Ogebe dedicates US award to Hundeyin, meets a surprise guest in Washington
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
International human rights lawyer Emmanuel Ogebe has dedicated an award he received in the United States to several human rights figures, including investigative journalist David Hundeyin (who says President Bola Tinubu is seeking to kill him), a late American “co-parent” of Chibok girls, and Sarah, a teenage Borno refugee.
The ceremony, organised by She Rises International Inc, was held in Washington as part of activities around the International Girl Child Day
Ogebe was one of two Nigerians out of the four honorees recognised for their significant contributions.
The transcript of the award ceremony he sent to TheNiche is produced below:
Host
Barrister Emmanuel Ogebe is an international human rights lawyer specializing in Africa. He earned singular distinction of being the youngest law graduate in his home country of Nigeria.
Exiled to the US after becoming one of Nigeria’s political detainees during the brutal years of military dictatorship under Sani Abacha, Ogebe has played a role in shaping US congressional and foreign policy in Nigeria’s quest for a stable democracy.
If you take a look at this as we move further down, you’ll see that he was consulted by Clinton’s administration as well as the Bush administration on their presidential visits to Nigeria in 2000 and 2003, respectively.
He holds the distinction of being the first special legal consultant on Nigeria, out of 100,000 lawyers admitted to the US Capitol. His consulting firm, the US Nigeria Law Group, is located in Washington D.C.
He also doubles as the special counsel for the Justice for Jos Project, a pro bono initiative of his firm, which has worked in the last dozen years to document, litigate and garner international attention to the horrific crimes against humanity in Northern Nigeria.
He engages with the United Nations, the International Criminal Court, the EU, and the US amongst others, to advocate on behalf of the persecuted minorities.
Emmanuel Ogebe
Thank you very much. So to make my remarks, I’ve never done this before so, my apologies. First of all, I want to thank you all for nominating me for this award.
I noticed that there are four women and I’m the only guy, so I must be the affirmative action choice. That’s all good. Then I want to thank all the guests for being here on time.
This is the first time I’ve come to an event in Maryland and everyone was here already, so big ups to you guys. I want to say I have, over the last 15 years, received numerous awards, but this is the first one that I’ve ever been able to attend. Because when you are in the work of human rights, your schedule is unpredictable.
And I’m honored to be here because Tinu is one of our volunteers, actually she helped to provide pro bono legal services to victims of Boko Haram who fled and were relocated to the US and she helped work on their legal process.
So it’s an honor to be here, let’s appreciate her with a round of applause.
I want to dedicate this to a couple of people. One of them of course is my mom. My mom is the first female doctor from Northern Nigeria. Wow, thank you. And my sister, who practices in Texas, is the first female doctor from my village. And that is illustrative of the impact of educating the girl child.
Because you educate her, you’re educating a generation. And so… I never forget what one of the parents of Chibok said to me. Chibok is the community where almost 300 girls were abducted. And one of the parents said to me, “They didn’t just steal our girls and our daughters. They stole a generation.”
And, that’s how you need to rationalize how irrational what they did was and why we’ve been fighting this past nine years to get all the girls back. I’ll quickly say that 90 of them are still missing nine years later and that is terrible.
I want to quickly also dedicate this to one of our volunteers, Howie.
Howie is a white guy, and his funeral was on Monday. Well, he was my co-parent with some of these adopted girls. They lived in his mansion in Virginia, and every day he would wake up and drive them to school and drive them back home.
He didn’t have to do this when he had a couple of those girls in his home and unfortunately the Nigerian government took them away from his home and they lost their academic track.
And just so you understand that while we as civil society are trying to do good, out of evil, We have governments that want to do evil instead of good.
I think I should mention finally the two other people I’m dedicating this to. One of them is Dave Hundeyin, a young journalist in Nigeria who has reported on atrocities and the forgeries of the current president and is now on exile [Ghana] for his life for merely being a journalist.
And then the last person I’m dedicating this to is a young girl called Sarah. Sarah graduated, (not that Sarah, another one. There’s so many Sarahs).
