Chidi Odinkalu

Chidi Anselm Odinkalu is a Nigerian human rights activist, lawyer, professor and writer. He was the former chairman of Nigeria's National Human Rights Commission (Nigeria) and was recently the senior team manager for the Africa Program of Open Society Justice Initiative. Quotes Wherever you look, the future of government of the people, for the people, and by the people in #Africa increasingly looks beleaguered, if not indeed bleak. 5 Things Prof. Chidi Anselm Odinkalu said in his Keynote on SECURITY, JUSTICE & NATIONAL RE-ORIENTATION. The Challenge of Security, Justice & Orientation have never been deeper than they are now in Nigeria. The challenge of security is tied to our country's evolution. The Berlin colonial pacification was tied to the idea that our people are non-persons; the idea now of national security, orientation and co-existence mirrors the idea that we are non-persons: non-persons during the colonial era, non-persons now; the disturbing situation must be fixed. To fix the challenge, we must have a shared sense of civics and the average Nigeria must matter to security agents, the people's choice must count during elections and the courts must do justice not transactions. Security, Justice & National Re-Orientation requires leadership that is legitimate. To defend what is right when it is inconvenient is not betrayal, but leadership. To question power, even when it is our own, is not sabotage but responsibility. To insist on fairness, even when it costs us influence, is not weakness but strength. We must resist the temptation to reduce governance to ethnic possession. Power is not an inheritance to be defended blindly; it is a trust to be exercised justly. When we collapse that distinction, we endanger not only others but ultimately ourselves. Human life is a dignitarian project. Parents are the first line of human rights workers. We cannot just preach human rights—we must live them. If we diminish gender discrimination, the biggest profiteers will be men. External links Category:Activists from Nigeria Category:1968 births Category: living people