Barr.(Mrs.) Olufunmi Oluyede is the Chairperson for the Lagos State chapter of the International Federation of Women Lawyers-FIDA, an organisation committed to the well-being of women and children. As FIDA Lagos prepares for a proposed 3-day summit geared towards combating sex and labour trafficking, Barr.Oluyede speaks passionately about the scourge of human trafficking and also gives an insight on the summit which would be coming up in September.

Exactly a week ago, I had the privilege of attending a unique ceremony back home in my community of 3 villages. It was an interesting home coming event as many of us in diaspora were in attendance. One of the big guests happened to be a former legislator.

Some years ago, in the din of the conflict that had marred its promise, I had written a piece titled “the world Igbo confusion” in great frustration about the direction of the American-based World Igbo Congress (WIC). It had structural problems. Its raison d’etre had also become profoundly watered down to the point where the Igbo in the United States began to see no point in the thing.

Last week was a hard time for my colleagues in the Vanguard office. Although I was not physically present, I felt their loss nonetheless. Our entertainment editor, Ogbonna Amadi succumbed to asthma related complications. His death was so sudden that colleagues can barely take in his absence.

Sometimes in science, when a researcher discovers a hitherto unknown phenomenon or invents a theory that sheds better light on a phenomenon known already, the phenomenon in question is named after him or her, essentially in recognition of such an accomplishment. Thus we have the Hall Effect, the Zeeman Effect, the Compton Effect and so on. Extrapolating from the practice in science, we can name a behavioural pattern or trait after an individual whose conduct epitomises it.

A prison can come in many shapes and forms. There are the physical prisons that people get sent to as a punishment for breaking the law. They are made of bricks and mortars; meant to trap people in confinement. Those prisons are institutions and infrastructures of dread; no normal person wants to end up there.

“The climax of every tragedy lies in the deafness of its heroes”. Albert Camus, I903-I960. (VANGUARD BOOK OF UOTATIONS p 90).

Against the background of the sad passing away of a “master banker”, Pa Olatunde Vincent, the furore rages on about the introduction of the 5000 naira note into our already shaky economy. The contrast between his benign era and the abrasive style of the present administration presents a picture of dismay. Old Lagos has lost one of its icons again. Apartheid is still very much with us,

A Neurosurgeon German refugee in Britain during the Second World War, pushed for a radical change in the way spinal cord injury patients were being treated.

The President’s acceptability on face book when he was running for election has taken a downward dive. His praises have turned to curses; his acceptability has turned to rejection.