Another one who lived on a mountain for a year, fleeing from Boko Haram, they killed all her male relatives. Went to Cameroon as a refugee, was denied entry into the refugee camp because it was too full, trekked back to Nigeria, ended up in one of our camps, taught herself how to read, came first in her class, and graduated in August from high school.
These are the women who rise. These are the girls who rise. And if we don’t step in and identify these diamonds in the rough, they will be lost to humanity.
I will end my remarks by saying my mom is so traumatized by what is happening in northeast Nigeria now. And she talks about how as a girl, she used to ride on the back of a lorry carrying you know, food and produce just to get to school.
And she said, “I was a little girl on that truck with all these men and no one molested me. And I can’t believe that now, in Nigeria, girls go to school and get kidnapped.” Things have gotten way worse than then.
So I’ll close with one very sad story I read this week of a 16-year-old girl who was arrested by the police and detained. And the gang raped her every day for four months, and she’s now pregnant.
This is the police. Who do you report to when those who are meant to protect you molest you? And this is why our voices as civil society are critical in the battle that we have.
So I will end my remarks by saying that human rights advocates generally are not recognized with laurels and flowers. Our badges tend to be the scars on our back.
And so when rarely, we get this opportunity to be recognized in our lifetimes, we take it very seriously. So thank you very much…
See video https://www.facebook.com/EmmaOgebe/videos/340446598434451/?d=w&mibextid=qC1gEa
There was a mild drama at the event when Ogebe ran into two individuals that brought him to tears.
Recounting the incident in a social media post, he wrote, “Last night, I went for an award ceremony in Maryland – the first I have been able to attend in a decade due to perpetual schedule conflicts.
After my speech, a lady introduced herself as having been a youth corper in my hometown Makurdi and lived with family friends of ours! Then a man introduced himself as the son of a pro democracy activist who had been murdered in Nigeria.
Well, guess what???
The family friends were the ones who broke the news to me that Kudirat Abiola had been assassinated and the young man was Kudirat’s son!
Now get this – it was my advocacy for an investigation into her death that resulted in my detention by the military junta 27 years ago and ultimately my exile. And all of that came together at a gala honoring me and several others for our humanitarian work. #onlyGod!
BTW that Makurdi family had just returned from studying in the US when Kudirat was killed. They used to bring me food in detention too. This corper who lived with them in Makurdi is still in touch with them decades later!”
Other nationalities honored included a Jamaican Canadian lawyer and a Ghanaian doctor.
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Related articles:
Tinubu should rescue Leah Sharibu, not allow release of military intelligence
Nigeria’s democracy from Dan Fodio’s 1804 jihad to Tinubu’s 2023 jihad
Ogebe proffers solutions to Abacha loot gridlock, diaspora remittance hindrances
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Nomination letter from She RISES
The nomination letter from the organization stated,
“Dear Attorney Emmanuel Ogebe:
The Board of She RISES Int’l Inc is proud to announce that we have selected you as an honoree at our 2nd Annual Fundraiser & Awards. She RISES
Int’l Inc. is a 501(c)(3) organization that proactively advocates for gender justice and equity here in the USA and throughout the developing world. Our organization chose you due to your outstanding work and commitment to improving the lives of girls and women in our local and global communities.
We seek to celebrate your exemplary dedication towards empowering others in need of support and guidance hence this nomination.
She RISES Int’l Inc.’s 2nd Annual Fundraiser & Awards is scheduled for October 7, 2023, from 5:00 PM (Prompt) – 9:00 PM. The event will be held at “Greencastle Lakes Community Club House”.
Our board consists of charitable and passionate individuals who are themselves committed to supporting women and girls regardless of their geographical locations…
Sincere Appreciation,
Tinuade S. Akinshola (For the Board of She RISES Int’l Inc.)
She Rises Int’l, Inc.
“Because every female in the world has a voice that deserves to be heard.”
Website www.sherisesintlinc.com
Board members and officers of She Rises pictured with three honorees (seated) left to right, Empowerment Entrepreneur Funlayo Alabi, and Washington lawyers Simone Williams Arrington and Emmanuel Ogebe.
