Abubakar Kabir 

Stakeholders have called for zero tolerance to Gender-Based Violence, GBV, in schools and communities, warning that abuse undermines development and violates young people’s right to safety.

The call was made on Wednesday in Bauchi during a one-day sensitization on the Violence Against Persons Prohibition, VAPP, Law at Abubakar Tatari Ali Polytechnic, ATAP. The programme was organized by the Bauchi State Ministry of Justice in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, and the Abubakar Tatari Ali Polytechnic (ATAP).

  Speaking at the event, Deborah Tabara, Gender and Reproductive Health Analyst and Coordinator, UNFPA Bauchi, said protecting young people must come first if development goals are to be met.

“We are the reproductive health arm of the United Nations. Our mission is to ensure that every pregnancy is wanted, every child is safe, and every young person achieves their potential,” Tabara said.  

“Addressing GBV is key to achieving UNFPA’s three transformative goals, and we cannot get there if fear and abuse are allowed on campus.”

She described GBV as a development issue, not just a social one.  

“Whether you are a girl or a boy, a woman or a man, gender-based violence has devastating effects in public or private spaces. It impedes development because when a person is affected by it, there is no advancement,” she said.

Tabara stressed that accountability must be immediate.  

“Tolerance for gender-based violence must be zero. Everyone has a responsibility to ensure it does not occur, between students, lecturers, or both. When there is no deterrence, the perpetrator continues. But when we speak up, GBV can be addressed.”

  Speaking on behalf of the Permanent Secretary and Solicitor General of Bauchi State, the Director of Public Prosecution, Barr. Garba Dabo Maleka, urged students to reject sexual exploitation for grades and to use available reporting channels.

“You are future leaders, engineers and scientists. We want you to be safe and prepared. Do not select sex as a way of getting marks or allocation,” Maleka said.

He listed the DPP’s office, the Permanent Secretary, the police and campus counselors as points of contact, and advised rape victims to seek immediate medical attention.

ATAP management said it is aligning fully with the state policy to eradicate GBV. 

Speaking for the Rector, Dr. Hashim Sabo Bello, the Director of Ethics and Compliance, Dr. Alhaji Abdulkadir Waziri, said the polytechnic already has a gender and sexual harassment committee and is taking disciplinary and legal action against offenders.  

“The theme is timely and aligned with our core values of dignity, integrity and respect for human dignity,” he said.

  Gender Desk Officer at the Ministry of Justice, Maimuna Ibrahim Yusuf, called on all tertiary institutions in Bauchi to establish functional gender desks and grievance committees.  

“The objective is to educate students and staff on what constitutes GBV, its legal implications, and to strengthen reporting channels,” she said.

UNFPA, the Ministry of Justice and ATAP announced a new partnership to entrench accountability on campus through clearer reporting pathways and faster response for survivors.

The workshop drew students, faculty, counselors and security officials. The Ministry of Justice said it will continue working with school managements to ensure gender desks are accessible, while partners including J4PD said they will work with health stakeholders, journalists and community groups to drive awareness and early action on GBV prevention in the coming months.

Our Reporter 

Nigeria’s development continues to suffer massive setbacks as illicit financial flows, corruption, tax evasion, procurement fraud and other forms of financial crimes divert resources meant for infrastructure, education, healthcare, job creation and improved living standards, the Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ) has warned.

The Executive Director of ANEEJ, Rev. David Ugolor, raised the alarm in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, at a two-day training workshop for journalists and civil society organisations (CSOs) on combating illicit financial flows (IFFs).

The workshop, organised by a coalition of non-governmental organisations led by ANEEJ, with support from the European Union (EU) and SeCFin Africa, a France-based organisation, is themed “Strengthening CSOs and Media Capacity to Contribute to the Fight Against Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs).”

Ugolor said IFFs remained one of the most persistent obstacles to Nigeria’s economic development, noting that billions of naira that should be deployed to improve public services and lift communities out of poverty were continually lost through illegal and fraudulent financial practices.

