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UN Resident Coordinator Leads March Against Violence Against Women in Abuja
UN Resident Coordinator Leads March Against Violence Against Women in Abuja
By: Michael Mike
The United Nations Resident Coordinator, Mohammed Fall on Saturday led some prominent women activists in a march on major streets of Nigerian capital city of Abuja to demand for the end of violence against women.
The march was part of activities marking the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence (GBV) celebrated worldwide.
During the march which was organized in Abuja by the UN Women in conjunction with Women at Risk International Foundation (WARIF), Medicaid Cancer Foundation, the UN Resident Coordinator alongside the women carried placards demanding for an end to violence against women and spoke against what they termed crime not only against women but humanity.
Addressing the media after the long walk, Mr. Fall said there was urgent need for an end in violence against women, girls and boys, insisting that everyone needs to be involved in the campaign as it affects the entire human race.
He lamented that the statistics of violence against women is still very much alarming and showed that it needed to be approached with all round strategies that would make people to know its harm and get offenders no hiding place.
Fall said there is still much told be done by government, law enforcement agencies and leaders in all sectors to build awareness against violence against women and to expose it for what it is: crime against humanity.
Speaking on the need to put an end to the crime, the former First Lady of Kebbi State and Founder of Medicaid Cancer Foundation, Dr Zainab Bagudu said with the law against violence against women in place, there is still need to fight on until the society shows it does not tolerate violence against women.
She said after the law, “then the next step becomes the implementation and general awareness, the mindset of the average, person from our environment, is that they don’t even understand what constitutes abuse. So we need to educate them, to make them aware, and most importantly, to combine the facilities that they need if abuse should take place, we focus on women and young adolescent girls, but boys are also victims of abuse, and they can turn out to be perpetrators once they have been abused.”
She said “there is continuous need
to organize educational classes in schools and different places, so that we can educate our boys and they can prompt be supportive.”
She noted that there is need for much more efforts at ending the violence against women, insisting that: “Well, it’s (campaign) never enough. We’re a very large country. The population is high, so we know the challenges that we have and different conflicting priorities. So it’s important that we don’t get tired, and one of the advocacies that we do, to call on government to provide more resources, and donor partners, to help us. The task can be quite big, and the police can sometimes not be as responsive as we would like them to be, due to other reasons, but we hope that they will be more acute to the trauma that this causes to women, children and some men when it happens, and that’s why we keep on advocating so it’s not enough. We need to have more. We need to have more action. We need to have more understanding. There are also programmes that focus on educating our security forces so that they really understand how they should be reacting. Every police station should have a desk against gender based violence and women should have the confidence, or abused victims should have the confidence to approach these desks, make their point without fear of stigmatization.”
On her part, the Mandate Secretary of the Federal Capital Territory, Dr. Adedayo Benjamins-Laniyi, said the campaign was on in all parts of the Federal Capital Territory to drive the message to the grassroots.
She noted that: “We need to keep aggregating and scaling like what is happening today. We need to have more of this advocacy. We need to have more of the intentionality of collaborations between governments and private, public individuals, people who are able to invest and engage not just the interest, but in terms of the action and bringing interventions from messaging to the place of invested empowerment, of the mindsets of cultural traditional practices.”
Project Manager of WARIF, Adeola Potts-Johnson, on her part, said the campaign has been a success so far for it has grown from just being held in a city to many important cities of Nigeria and prominent cities across the globe.
She said WARIF would continue to push the bar until violence against women becomes history.
UN Resident Coordinator Leads March Against Violence Against Women in Abuja
Calm returns to Pulka after Wednesday night attack on the town
By: Bodunrin Kayode
Residents of Pulka who ran to the bush yesterday night have returned home even as the troops of the Nigerian military repelled attempts by insurgents from sacking the town.
The insurgents too residents hinted did not leave without injecting their trade marks on the base of the military in the community leaving about three soldiers dead.
A source who wanted anonymity said that she had to run out of her house with her neighbors at about ten pm wednesday evening into the thick savannah to hide so that they are not attacked, killed or abducted when the criminals entered the community.
“We were all relaxing in our homes when the sounds of gun fire rented the air. Not knowing what to do we locked our doors and waited indoors while praying that the worse should not happen to us residents.
” Towards 10.30 pm the artillery blasts became intensified. Then suddenly, we heard the voices of soldiers telling us to run away into the bush showing us the safe direction to go into the dark while they stayed back to face the criminals.
” We stayed in the bush untill around 1 am when word reached one of our neighbors that the coast was clear to return to base. So by two am some of us were back into our residences trying to survive as usual.
” Nobody could sleep in the bush regardless of our tiredness which we were going through. We came back only to hear that the base of our military protectors was sacked and burnt down leaving three soldiers dead in as at the wee hours of the night.
