The International Day of the Girl

UN Women, October 11 International Day of the Girl

UN Women’s Executive Director Phumzile has written a letter to girls for today. She says, “It is a time for the protection and assertion of rights, a time to listen hard and speak louder, no matter how difficult , no matter how difficult; to call out the continuing imbalances of power . . . It is a time to act, together with men and boys, on the issues that will determine a lived equality for all, central to which is the ending of violence against women and girls.”

Powerful words! I love her statement that it is time to speak louder!

“Ending violence against women and girls is at the heart of our work and a central part of fighting for gender equality,” she says. The fight for gender equality and the struggle to end violence against women and girls – those goals of UN Women are why I continue to serve on the board of the US National Committee for UN Women.

You can find more information on UN Women’s work here. I especially liked this story about a 15-year-old girl from Nigeria who has learned to code.

She attended a workshop in Ethiopia sponsored in part by UN Women. She said when she returned home she would teach other girls to code. “They shouldn’t think that it is only boys who can code!” she said.

Elections Coming in Nigeria

US is having important elections this year with the presidential election coming two years later. Nigeria is holding its presidential election in February.

The primaries were completed last weekend. The two major parties have their candidates.

We’ve known for some time that President Buhari was running again, with full support from his party, the APC, or All Progressives Congress. His challenger is Atiku Abubakar, who was vice president under Obasanjo, 1999 to 2007. Abubakar was selected in the PDP, or People’s Democratic Party, primary over several other contenders.

Ambassador Campbell who wrote the article in the Council on Foreign Relations blog Africa in Transition, said, “Parties aside, politics is dominated by personality, not by issues, and politicians frequently and easily shift from one party to the other.”

He gives the example of the PDP candidate, Atiku Abubakar. When he was vice president he was a member of the PDP, a northerner balancing the ticket with President Obasanjo, a southerner. He “left the PDP and joined the APC to challenge Buhari for that party’s presidential nomination, which Buhari ultimately won. He then left the Buhari-led APC in late 2017 and will now challenge him again.”

The country follows an unwritten rule that the presidency will rotate between the  predominately Muslim north and the predominately Christian south every 8 years. Buhari has been in power for four years. The PDP had to choose a northerner to run against him.

The tricky question will come if Abubakar should win. Then could he run again, which would extend the northern time in power for more than the 8 years?

There are several candidates from minority parties, but they have little chance of winning.

Campaigning is underway and will become intense in early 2019. I’m sure I’ll see the posters, slogans, and TV ads when we’re in Nigeria during the coming Christmas holidays.

Climate Change and Its Impact

Professor Vinnie Ferraro called the recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change depressing. It certainly is that! The report says we have “about 12 years to make the changes necessary to avoid a 2C degree increase in global temperatures.”

Two degrees Centigrade is 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit. It may not seem like a lot in terms of personal comfort. But it means so much more – polar ice melting, oceans rising, and towns along coasts inundated!

Ferraro has a list of the biggest emitters. “According to CDP Worldwide: ‘Over half of global industrial emissions since human induced climate change was officially recognized can be traced to just 25 corporate and state producing entities,’ ” he says.

It’s an intriguing list! Of course these are the largest corporate and state entities. Still, if the corporations understand that their business is threatened, and the countries realize their citizens are in danger, won’t they take action now, before it’s too late?

See next article!

Flooding in Nigeria and US

Ambassador Campbell wrote about climate change a few days before his article on the Nigerian presidential election. It compares flooding in the US and Nigeria, both catastrophic, and both increasing!

While the US flooding has been primarily caused by hurricanes, in Nigeria it is unusually heavy rainfall. The BBC had a report recently on Nigeria’s flooding.

“There has been widespread criticism of Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA),” Campbell says. Both inadequate responses have brought political damage.

In Nigeria, President Goodluck Jonathan’s popularity was hurt and he lost the next election to President Buhari. In the US, Campbell says, the “government’s poor response to Hurricane Katrina did the same to President George W. Bush.”

“The elephant in the living room in both countries is the impact of climate change,” the article continues.

Neither country is taking action. Scientists, environmentalists, and some state governments in the US are speaking out. But “climate change does not appear to be an issue of public debate in Nigeria,” he concludes.

Any chance the presidential candidates will talk about it? I hope so!