He identified corruption, money laundering, tax evasion, trade misinvoicing, procurement fraud, profit shifting and other illicit practices as major channels through which resources were diverted from productive use.

“The scale of these losses on a yearly basis should trouble everyone of us, because the burden falls hardest on the ordinary citizens,” he said.

According to him, resources that should have expanded public services and lifted communities out of poverty were instead diverted from national and state development priorities.

He said the consequences were evident in weaker public institutions, declining trust in government, widening inequality and worsening insecurity.

Ugolor cited the troubled Benin-Sapele-Warri road project as an example of the consequences of alleged financial mismanagement and weak accountability in public infrastructure projects.

He alleged that the contractor handling the project had abandoned the road after reportedly receiving N140 billion, lamenting that the development had subjected Nigerians to untold hardship.

“The Benin-Sapele-Warri failed road project has caused untold hardship to Nigerians. This is a clear case of illicit financial flows as the people continue to suffer,” he said.

The ANEEJ chief noted that Nigeria had established several legal, policy and institutional mechanisms to tackle financial crimes, including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), Code of Conduct Bureau and Bureau of Public Procurement.

He, however, regretted that illicit financial practices continued despite the existence of these institutions and legal frameworks.

According to him, the persistence of IFFs demonstrates that laws and government agencies alone cannot effectively tackle the problem without active citizen engagement, civil society vigilance and informed public scrutiny.

Ugolor consequently charged journalists to strengthen their capacity to investigate financial crimes and expose illicit financial networks, stressing that the media had a critical role to play in holding powerful individuals and institutions accountable.

He said the nature of illicit financial flows was becoming increasingly sophisticated, requiring journalists to understand beneficial ownership, money-laundering typologies, digital and cross-border transactions, international financial networks and data-driven investigative techniques.

“Your responsibility goes beyond reporting events as they happen. It includes helping ordinary citizens make sense of issues that shape their lives, digging beneath the surface to uncover further details and illicit transactions, and amplifying voices that would otherwise go unheard,” he said.

He urged participants to use the knowledge acquired at the workshop to produce evidence-based and credible investigations capable of driving transparency, accountability and policy reforms.

Also speaking, Operations Coordinator of the SeCFin Africa Project, Philippe Pacaud, warned that illicit financial flows posed not only an economic threat but also a security risk.

Pacaud said some illicit funds from Nigeria and other African countries were being used to finance terrorism and other criminal activities.

“It is known to us that illicit funds flows are used to sponsor terrorism and we must tackle it immediately,” he said.

Representing the EFCC, the Head of its Corporate Affairs Department, Theresa Nwosu, stressed the need for stronger synergy and coordination among anti-corruption agencies, CSOs and the media.

Nwosu said greater collaboration was necessary to effectively identify, investigate and disrupt illicit financial activities.

In a presentation titled “Understanding Illicit Financial Flows and Financial Crimes in Nigeria,” the SecFin Africa Programme Representative, Prof. Abdullahi Shehu, defined IFFs as cross-border movements of funds that are illegally earned, transferred, owned or utilised.

He said such financial outflows were often facilitated by weaknesses in law enforcement, institutional coordination and accountability systems, resulting in the loss of public resources and erosion of state capacity.

Shehu identified three major characteristics of IFFs as the illegality of the source or origin of funds, illegality of their movement or transfer, and illegality of their ownership or use.

He also distinguished IFFs from money laundering, explaining that while money laundering involves proceeds that are illegal, IFFs can also involve funds that were legally earned but subsequently moved or used illegally.

Shehu said combating IFFs was a collective responsibility necessary for strengthening democracy, good governance and sustainable development.

He called for stronger anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism frameworks, improved compliance, effective customer due diligence and Know Your Customer procedures, expanded monitoring of suspicious transactions and tougher penalties for financial crimes.

He also urged government to improve transparency in public finance by publishing budgets, procurement contracts and expenditure records.

Other measures recommended included transparent electronic procurement systems, regular audits of government agencies and stronger oversight by legislative and anti-corruption institutions.

