Rivers

Group Seeks Passage Of Gender Bills By 10th National Assembly

Published

2 years ago

July 17, 2023

A Non-Governmental Organisation, under the aegis of the Female Reporters Leadership Programme Initiative (FRLP), has called on the 10th National Assembly to reconsider the gender bills with a view to passing them.
A Fellow of the FRLP, Mrs Ann Godwin, made the call during a one-day Leadership training for female Journalists, organised by the group and supported by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ), Wednesday, in Port Harcourt.
Godwin, who was the keynote speaker at the event, with the theme, “Factors Challenging the Rise of Female Journalists in Leading Newsrooms”, said the theme was apt as it is geared towards building more female champions in Journalism.
Godwin, who is also the Executive Director of Step-Up Media Initiative, observed that there was a more phenomenal rise of women in journalism than in the past.
She noted that women were occupying top media positions, such as women editors in Energy, politics, Defence, economy, among others.
Godwin, who is also a correspondent of the Guardian Newspaper in Rivers State, stated that the strides were boosting the feminine theory which talked about boosting women’s chances in Leadership positions and giving them voices.
She stated that there were some challenges faced by women in journalism in spite of the rising phenomenon due to the non-passage of the gender bills by the National Assembly.
She recalled the 2022 protest by women at the National Assembly to urge members to pass the five significant gender bills which were rejected during the constitution amendment.
“If we have gender bills in place supporting women, media managers and other firms will treat women as professionals not based on gender”, she said.
She mentioned other factors as women playing gender card unconsciously, low drive, lack of self confidence, and superiority complex.
Others are being drained by other people’s successes, lack of interest in awards and fellowships, mindset of media Managers, among others.
Godwin urged women to be open to learning and advancing to current technology to enhance their growth in journalism.
She urged media managers and Editors in the Newsroom to believe in women, give them the opportunity to handle positions and remove the gender bias and see them as professionals.
Karina Igonikon, the convener of the programme, said that one of the aims of the 2023 Wole Soyinka training was to build Champions that would make impacts in the Newsrooms.
Igonikon said the aim of the seminar was also to create awareness and wake up the consciousness of women in journalism that they have the ability to take up leadership positions in Newsrooms amidst their challenges.
She observed that women were many in media newsrooms but when it comes to leadership positions a lot of bias about women leadership comes to play.
She urged women to prepare and improve themselves to take up leadership opportunities in the Newsroom and make impact in journalism.
Furthermore, Mrs Stella Din-Jacob, the Director of News for Television Continental Communications (TVC), said women could be good leaders in journalism, stating that they should be good on their jobs, if not better than men.
Din-Jacob, who was also the Special Guest at the event, encouraged women to be focused as professionals regardless of the challenges and difficulties facing them.
She advised women to stay focused, keep themselves in the right trajectory and ignore every distraction that seemed to derail them from rising.

Rivers

Rivers High Court Judges Begins 2025 Vacation July 21

Published

3 days ago

June 20, 2025

The Tide

Judges of the High Court Port Harcourt Rivers state will on Monday July 21, 2025 commence this year’s annual vacation.

The State Chief Judge, Justice Simeon Chibuzor Amadi in a statement signed by the Chief Registrar High Court Port Harcourt, David Ihua_ Maduenyi (esq) made available to The Tide in Port Harcourt over the weekend, said that the 2025 annual vacation for judges of the State High Court will begin on Monday, July 21, 2025 and end on Wednesday ,September 17, 2025

The statement said the vacation is in pursuant to Order 49, Rule 4 (d) of High Court of Rivers State (Civil Procedure) Rules, 2023, as altered, adding that all the judicial divisions of the State High Court shall remain closed during the period of the vacation.

The statement further disclosed that normal court sessions will resume on Thursday 18, July 2025 across all the divisions.

The statement however, noted that during the period, a vacation judge shall be appointed by the chief judge to sit on urgent matters and applications and advice litigants and lawyers to take notice of the information.

Rivers

FIDA, PCRC Trains Police Officers On How To Handle Paralegal Cases In Rivers

Published

3 days ago

June 20, 2025

The Tide

The International Federation Of Women Lawyers,(FIDA )in collaboration with the Police Community Relations Committee,(PCRC ) have held a one day training on paralegal exposure aimed at equipping police officers across the Rivers state police command on ways of handling gender based violence cases in the state.

