NGO says, educate rural dwellers on their rights

PHOTO: Zmescience.com

Give Back to Humanity, a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), has appealed to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to take its sensitisation on fundamental human rights to the rural areas.

The National Coordinator of the organisation, Mr Marcel Ngogbehei, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abuja that NHRC should stop focusing on the city-centres alone.

Ngogbehei said that the NHRC would afford the rural dwellers access to what constituted fundamental human rights and access to information if it took its campaign to their door steps.

“I have noticed that all the campaigns geared toward educating people on their rights are centred on the urban centres; so what about the rural dwellers?

“Don’t they have a right to know their rights? Don’t they have rights that needed to be protected? In fact, I think they are the ones that needed the education more.

“Though, the world is fast becoming a global village, I can, categorically, state that there are some villages that are still far behind in terms of being technologically compliant.

“They may watch these campaigns on television stations for those fortunate enough to have them, but they need the members of the commission to go simplify it for them,” he said.

He acknowledged that it might be an uphill-task but added that he believed it was a possible task to achieve.

Mrs Ushator Gesa, a resident of Waru, a settlement within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), told NAN that the campaign, if extended to them, would give them a sense of belonging.

Gesa said that there were several issues bordering on the violations of their domestic rights that the victims would need an avenue to redress.

She said if women in the area were enlightened on how to claim their rights and seek redress, cases of abuse rampant there would reduce drastically.