Images of Ebiraland

As related by Terry Sebastian ... Mana, a beautiful young woman draped in an orange cloth and her very tiny baby Fatimat caught my eye. Fatimat was 2 months old and her mother was HIV positive. Mana was kicked out of her house when her husband found out her positive status. She went back to live with her parents and was forbidden to contact her husband again. (He had another wife and at least 4 more children.) She was convinced that her baby was negative for the virus. But when we tested tiny Fatimat, she was positive. Mana seemed OK, but the reality of her emotions showed up at our hotel the next day, and I could see her pain, the fear in her eyes, and I just wanted to hug her, throwing any rules out the window. I felt a deep sense of helplessness for her when she looked at me, and I still do. It is estimated that ten percent of new HIV infections in Nigeria are caused by Mothers breastfeeding their children. Later, I was shocked and disillusioned to learn that men here can ac...

By MUSA EBHOMIANA (The Sun News) Thursday, December 4, 2008 Background to crisis I am Major Ali Abdullahi (rtd), the Adamokia of Ebiraland. I left the army in 1999 after 30 years in the service. I served in Liberia, Lebanon and Bakassi Island as a member of the Nigeria Army Peace Keeping Force in ECOMOG and the UN Peace Keeping Force. I am the pioneer President General of Ebira Youth Congress. Up till now, I participate in the activities of the congress.The problem in the central zone is political, and clannish in dimension. Those who are reading traditional dimension to it are only being mischievous. They are those who also cause traditional rift in the state, particularly the state government, championed by the deputy governor. This present crisis did not start today, it has been there since 1952. That was when Ebira Tribal Union (ITU) hid under political canopy to destroy our cultural and traditional values. Then they were using bow and arrows and cutlasses. They formed themselves...