The war child to speak on insecurity in the South-East
Our Reporter, Abuja
On July 27, 2023, Ikengaonline, your online news platform intentionally focused on the South-East of Nigeria, will hold the July edition of its monthly Town-hall meeting.
The townhall meetings have become a veritable platform where conversations on topical issues that affect the South-East in particular and Nigeria in general hold.
The Guest Speaker for the July edition of the Town-hall is none other than the erudite scholar, Professor Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, who simply refers to himself as “a war child born an adult.”
Professor Odinkalu will be speaking on the topic, “The South-East Insecurity Nexus: A Holistic View.”
Indeed, Odinkalu is well placed to speak on the above topic. He has experienced war and insecurity as a baby having been born in an era of insecurity when bombs were being rained on his homeland in the South-East by the federal forces during the civil war. Even today, his native Orsu in the present day Imo State is in danger of being wiped off the face of the earth as a result of seperatist agitations and other criminalities.
Professor Odinkalu is also expected to bring a 360 degrees insight on the topic of insecurity in the South-East as the chair of the Anambra Truth, Justice, and Peace Committee set up by Governor Chukwuma Soludo.
Professor Chidi Anselm Odinkalu currently teaches law at the Fletcher School at Tufts University in the United States of America. He has has had a brilliant career so far.
In announcing his appointment, his current employers, the Fletcher School, wrote this about him: “Most recently, he was part of a three-member team that mediated the readmission of The Gambia into the Commonwealth, where he litigated human rights before national and regional courts as well as in transnational contexts.
“From 2011 to 2015, he chaired Nigeria’s National Human Rights Commission, the country’s lead institution for the protection of human rights and promotion of human rights policy. He also worked within human rights philanthropy.
“For 10 years prior, he was involved in drafting the Protocol for the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights through to adoption by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in 1998. In 2004, he led the advocacy effort for its entry into force with the creation of the Coalition for the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights. For more than three years, until 1993, Odinkalu was head of legal services for the Civil Liberties Organization in Lagos, where he was responsible for litigation, advocacy, and constituent building strategies, as well as managing relationships with the military government and its institutions.”
Professor Odinkalu has also worked as an advisor for the Ford Foundation, New York, the World Bank, and the International Council for Human Rights Policy, Geneva. In 1998, the United Nations Observer Mission in Sierra Leone appointed him as a Human Rights Advisor. In February 2003, Odinkalu was appointed as the senior legal officer for Africa for Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI).
In August 2021, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, Massachusetts, USA, appointed him a Professor of Human Rights Law.
Professor Odinkalu is a global citizen and thought leader, but were he a constitution, he would be described as autochthonous because he is essentially home-grown.
He attended Federal Government College (FGC) Okigwe, Imo State, Imo State University from where he earned a first degree in law and emerged the best graduating student of the School of Legal Studies in 1987. He won the Chief FRA Williams prize for best student in Legal Drafting and Conveyancing at the Nigerian Law School in 1988. He obtained a master’s degree in law at the University of Lagos in 1990 before heading to the School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS) University of London, and the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he earned a Ph.D in law.
He holds the Fellowships at SOAS; Institute of Advanced Lagal Studies, London; Brandeis Uni, Waltham, MA; Centre for the Study of Human Rights, LSE.
Odinkalu currently chair Global Rights; International Refugee Rights Initiative; Sudan Consortium.
He is also on the Board of Atrocities Watch, Africa; Physicians for Human Rights ( International Advisory Board).
Professor Ordinkalu as a child of war in which starvation was a tool of warfare considers three things very important: Dignity; Access to food; and Public education.