” Very sad indeed. I feel for them because they are going to start a fresh. Sadly, this has been the routine which we have been following since a couple of years ago, I started working for my agency in this town.” She lamented.
Pulka which is about 109 km is at the foot of the Mandara mountains which is the hot bed of Boko Haram in Borno State.
Calm returns to Pulka after Wednesday night attack on the town
Zulum Rolls Out 20 Electric Buses to Cushion Petrol Price Hike
By: Our Reporter
Borno State Governor, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum, has directed the immediate deployment of 20 luxury electric buses for public use as part of measures to cushion the impact of the recent petrol price hike on residents.
The buses, which were inaugurated by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on 20th December, 2025, alongside 3,000 electric bicycles, 500 electric tricycles, and 100 electric vehicles aimed at improving transportation services across the state.
The rollout of the buses, which commenced on Friday, 3rd April, features a fleet of 17 buses with 49 seating capacity, two 37-seaters, and one 28-seater. They are currently being deployed across major routes within Maiduguri metropolis and its environs to ease the burden of rising transport costs on commuters.
The Fully air-conditioned and energy-efficient vehicles can cover over 400 kilometres on a single charge. This initiative complements the existing fleet of buses and salon cars earlier procured by the Zulum administration to enhance urban mobility.
To ensure seamless operations, the governor has also established the largest electric vehicle charging terminal in the country, with the capacity to charge up to 50 vehicles at a time.
To further protect residents from the ripple effects of the global energy crisis, Governor Zulum directed Borno Express Transport Service to maintain a subsidised fare of N50 per drop.
The intervention has already begun to yield positive results, with noticeable reductions in congestion and improved access to affordable transportation for students, civil servants, traders, and other residents.
Commuters have since commended the initiative, describing it as timely and impactful.
“This transport initiative is indeed commendable. We are not feeling the impact of the rising transportation costs, as fares remain at N50 per drop. We thank Governor Zulum for the gesture”.
The initiative forms part of Governor Zulum’s effort to promote green energy, modernise transportation system and provide relief to the vulnerable.
Zulum Rolls Out 20 Electric Buses to Cushion Petrol Price Hike
Youth Exclusion Could Derail Development Goals, UN Issues Urgent Warning
By: Michael Mike
A senior United Nations official has issued a strong warning that governments and institutions risk deepening instability and policy failure if they continue to sideline young people, insisting that meaningful youth inclusion is now a critical condition for peace, stability, and sustainable development.
Speaking in Abuja at an interactive session with youth, the United Nations Assistant Secretary General for Youth Affairs and Head of UN Youth Affairs, who is currently on an official visit to Nigeria, Mr. Felipe Paullier, said global institutions are failing to evolve at the pace required to match today’s rapidly changing realities, particularly the demographic shift driven by an unprecedented youth population.
The event, themed “Open-Door Youth Engagement,” convened youth-led organizations, young women’s groups, youth peacebuilders, innovators, students, young professionals, persons with disabilities, and underserved youth communities for an interactive dialogue with representatives of the Government and the United Nations.
According to Paullier, young people now represent the largest, most educated, and most interconnected generation in history, especially in developing countries like Nigeria. However, this demographic advantage is being undermined by persistent gaps in access to quality education and limited opportunities for meaningful participation in governance.
He noted that: “Engaging young people in policy is not just an option—it is a condition if we want to achieve peace, stability, and effective solutions.”
He said the UN acknowledged a growing disconnect between policy formulation and real-world impact, describing the process of closing this gap as complex but urgent.
He admitted that while global frameworks exist, including the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and youth-focused strategies, implementation at the national level remains inconsistent.
LHe emphasized that governments must move beyond rhetoric and adopt clear, actionable commitments that integrate youth voices into decision-making processes.
He said central to this effort is the UN’s broader development roadmap, which includes commitments to embed youth participation not only at global levels but also within country-level governance and policy execution.
Addressing concerns over the sustainability of policies, he warned that many initiatives fail because they are not designed to endure or adapt over time. The solution, the official argued, lies in institutionalizing youth engagement rather than treating it as a temporary or symbolic exercise.
He noted that nearly half of the world’s population under 30, and significantly higher percentages across Africa, the stakes are even higher for countries on African continent.
He said: “Youth engagement should not be seen as a project—it must be embedded at the heart of governance, financing, and development planning.”
The UN also called for increased investment in youth-driven innovation, noting that young Nigerians are already transforming sectors such as agriculture, technology, and the creative economy through ingenuity and entrepreneurship.
Youth Exclusion Could Derail Development Goals, UN Issues Urgent Warning
Calm returns to Pulka after Wednesday night attack on the town
Zulum Rolls Out 20 Electric Buses to Cushion Petrol Price Hike
Youth Exclusion Could Derail Development Goals, UN Issues Urgent Warning
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