On taxation, Shehu advocated the digitisation of tax collection systems, stronger transfer-pricing regulations for multinational corporations and improved information sharing between tax authorities and financial institutions.

He stressed that the objective should not simply be to increase taxes but to reduce tax-related illicit financial flows and opportunities for evasion.

The professor further urged government agencies to deploy artificial intelligence and data analytics to identify unusual transactions, integrate databases across institutions and monitor cross-border financial movements in real time.

He also advocated expansion of digital payment systems capable of leaving auditable records.

Shehu said tackling illicit financial flows required a coordinated response involving government institutions, the media, CSOs, citizens and international partners.

He warned that without sustained and holistic action, Nigeria and other African countries would continue to lose valuable resources to illicit financial practices while grappling with poverty, insecurity, weak infrastructure and underdevelopment.

 The Federal Government says security agencies will in the coming weeks announce guidelines to regulate internet access for children under the age of 16 to safeguard minors from cyber threats and online exposure.

‎The ​‌‍​‌‍‌‍⁠⁠‌‍‍⁠⁠​​‍​‌​Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja during the launch of the Zero-Rated Access to Education Platforms initiative, organised in collaboration with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

Alausa said that while the government was aggressively expanding digital learning infrastructure, establishing strict cybersecurity guardrails for minors was imperative to protect young learners.

‎”We will be regulating internet access for children below 16 years old, and further announcements on this will be coming from our security staff in the coming days or weeks.

‎”It is our duty to protect every Nigerian child, more so underage children, from all sorts of cyberattacks and digital exposure,” he said.

‎The minister stressed that digital inclusion must be paired with strict content regulation to prevent indiscriminate exposure to unverified material.

‎”Zero-rated access should not mean indiscriminate access to every platform that describes itself as educational.

‎”The content made available to our children must be accessible, credible, safe, and aligned with our educational objectives and curriculum,” Alausa added.

‎Also, Ikechukwu Ugwuegede, a member of the NCC Board of Commissioners, described zero-rated access as a real-time democratisation of learning comparable to the digital e-book revolution.

‎Ugwuegede noted that providing free connectivity to accredited academic sites ensured that rural and urban students compete on an equal footing.

‎”By providing free connectivity to approved academic sites, we are ensuring that every learner, whether in a bustling city or a quiet rural community, will have equal access to knowledge.

‎”This is similar to the revolution of free e-books, but on a far greater scale; we are connecting dreams to opportunities and opportunities to reality,” he said.

‎Sen. Mohammed Muntari, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFUND, commended telecommunications operators for deploying corporate social responsibility to support national education.

Muntari said the initiative complemented ongoing Federal Government interventions, including the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), to ensure that no Nigerian child was left behind due to financial constraints.

‎”The leadership of the National Assembly appreciates the efforts of the telecommunications industry in ensuring our children are not left behind in acquiring knowledge.

‎”Under President Bola Tinubu’s administration, key programmes like NELFUND and zero-rated access are working together to expand opportunities for less-advantaged Nigerians,” he said.

‎Mr Peter Akpatason, member of the House Committee on Communication, pledged parliamentary oversight to ensure telecommunication providers expand coverage to underserved communities.

‎”Access to information should not be determined by the ability to pay for data.

‎”The House of Representatives remains fully committed to regulatory and legislative frameworks that encourage innovation, affordability, and consumer protection,” he said.

‎Teniola Apata (Teni), popular Nigerian artiste and education advocate, urged students to maximise the free data allocation to build technical skills for the global economy.

‎Apata, who reflected on the legacy of her late father and founder of Apata Memorial High School, called on young Nigerians to embrace digital learning platforms.

‎”Giving children access to free data for research might seem small to some, but it goes a very long way toward preparing them to lead tomorrow.

‎”I encourage all students to sign up, spread the word, and use this opportunity to acquire knowledge and build their future,” she said.

‎Also speaking, a representative of uLesson Group, Mr Oladipo Olugbemi, assured that edtech providers were aligning content quality and user experience to ensure smooth scaling for learners across all regions.(NAN).