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Abuja — In a dramatic and ground-breaking decision, the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice in Abuja has declared that all Nigerians are entitled to education as a legal and human right. The court said that the right to education can be enforced before the court and dismissed all objections brought by the Federal Government, through the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), that education is "a mere directive policy of the government and not a legal entitlement of the citizens."

In a landmark ruling, the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice in Abuja yesterday ordered the Federal Government to provide as of right, free and compulsory education to every Nigerian child.

It submitted that the right to education could be enforced before the court and dismissed all objections brought by the Federal Government, through the UBEC that education is "a mere directive policy of the government and not a legal entitlement of the citizens".

Commenting on the ruling, SERAP's lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana, who filed and argued the case before the court with Adetokunbo Mumuni, said this was the first time an international court has recognized a state obligation to provide legally enforceable human rights to education to its citizens.

Abuja — Federal government yesterday said it will stop at nothing in dealing with the sponsors and perpetrators of the Jos crisis, even as it assured that such ugly incidents will not recur. Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Prince Adetokunbo Kayode commiserated with the families of the victims, saying: "It will not happen again."

"Our national action plan for promotion and protection of human rights contains explicit provisions on how we intend to achieve this. In addition, the NCT is our national mechanism to investigate allegations of torture, extra judicial executions and other unlawful killings". He said with the process, a culture of accountability within the nation's security agencies would be engendered and that impunity under whatever guise would be punished.

Villagers in central Nigeria buried dozens of bodies, including those of women and children, in a mass grave on Monday after attacks in which several hundred people were feared to have been killed.

Armed police and soldiers stood guard as residents of Dogo Nahawa, about 15 km (9 miles) south of the central city of Jos, carried bodies wrapped in multi-coloured cloth from trucks and lowered them into a large open pit in the red-brown earth.

Acting President Goodluck Jonathan called an emergency meeting with security service chiefs in the capital Abuja to try to prevent the violence in Nigeria's volatile "Middle Belt" from spreading to neighbouring states. "For many years people have been living together peacefully ... We don't know what happened," one Dogo Nahawa resident, Dan Yamu, told Reuters at the burial ceremony.

She  said this at the Award of Millennium Development Ambassador (MDA) organised by Teachers Without Borders (TWB),  an international Non-governmental Organisation (NGO) dedicated to advancing human welfare through teacher professional development and community education hosted in Abuja where she was given an award in recognition of her efforts in the foundation.

She stressed that teachers constitute the cornerstone in building a world without borders and other forms of barriers that retard growth, development interactions and integration of thr world.

She however lamented that the society has a lot to do to place teachers on a better pedestal, particularly in developing countries . Africa Regional Coordinator, Raphael Ogar Oko , said TWB works to support the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDG) through the Millennium Development Ambassadors (MDA)and Millennium Development Volunteers (MDV) program.

The upcoming workshop will attract over 1,200 teachers according to the list of schools and number of teachers provided by the Nasarawa State Ministry of Education to Teachers Without Borders Regional office in Abuja.

According to  TWB’s Africa Regional Coordinator, Dr. Raphael Ogar Oko, “the teaching mastery workshop program in Nasarawa State was initially designed to educate experienced teachers who will mentor beginning teachers and NYSC members deployed to serve in schools without the basic teaching qualification. After implementing the program in two areas, Karu and Uke, it was discovered that the teachers in schools needed the professional development workshops also in addition to the NYSC members that are being deployed to schools. Based on requests from teachers, school heads and proprietors of schools as well as the local education authority, TWB has decided to make the program open to all teachers in Nasarawa State as a demonstration of our commitment to teacher development and appreciation of the cordial relationship with the Nasarawa State Ministry of Education”.

The Teachers Without Borders Certificate of Teaching Mastery (CTM), which is recognized by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria as a teacher professional development course is a free, self-paced, peer- and mentor-supported teacher professional development program.