NASS Urged on Stigmatisation

March 20, 2007 :: Abimbola Okosile, ThisDay,Lagos

Members of the Nigeria National Assembly have been called upon to pass into law the bills before it that concern issues of Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV)and the Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). The call was made recently by participants at a Community Policy Dialogue session held at Kubwa, Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Participants who included persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs), networks of PLWHAs, civil society organisations and community people also called for the enactments of laws criminalising stigmatisations and discriminations against PLWHAs in all the states of the federation. A spokesperson for the PLWAs, Ms. Linda Ahor of the network of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria (NEPWHAN) FCT Chapter spoke on the need for all to rise up against stigmatisations and discriminations against people living with the HIV and people affected by it also. She explained that the anti-stigmatisation bill at the National Assembly is the necessary instrument against all sorts of prejudices and victimisations of infected persons. She also raised the need for all the PLWHAs themselves to get actively involved in the advocacy for the enactment of the necessary laws. According to Ahor, "if people living with HIV have no voice, the infection becomes a burden. The bill has been at the National Assembly for too long. It is time to take it seriously. This is an health issue and should be given priority. People have lost jobs; they have been thrown out of houses due to stigma and discrimination". The dialogue, a collaboration between ActionAid International Nigeria's Partnership Against Poverty(PAP) project and the Society for Community Development (SCD) aimed at harvesting community voices for policy influencing. It is also aimed at ensuring that communities perspectives are included in issues related to policy making. According to Mr. Tunde Aremu of ActionAid, the dialogue is expected to be a quarterly series of open community meetings with the poor and excluded to input and plan on how to influence and shape policy issues around HIV and AIDS. Same forum drew participants from People Living with HIV/AINDS in Nigeria (NEPWHAN) FCT Chapter, Civil Society for HIV and AIDS in Nigeria (CISHAN), donor groups, Federal Ministries, Human Right Commission and community people from Kuje, Jiwa and other communities where SCD works. At the end of the discussion, a six-member steering committee was established to take some of the issues reached at the meeting forward. Participants agreed to embark on a telephone advocacy to impress on the key legislators on the health committees at two chambers of the National Assembly to intensify efforts at moving the bill on anti-discrimination forward. In addition the Steering committee is to put in place modalities for facilitating a protest visit to the National Assembly to further the demand for a speedy passage of the bill by the legislators.