Ene Obi

Ene Obi is a Nigerian development practitioner, social justice advocate, and civil society leader. She served as the Country Director of ActionAid Nigeria (2019–2022) and later became the Convener of the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room, a coalition that monitors elections, governance, and democratic accountability. For more than three decades, she has worked on poverty reduction, gender equality, public accountability, governance, and citizens' participation in Nigeria. She has also served on several national and international policy platforms advocating for social justice and democratic reforms. Quotes We are an anti-poverty agency that works for the eradication of poverty. We are presently working in no fewer than 30 countries and have existed for at least 20 years in Nigeria. We are a very transparent organisation at different levels with governing board and general assembly which is made up of diverse Nigerians who are willing to volunteer. As a matter of fact, our country’s strategic paper is “on social justice, we end poverty.” We believe that poverty can be eradicated. We believe that the resources of Nigeria can be utilised and re-distributed for the common good of the people. Actually, we have almost 100 staffers, but we work through partners. So, if we want to count staff, they are in multitudes in all the states where we operate and it is a team of very exciting patriotic Nigerians who are working tirelessly to ensure that our objectives are met. We have over the years focused on the most vulnerable in the society, especially women and children. We have focused the girl-child education, gender-based violence against children and women, women empowerment as a way of addressing various deteriorations plaguing the Nigerian society. The reason being that in emergency situations, there must be a vulnerable woman or child that needs rescue and attention. For instance, if we are not gender-sensitive, all these areas would be missed because the live of a new born, for instance, might be jeopardised. So, whether or not a victim resides in a state where ActionAid is working or not, we would be there. Our organisation has also introduced a community sponsorship programme in Nigeria where we sought funds for the purpose of lifting the lives of the community inhabitants. In carrying out this task, the organisation seeks contributions from genuine donors who are willing to supports vulnerable children to make financial contributions for the sustenance of the programme. More like ‘Nigerian giving to Nigerians’ where people can give at least N2, 000 in a month totalling N24, 000 in a year. We initiated this programme because we realised that N2, 000 as small as it seems can keep a child in school, especially in the rural areas, which incidentally happens to be our working environment. Although, it took us many years to introduce it and even get approval, but now a lot of people are making contributions towards its existence. We are looking forward to launching it in October when we are planning to properly introduce it as part of our social justice struggle. It is our belief that any donor automatically becomes part of ActionAid family who in our opinion has given back to the society. In tackling corruption, ActionAid found out that the worst impediment to corruption is corruption itself. We have equally found out through years of research that in trying to end corruption, the issue of corruption will hold you down to not being able to fight it. Presently, we are championing a campaign that, if you are working in the area of poverty eradication, it is a must to fight corruption. For us, we believe in a country where you uphold dignity of every Nigerian including children. As it were, the citizenship of every Nigerian is in crisis. This corruption also brings impediments to investors who no longer look at investing in Nigeria. One of the good things that we see, however, is that President Muhammadu Buhari is willing to fight corruption. At least, he made a pronouncement that he believes in fighting corruption. So, we need to use that opportunity to ask him to do more and let those who are corrupt be appropriately sanctioned. External links Electoral Amendment Category:Living people Category:Women activists from Nigeria Category:Civil rights activists Category:Human rights activists