Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, has bagged the
prestigious Order of the Pride of Africa and the 2016 Mandela Medal for Long
Walk to Freedom Awards by the International Human Right Commission (IHRC).
This was in recognition of the governor’s commitment towards
ensuring that the rights of the people are protected, especially in respect to
job opportunities, according to the organisers.
Governor General for Africa, International Commission of
Diplomatic Relations, Human Rights and Peace Ambassador for the African
Region of the IHRC, Ambassador Joseph Rankin presented the awards, in
Asaba, yesterday.
Rankin said nominees for the award must have made
substantial and long-term contributions in furtherance of civil rights, civil
liberties and human rights on the African continent. He said the Mandela Medal
is given to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the
“advancement of human rights in Africa.
The African region headquarters of the
International Human Rights Commission, Geneva, Switzerland has established this
award to honor and give public recognition to an individual that has made an
exceptional contribution to the advancement of human rights on the African
continent.
“The Mandela Medal is the pinnacle of human rights
recognition in Africa. We are in Asaba city, the capital of Delta State in
Nigeria to honour and commend a great achiever who has made an outstanding
contribution to the promotion and protection of the human rights embodied in
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in other United Nation’s Human
Rights instruments.”
He added that the governor was carefully selected by a
special committee comprising the General Assembly members of the IHRC and the
Economic and Social Council of the International Commission of Diplomatic
Relations, Human Rights and Peace, noting that the creation of job
opportunities through skill acquisition programme of the state government that
will make the beneficiaries millionaires within a decade was laudable.
The ambassador also observed that apart from job creation,
which the Okowa administration has done very well through the Job Creation
Office, the administration had also put structures in place to ensure that the
rights of the citizens are protected.
In his response, the governor said: “I feel honoured to
receive this award and more so, when it has to do with our departed father, Dr.
Nelson Mandela; we know what he represented when he was alive and all over the
world, we do know that he is a symbol of human rights and what it is supposed
to be in this age today.
“There is no doubt that in Africa, particularly Nigeria and
our dear state in particular, that the issue of poverty and underdevelopment
has to be addressed; it may not be possible to address everything in one
day or two, even in a year or a tenure, but we must continue to play the
little roles that we can consistently play and stay focused on the goal if we
must get our people out of where they are at the moment and therefore we must
continue to promote good governance.
“We have been building peace, because, we came at a time
when everything appeared to be going down the drain and I believe with the
peace building efforts and engaging the youths, we have continued to give hope
and to keep hope alive for our people; we are also working on several justice
reforms and it is our belief and our hope that we will continue to put
processes in place that will uphold the freedom of our people and will uphold
their rights because, it is important and we must, even as we uphold their
rights, ensure that they have access to education and health and here in this
state, we have started a contributory health scheme which is going to ensure that
every Deltan has access to good health beyond the fact that we expect every
Deltan will have access to education.
“A man cannot be free if he is hungry, a man cannot be free
when he has no access to health, a man who is ignorant cannot be said to be
free and we will continue to do our best despite the recession, we will remain
focused and I will appeal to Deltans that they should continue to cooperate
with us and we may not be shouting about the things that we do, but, we will
remain consistent on the fact that we want to touch the lives of our people.”
By Paul Osuy
