The Managing Partner of the House of Justice, Gloria Mabeiam Ballason, has described Nigeria as “the third most terrorized nation and the poverty capital of the globe.”
She said this during the commissioning of House of Justice Radio/TV on Thursday 30th July, 2020 at Kaduna, Nigeria.
Ballason laments that the country is been stifled by “loss of values, the loss of character, the loss of humanity and now… as it clearly seems, the loss of hope. Worse still, the weary cynicism and complicity of a government that grants pardon to terrorists but look away from dying IDP victims of terrorists justify killings of citizens as reprisals but not stop the killers…”
According to her, the House of Justice Radio is therefore meant to serve as a media platform for citizens to rebuild the society
Read the full speech below:
TIME TO REBUILD.
Being a Speech Delivered by Gloria Mabeiam Ballason Esq at the Public Commissioning of the HOJRadio/TV on Thursday 30 July, 2020, Kaduna Nigeria.
A few days ago I called my brother and friend, Reuben Buhari, to see just how he was doing after a particularly excruciating Southern Kaduna episode of systematic killings that have all the trappings and aces of genocide. He and Alheri Magaji, a phenomenal lady with perhaps the most concentrated mix of human compassion are on a mission to replace terror with love. They do this by connecting just anyone who has to another who has not. I was checking on Reuben to be sure he and Alheri were ‘alive’ much from the sense of knowing first hand what perpetually being a witness to suffering does to the human psyche. ‘ I am fine.’ Reuben said; “I just do not know what else we can do to stop the killings that we have not already done.’’
Like Reuben, most of us have wondered what else can be done to a country with enormous potential but asphyxiating from an absence of governance, the loss of values, the loss of character, the loss of humanity and now… as it clearly seems, the loss of hope. Worse still, the weary cynicism and complicity of a government that grants pardon to terrorists but look away from dying IDP victims of terrorists ,justifies killings of citizens as reprisals but not stop the killers, instigators or perpetrators is so chilling it could freeze the resolve to anticipate better as the pain and despair reel into focus.
The existential realities of citizenry caught between a killer virus, a rudderless leadership and a society that is losing its human form presents to us a memory challenge of what the past was, what the present is and what we can make of the future.The thought leads us to the brink of mental insurrection and an anxiety that accompanies our reality. But if we want to win, we must set our eyes on just one reality: that if human beings can destroy, then human beings can build.
It is in that single thought that House of Justice continues to project supreme confidence in the ability for citizens to take ownership and to demand and insist for the change they want to see. As an organization, we are committed to taking justice to Law and to never look away from those who deem themselves so high that the Law sits beneath them. As optimistic as we have been, we, like other conscientious citizens are witnesses to the gangrene wasting away of values, of the basics of life and of human lives. Never in our wildest imagination would we have imagined that our beloved country Nigeria would move from being the happiest country on earth to becoming the third most terrorized nation and the poverty capital of the globe. Opening the assumptions and determining the entry point of intervention for the saving of our country is quite an intimidating task. Do we dare to hope?
THE AUDACITY OF HOPE.
At House of Justice, we believe in the universal truth that behind every question, there is an answer; behind every contention, there is a winning option. Impossible is nothing! So like the sower who does not hear the sound of the rains nor see the clouds gather, we have set out to work willing to water the seeds from any waters that we can find under the skies. We believe that though a tree be cut down that the stump which remains in its root can sprout a stem at the scent of water. It is for that reason that the House of Justice is glad to present to the public a media platform that allows all citizens children, adults, young, old, high, street smarts… irrespective of who you are, where you come from to meet at the intersection of humanity and to begin to re-build a society that is just and true. HOJRadio & Tv look forward to working with you for the impeachment of the culture of relativism and of impunity to one where each citizen owns a part of the whole. Because it has fallen on us to rebuild what has been broken we must stop the clock and make the past go away and get on the grind to build for better. On that note, I on behalf of my colleagues very warmly welcome you to a new day of giving light to life.