are dying.
The third clip was about the children and poverty in Nigeria. One statistic that really stood out to me was the fact that 57% of children are enrolled in primary schools (slightly over half), but only 33% complete school. This is a major problem that the children in Nigeria are not allowed the opportunity to receive an education. Also, the fact that women have little to know value in Nigeria. These are huge social and economic issues that need to be resolved in order for Nigeria to have hopes in succeeding one day.
This was the clip with Nigeria's finance minister. As we know, Nigeria is what is known as a rentier state--it is plagued by poverty and corruption but rich with natural resources--indicating that something has gone wrong and in most cases, it is the lack of government. One thing that I found interesting is that she spoke about how it is not all of the President's fault, but the judicial and legislature need to be strengthened too. In addition, electronic platforms need to be built, and people need to be distanced from the money. I really liked how she said that Nigeria lacks institutions, and process. I completely agree and think that this is why Nigeria is a failed state.
Finally, I read the Cowboy Stadium/Electricity article. I found it incredible that in a country of 4.1 million, only about 1% of urban residents and almost no rural residents have access to electricity. For me, this article really put things into perspective how backwards it is that the Cowboy's stadium has more electricity than the whole country of Nigeria.
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