For his commitment towards
ensuring that the rights of the people are protected, especially in respect to
job opportunities, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State has bagged the
prestigious Order of the Pride of Africa and the 2016 Mandela Medal for A Long
Walk to Freedom Awards.
Ambassador Joseph Rankin, Governor General for Africa,
International Commission of Diplomatic Relations, Human Rights and Peace
Ambassador for the African Region – International Human Rights Commission,
presented the awards today in a brief but impressive ceremony which was
attended by the wife of the Governor, Dame Edith Okowa and other top government
functionaries at the Government House, Asaba.
According to Ambassador Rankin, “nominees for the award must
have made substantial and long-term contributions in furtherance of civil
rights, civil liberties, human rights on the African continent,” he said,
asserting, “the Mandela Medal is awarded 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.”
While noting that “the Mandela Medal is the pinnacle of human
rights recognition in Africa,” the Ambassador disclosed, “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 Governor Okowa administration has done very well through the Job Creation
Office, Governor Okowa’s administration had also, put structures in place to
ensure that the rights of the citizens are protected.
Governor Okowa in his response, stated, “I feel honored 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 that
is in the land 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 very 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,” the Governor said at
the occasion, adding that the peace building efforts of his administration had
started yielding positive results.
He said, “we have been building peace, because, we came at a
time when everything appeared to be going down the drain and I believe that
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 as
it progress on 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 all 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,” the Governor said.
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