Conference Call: THE HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS INVESTIGATION COMMISSION OF NIGERIA 20 YEARS AFTER: CHALLENGES, LESSONS AND PROSPECTS

THE HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS INVESTIGATION COMMISSION OF NIGERIA 20 YEARS AFTER: CHALLENGES, LESSONS AND PROSPECTS

 

The Information Aid Network (IFAnet) in partnership with the Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism (PTCIJ) is convening an international conference in commemoration of two decades after the inauguration of the Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission of Nigeria in the summer of 2019 between the 19th and 22nd June. The Nigerian State has witnessed different regime transitions in its 56 years of existence. The great expectations and hopes that greeted its independence on October 1st, 1960 was thwarted by corruption, political violence and several military coups resulting in years of instability. The post independent years thus witnessed several intra-state and religious agitations among the over 400 ethnic groups in the country. As with all unstable polities, there have been massive violations of human rights in the forms of unlawful arrests, convictions and incarcerations, sporadic disappearances, destruction of valuable properties, kidnappings and arbitrary killings. These abuses further fanned the embers of mistrust and acrimony among Nigerian citizens who then sought to emphasize what differentiates from the ‘other’. However, the return to democracy in 1999 ushered in new aspirations as the government began the fourth republic with the inauguration of the Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission (HRVIC), which was modeled after the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). In inaugurating the seven-man commission chaired by the Late Justice Chukwudifu Oputa (rtd), the then President Olusegun Obasanjo charged the commission to reconcile misunderstandings among the different aggrieved and marginalized factions in order to move the country forward. The commission, well received by Nigerians, was religiously monitored through the televised public hearings, which sought to reconcile both the victims and the perpetrators. Nevertheless, two decades after the conclusion of these public hearings, Nigerians have remained divided on the importance, impact and gains of the HRVIC. This conference is thus designed to bring academics, public analysts, lawyers, researchers, public office holders, media practitioners, civil society advocates, non-governmental organizations, government parastatal and agencies, international organizations and the Nigerian public together to take stock of the challenges, prospects and gains of the commission. It poses important questions such as: How has the Nigerian state benefitted from the commission? What happened to the recommendations of the commission? How effective was the implementation committee? What cues can be taken for national unity and ethnic integration?  Consequently, IFAnet is soliciting for paper presentation and roundtable proposals from intending participants on the following areas:

GUEST PERSONALITY LECTURE |EVERYDAY EXTRACTION: LIMINALITIES AND ADULTERATION IN NIGER DELTA

On Thursday, 1st of February 2018, the Institute of Peace and Strategic Studies and African Studies Students’ Studies Association, University of Ibadan in collaboration with Thursday Film Series are delighted to invite you to a guest personality “EVERYDAY EXTRACTION: LIMINALITIES AND ADULTERATION IN NIGER DELTA” by Dr Rebecca Golden-Timsar. It will take place at 2PM Prompt in Drapers Hall, Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan.

Rebecca Golden-Timsar holds a PhD in anthropology from Tulane University (2012). She is currently Associate Director, Global Energy, Development, and Sustainability, University of Houston’s Graduate Certificate in Global Energy. Her research interests include gender, violence, youth, oil and extractive economies, religion, and contemporary African society. She was a Fulbright Scholar as well as a U.S. Institute for Peace Dissertation scholar. Dr. Golden-Timsar is the author of several publications; her most recent article entitled “Oil, Masculinity, and Violence: Egbesu Worship in the Niger Delta of Nigeria,” was published in Subterranean Estates: Life Worlds of OIl and Gas, edited by Hannah Appel, Arthur Mason, and Michael Watts(2013). Read more about her here

Abstract :

Egbesu, the powerful Ijaw arch-deity of justice and war both promulgated and mitigated violence for Ijaw youths in their struggle against inequality, the Nigerian federal government, petroleum multinationals, and “adulterated Egbesu boys.” The worship of Egbesu pervaded Ijaw youths’ perceptions of order at a time when, elsewhere, Islam and Christianity were central motors of Nigerian politics. The Ijaw Youth Council solicited power from the past to aid and to abet the articulation of militancy and resistance in the present, transforming local, national, and transnational landscapes of power, security, equality, and moral order.

This paper investigates the transformative aspects of extractive violence within Ijaw resistance groups as “original” and “adulterated” and are cast against the Ijaw warrior ethos, masculinity, and socio-religious liminality.

These transformations are intensified by the creative and mercurial roles that both youth and religion play in the mimetic (that is the imitation but with a distortion) production and reproduction of violence and injustices.

Entry is free and no registration is required.