With Dayo Benson

Please, I  urgently need your pieces of advice on what to do. I have been banished for being a Christian and sent packing from several houses for refusing to go to bed with the landlords. At the moment,  I stay in a government owned  hotel but the manager has been threatening  to eject me for refusing to succumb to his sexual advances, even to the extent of bringing the police to arrest me, where will I stay to have peace, please, please help.

– Grace, Warri, Delta State.

Your complain on being banished because of your religious faith is not detailed enough but what it suggests is that  you are being persecuted because you are a Christian. Also, you did not state where it happened and who banished you.

Is it your family, your community or are you being persecuted at your place of work? If it is your family, there is really little or nothing that can be done. But if it is your community or where you work, such action is against the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Every Nigerian is entitled to freedom of thought, association and religion. It is therefore unconstitutional for anybody to be persecuted because of his or her religious belief. This is a fundamental human right as enshrined in Section 38 of the Constitution.

According to the Section 38: “(1)Every person shall be entitle to freedom of thought, conscience and religion , including freedom to change his religion or belief and freedom (either alone or in community with other , and in public or in private) to manifest and propagate his religion or belief in worship , teaching , practice and observation.

(2)  No person attending any place of education shall be required to receive region instruction or to take part in or  ceremony or observation  relates to a religion other than his own or a religion not approved by his parent or guardian.

(3) No religion community or denomination shall be prevented from providing religion  instruction for pupil of that community or denomination in any place of education maintained wholly by that community or denomination.

(4) Nothing in this section shall entitle any person to form , take part in the activity or be a member of a secret society ”.

Note that this fundamental right can be enforced in a court of competent jurisdiction. You can decide to enforce this right against your persecutors. You can contact a lawyer if you so decided. But if you choose not to enforce your right, except somebody comes to your aid, you may have to continue living with the experience.

Note that as a Nigerian citizen, you have the right to reside in any part of the country without any molestations whatsoever. On the issue of sexual harassment, it is unfortunate that there is no clearly spelt out law and that is why people still indulge in it. Another issue is the fact that victims don’t speak up. Maybe if victims are courageous enough to open up publicly, the law makers would be compelled to act.

It is when there is a law that prescribes stiff sanctions for proven cases of sexual harassment that people like your landlord can be proceeded against. The same applies to the hotel manager that would not let you be  for the same reason.

You said he got the police to arrest you for refusing to succumb to his several sexual advances. But the question to ask is: what  offence did the police arrest you for? Certainly not for your refusal to allow the hotel manager have sexual intercourse with you. I would advise that you report this matter to higher police authority in that jurisdiction for necessary action to be taken.

Can government be sued over people’s welfare?

I really want to know if any action can be instituted against the government to compel it to cater for people’s welfare? I ask this question because recent developments in the country seem to suggest that this democracy is not for the generality of the people, but only for the ruling elite.

For example, some state governors are not willing to pay the new minimum wage which has now become law. They have asked the federal government to remove fuel subsidy if the new minimum wage has to be paid.

This is certainly not in the interest of the people. Also, from July 1st electricity tariff will go up despite persistent darkness Nigerians are being subjected to. The question one may ask is why hike the tariff when power supply is still epileptic? So, are people going to be paying more for improved power supply or longer hours of darkness? Amid all these, our lawmakers are earning jumbo pay when millions of Nigerians are suffering.

As if this is not enough, President Goodluck Jonathan is planning to create more ministries so that every state will have ministers of equal status.

The implication of this is that government recurrent expenditure will leap sky-word while capital expenditure for development will further slump. So, I ask the question again, can any legal action be taken against this government on this issue?

–Samuel, Abuja.

Due to space constraint, answer to this question will be published  next week. Please bear with us.