Professor Joy Ngozika Ezeilo is the Dean, Faculty of Law,
University of Nigeria, Enugu.Ezeilo, who is a member of the seven
person-panel of the United Nations’ newly established civil society
advisory board on prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse,
tells OGBONNA CASMIR about her
passion.
What was your fascination with
law?
I think when you look at noble professions, they say they are
three; although, it is arguable and it can be contested. One of
them is priesthood – it is a noble profession; then medical and
legal fields. But I think that law gives you power – the power of
understanding your environment. There is no society that is not
governed by law. It is law that governs the society. It is about
studying law and being able to use that law to influence rightly,
positively and ensure justice for everyone; the oppressed and the
poor and to ensure that you know the law. It is something that is
so empowering. It is really a privileged position to be. I said I
was going to be a lawyer to be defending people. I was very good in
debate in those days.
Lawyers have a special role in the society; they can hold
government to account, they can work for the people and ensure that
there is legal framework and rule of law. Rule of law is cardinal
to the survival and development of any society.
What were some of the toughest challenges you faced
as a young lecturer?
I think as a young lecturer, I read a lot and I think that our
library did not have enough books. I wasn’t getting enough,
especially because I had the opportunity to study abroad and saw
huge facilities in the library, available to people in the
University of London, where you have Institute Advance Legal Study.
We had access to every college library. Also, as a young lecturer,
it was hard getting the people of the older generation to
understand the new ways of doing things. And especially for some of
us then, who gave free legal aid to people.
How would you describe your university days as a law
student?
It was very tough as a law student of UNN. We were always trying
to get ahead of everybody. They demanded from us to work hard and
they demanded discipline of the highest order and they instilled
that discipline in us.
What were some of your fond memories in law
school?
It was very hard because everybody went to Lagos and it was
tough to get a space. If you got a hostel there, you would thank
God. But then, the experience would make you to love and appreciate
the profession because we have really committed lecturers. You
would not be told to dress well and one of my fond memories was
preparing for law dinner. You would want to be in your best and be
there on time. The stress involved in the preparation would not
even make you enjoy the food. For me, it was the first time I was
coming across foods from other parts of the world. You would learn
to start eating beans the way Yoruba people eat it and I loved the
way they cook their beans but I didn’t quite like their soups. It
is not the way we cook here but then, sometimes when you go to the
cafeteria you will not see any other food except their type of
soup. Today I can go to Lagos or any place in the South-West and
ask for ewedu. We are not used to adding stew to our meal but it is
good.
You were recently appointed by the United Naions as
a member of the newly established civil society advisory board on
prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse. What exactly does your
work entail and how has it been?
This is a newly established body and the focus behind it came
from all the reports and scandals of UN missions. In few cases,
people have been found wanting on the issue of sexual abuse and
exploitation. Some people have used their positions to exploit
others who are vulnerable, especially those affected by conflicts.
It is not about UN alone; all the member states send members; they
can send police or UN peacekeeping mission, for example, and when
they get there, because they are paid in dollars, you see them
throwing away money and using it to exploit people who are
vulnerable. You hear about sex for food or paying for sex. So that
is called sexual exploitation and abuse. It means that you are
exploiting the situation and vulnerability of the people you are
supposed to protect. Then on one level, we will be focusing a lot
on UN system; to advise the UN Secretary General and to ensure that
right mechanisms are in place.
You seem to be a strong advocate for women, sex
abuse victims and people that have been trafficked. Is there any
particular reason for that?
Apart from the passion for work, it is also informed by societal
ills. I find such things intolerable. It is debasement of humanity
and womanhood, and then cries for justice by several victims and
survivors have fuelled my passion for work in this area. For
example, I chose to be a lawyer right from when I was in secondary
school and it was informed by the things widows were being made to
go through in the society.
It also happened to my mother when my father died. It came as a
shock to me; it made me realise that women and men were different.
