Freestyle

Few years back, an international Non Governmental Organization on Health and Development had an HIV/AIDS sensitization outreach in Ejigbo, a small town in South West, Nigeria. At the end of the program, several people who expressed willingness to know their HIV/AIDS status were counseled and subsequently tested.  An alarming number of them were discovered to be living with the virus. They were therefore taken through series of counseling and assigned to a support group with trained public health workers deployed to help them manage their health condition.

Most of the members of that support group did not make it beyond the year. No doubt majority of who were women, did not die from the virus. They were well aware that they could still live healthily with the virus for many...

Read more: Stigmatization and Discrimination against those Living With HIV/AIDS

Following the successful conduct of Nigerian general elections in April, 2011, the winners in the polls have assumed their respective offices. The inauguration ceremonies which were held simultaneously in all the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory on 29^th May, 2011 marked the inception of a new democratic dispensation and the conclusion of a third successive transition to democratic government in the Country.

The Nigerian April, 2011 polls have been widely adjudged the most transparent and credible in the history of the nation, even though it is not by any means a perfect one in light of a few snags that were recorded in the course of the exercise in some parts of the country.

Meanwhile, election tribunals constituted to adjudicate...

Read more: 2011 Election in Nigeria

Achieving credible elections in Nigeria had been a tall order, almost right from the first general election held in 1959. The best ever recorded free and fair election held in the country was the June 12, 1993 election which was annulled by the then head of the Military Junta, General Ibrahim Babangida, in spite of the overwhelming trans-ethnic support enjoyed by the late Chief M.K.O Abiola, the acclaimed winner of the said election. There have been several general elections after that, but until the just concluded elections, it appeared conducting credible elections in Nigeria had become elusive, especially with the massive rigging that plagued the 2007 general elections. It took years of civil suits (from election tribunals to the appellate courts) for some of the candidates that...

Read more: Election 2011 in Nigeria: Winners and Losers

Marriage is a lifetime commitment. Indeed for most couples, marriage vows are exchanged with a lifelong union in mind. This is truer in Africa and Nigeria in particular. The society frowns on divorce and unless the situation has irredeemably gotten out of control, an African woman will stay in a loveless marriage, even if it’s only for the sake of her children and to avoid the embarrassment and social stigma attached to being divorced. A lot of women have had their lives cut short by an estranged husband while hanging on to a long dead marriage. This is not to say that men are always eager for a divorce, or they are least affected by the trauma. Men and women enter into marriage with enthusiasm and optimism hoping to live happily together ever after, and a lot of couples fight really...

Read more: MATRIMONIAL CAUSES