The one-day capacity training workshop organised by the two humanitarian organisations in the state, the FIDA and PCRC was designed to boost the knowledge and capacity of the police echelons in the state on how to deal with gender” based violence cases reported in there various Divisions and areas.

Speaking at the event held at the police officers mess in Port Harcourt, yesterday, the state Commissioner of Police ,CP Olugbenga Adepoju emphasized the importance of capacity building for Police Officers, stressing the need for continuous training and development for the officers to stay abreast of emerging trends and best practices in law enforcement.

Adepoju noted the police have being having lectures like this from time to time as directed by the Inspector General of Police and urge the police officers to turn out in their numbers to come and gain one thing or the other.

“There is nothing as good as building our capacity to ensure we deliver service to mankind and let Rivers be a different. to others.

“We have people who have the capacity that can deliver and they are here with us. And we will not hesitate to ensure we employ and use them. What ever we have learnt here, jot it down and ensure you use it judiciously”.

Also speaking, the Chairperson of FIDA Rivers, Life Jim George stressed that
the paralegal training offers the opportunity where retired Police officers, desk officers and different division in charge of gender based crime are assembled to educate them on how to handle with the gender violence and abused public ,how to deal with reporters of all kinds of Gender Based Violence.
“They need to be empathetic, they need not to judge them as they move into them. They need not to throw them away immediately or to make the atmosphere very toxic so that they will just go away and at the end of the day extort them and make known that Police is not your friend is only in the book””.

“We remind you all that you are not just a Police officer,there is a duty imposed on you to look at the laws. Not just to drive people away because We have reports where, once you approach a Police station and say my husband or wife beat me up,they drive you away, please madam this one is husband and wife matter, go and settle with your husband or wife. They began to judge you.”

“We are saying no,that is not what the law is.

Please show empathy, if you throw them away like that, most of them can take their life. Some go into third degree depression and is difficult to bring them out.They will now began to blame themselves for going to the Police station.

In his speech,the Chairman of PCRC in the state, Mr Voke Emore explained that One primary responsibilities of the PCRC is to bring the community closer to the Police, while FIDA as an international organization cares for the less privilege and handle cases involving women and children.

“The police only protect women and children in talking of gender abuse in the society rather taking the issue of gender violence as wholistic that includes men,women and children in every strata of the society.So that is the essence why the two humanitarian organisations ,FIDA and PCRC decided to partner to ensure that the things are done rightly in line with global practices.”

“And the only way to do that is to give training We always talk about training and re-training of Police officers.he stated.

The training focused on key areas such as
The Administration of Criminal Justice Law (ACJL) of Rivers State,
Dehumanizing and Harmful Traditional Practices Laws,
Prohibition of the Curtailment of Women’s Rights to Share in Family Property Law and
Violence Against Persons Prohibition Law amongst others.

Rivers

Rivers State University Introduces SponsorsLink To Address Communication Gap

Published

3 days ago

June 20, 2025

The Tide

The Rivers State University (RSU), Nkpolu-Oroworukwo, Port Harcourt, has unveiled a new feature – Student-Sponsor Account, called SponsorsLink as part of its ongoing re-engineering efforts. This innovation is to address the problems of students collecting funds but not paying fees, leaving school but still pretending to be in school and inability of parents, guardians and sponsors to ascertain progress and performance of their children, wards and beneficiaries.

The platform is also designed to strengthen transparency, accountability, and communication between students and their parents, guardians and sponsors.

SponsorsLink is available on the university’s portal (www.rsu.edu.ng) and offers a range of benefits. Sponsors can track academic performance, monitor outstanding fees, make payments, and access detailed student profiles from a single dashboard. This centralized system ensures that sponsors are no longer left in the dark regarding the academic and financial status of their wards.

To utilize SponsorsLink, sponsors need to create an account on the RSU eCampus platform. This involves selecting a sponsorship type, filling out a registration form, and verifying their email address using a confirmation code. Upon successful registration, sponsors pay a one-time onboarding fee based on the number of wards they intend to manage.

Once registered, sponsors can add a ward by searching with the student’s registration number, matriculation number, or full name. After the student approves the request, the sponsor gains access to various features. These include checking results, which requires a result-checking fee, viewing student profiles, and making tuition or related payments directly through the platform.

The introduction of SponsorsLink demonstrates RSU’s commitment to enhance the educational experience of students. This initiative is expected to foster better communication between students, sponsors, and the university, ultimately contributing to the success of RSU students.