It was a moment I realise that it is really an unequal world. It
was a cultural shock – if you live in the city and your first
homecoming is to attend a funeral, you will be confronted with a
lot of things and you will ask – what is this, why is this so? At
such a moment, I decided that I was going to be a lawyer to defend
women who would be forced to face the type of things widows were
made to face. Luckily, we have come a long way because things are
better. In the past, widows would have to mourn for about two
years. It didn’t matter even if you lived in the city; my mother
had to stay in the village for about a year. They would just put a
woman in one place for two months. They would wake you up and ask
you to cry intermittently and do other things like going to a
shrine for cleansing, sleeping with the chief priest and all of
that. It is good that some of them have been done away with. But it
is not yet over because the inheritance aspect for widows is still
there. Their poverty situation gets worse and they become extremely
poor after the death of their husband. If a woman who was raped
went to report the incident to the police, they would start asking
them embarrassing questions. Recently, we heard about the case of a
rapist who was handed a one year jail term and given the option of
paying N7,000 to avoid going to jail.
I asked myself if I was still in Nigeria because I know the law
– whether it is penal code or the criminal code – rape carries life
imprisonment. It does not attract an option of fine. For attempted
rape, it is 14 years imprisonment. How and when did we get to a
point where we now ask rapists to pay N7,000 and go home?
You were once a commissioner for gender and social
development in Enugu. How was the experience?
That was 15 years ago, but it was really interesting. I am an
activist and a scholar. It was a very good experience; it was good
to see how government works and why government fails as well. I
used my passion to immediately articulate a strategy for the
ministry. It had never been done; I started with a strategic
planning process. I started scanning and mapping the ministry, what
it was supposed to do. I looked at its mandate, what had been done
in the past and where it had worked. We did our analysis to know
the weaknesses, opportunities and strengths. And then, I brought in
people as I wouldn’t do it just myself. We needed to take all of us
through a strategic planning process so that we could collectively
define the mandate of the ministry. By the time we all went through
this process, all of us were motivated.
Were you tempted to delve into
politics?
Yes, because I saw the importance of government in our lives and
the mismatch between the leaders and the led. The fact is that they
are not like people you can assume have the best knowledge or
expertise.
Many of them are selfish; many of them just want personal
aggrandisement. So, they rarely work for the people who elected
them and I felt that I wanted to set the pace; I wanted to show
that one could work for the people because I have a background in
the civil society.
I remember I was UN Rapporteur on human trafficking globally and
I visited more than 100 countries. I have worked in and travelled
to over 130 countries around the world. In any country, your
experience would form your legislation. If you fought a war, you
would say no, we don’t want war again. If you are coming from a
state of underdevelopment, you would say I want to lift my country
out of poverty. You look at your people, check your situation and
try to move with the world. But do we have that? At the end of the
change from military to civilian rule, we ought to have set our
priorities right and have the right people in government, who can
say never again to bad governance and corruption.
At times, I ask myself what set of people are we, where do we
come from because we don’t belong to this planet. As Nigerians, we
don’t love our country, we are not patriotic enough.
Our avarice for wealth is so satanic that we need to go to
psychiatric hospitals for examination. What is the insecurity that
makes us have such quest for such primitive accumulation of wealth?
What have got up to that level? We have to examine our DNA, we have
to begin to have new breed of people. On a serious note, the
current DNA that tend towards corruption, we may have to examine it
and find whether we can find incorruptible DNA.
We go to other places where things work. Why can’t we have
people that can replicate it here? I am tired of reading statistics
like maternal mortality, worse; global this, worse; global that,
worse. And in Nigeria, we have material and mineral resources;
can’t we use them to make Nigeria work for all of us? How come we
are still talking about electricity problem?
Look at the issue they are debating in Bayelsa State. Some
people want pension for legislators. So if you are there for four
years, you get pension. I have been in a university working for 25
years and I am here labouring and they say I can work till I am 70
years and if I retire, they will pay me, that is what is called
pension. People are dying from preventable diseases. People are not
getting access to health care, basic amenities, food and clothes.
Food security is still a challenge, human insecurity is everywhere
and we have a huge population. When I look at our population, I say
it is a tsunami – a time bomb waiting to happen. Are we waiting to
have a revolution from these youths that don’t have job 10 years
after graduation? As a UN Rapporteur, I went to migrant centres in
every country I visited and it was within my mandate to make sure
that people who were trapped were not detained as irregular
migrants in detention centres. In 2013, I was in Italy. When we got
to migrant detention centres there, you would hear voices of
Nigerians:
‘They want to deport me. Deport me to where? What do they want
me to do? If they deport me to Nigeria, I will become an armed
robber, a kidnapper.’ Our youths are found in every country of the
world because of hopelessness.
Culled from Punch
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