Nigeria Content Online

The battle line
seems to have been drawn between the two prominent child rights groups
in Akwa Ibom State – Stepping Stones Nigeria and the Child Rights and
Rehabilitation Network (CRARN), over the decision of the former to
sever all ties with the latter.

On February 18,
Stepping Stones Nigeria, an international charity organisation working
to defend the rights of the child, announced the termination of its
partnership with CRARN, one of its Nigerian partners. According to a
statement from the UK group, the trustees of Stepping Stones Nigeria
arrived at the “unanimous decision” following receipts of “a number of
unproven but very serious allegations” regarding the conduct of a
senior CRARN staff member.

The group further
stated that following CRARN’s failure to promptly and effectively
comply with its demands to suspend the individual in question pending
an independent investigation; they have ceased all forms of
partnership. “Stepping Stones Nigeria treats any and all issues of
child protection with the utmost gravity,” said Felicitie Holman, Chair
of Trustees of Stepping Stones Nigeria. “Following these allegations,
we demanded that CRARN immediately suspend the staff member concerned
and cooperate with a full and independent investigation as a matter of
urgency. Sadly, CRARN failed to comply and we had no option but to
terminate the partnership, in line with our Child Protection Policy and
Memorandum of Understanding. We regret that this action has had to be
taken; however we must ensure that all of our partners adhere to the
highest standards of child protection, accountability and transparency.
We will do everything in our power to assist any further investigation
into these allegations.”

‘Serious allegations’

While throwing his
support behind Ms Holman, the Director of Stepping Stones Nigeria, Gary
Foxcroft, said that the recent allegations against the CRARN staff
member and the organization’s failure to take appropriate action to
enable an independent investigation to take place necessitated the
termination of the partnership. “Stepping Stones Nigeria has invested
significant effort and resources into our work with CRARN over the last
5 years… We are in no way prejudging the outcome of this situation,
but we feel that swift action is required,” he said. “As Director of
SSN (Stepping Stones Nigeria), I have no hesitation in giving this
decision my full backing… We will now look forward to strengthening
our existing partnerships and develop new ones to help more children in
the Niger Delta access their rights and realise their full potential.”

When asked the
nature of the allegations against the senior CRARN official, Mr.
Foxcroft said, “We are not in a position to discuss the nature of the
allegations but we would like to emphasize that it was CRARN’S failure
to effectively and promptly respond to the allegations that resulted in
our Trustees deciding to terminate the partnership.”

A hidden agenda

Bassey Ukang,
CRARN’s administrative officer, said that plans by the UK group to
sever ties with them had been hatched over a month ago according to a
letter they received inviting them to a meeting in Ghana where one of
the key agenda was the termination of the partnership. “CRARN actually
did not buy this idea given the huge amount of money made on the heads
of Akwa Ibom children, mostly those from the CRARN centre,” he said.
“While trying to negotiate that, they came up with uncanny sorts of
allegations which they claim involved some key staff and want those
staff to relocate to an unknown place in Abuja while their phones and
laptop confiscated.”

CRARN said that it
appealed to officials of Stepping Stones Nigeria, who wanted to invite
European Union human right lawyers for an investigation, to consider
their memorandum of understanding before inviting any third party since
it is a matter to concerns children. “While waiting for their reply, we
received information from the Ibom Forum discussion group that they
have terminated partnership with us due to unproven allegations,” said
Mr Ukang. “Are they justified? We do not understand the instrument of
which they used in terminating the partnership because immediate
termination must take about three months while gradual termination will
take about a year plus.”

Seeking redress

The two groups had
borne the brunt of hostilities from the Akwa Ibom State government, as
well as court cases by Helen Ukpabio, a Calabar-based evangelist and
movie producer, over their campaigns against child witchcraft. “If they
say they have terminated (our) partnership, it is not a big deal but we
hope to evoke the spirit of the MOU (memorandum of understanding) and
that of the law to deal with the situation,” said Mr Ukang, adding that
there are over 200 children under their care. “So all the funds made
from publicizing the children of CRARN will be remitted to them and not
the other way round. If (they) terminated the partnership, where are
they going to use the money they collected on behalf of the children of
CRARN? It is a rash and hasty decision and an attempt (to) fulfil the
Ghana plans in disguise.”