Law Professor and onetime Chair of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Chidi Anslem Odinkalu has described the immediate past Director-General (DG) of National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking In Persons (NAPTIP), Prof. Fatima Waziri-Azi as the woman who transformed NAPTIP with “strategy, mixing enforcement with education, enlightenment and prevention.”
Likewise, a former Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice in Ogun State and International Accountability Expert, Akingbolahan Adeniran, as well as International gender and development expert, Olufunke Omoyemi-Baruwa agreed that NAPTIP was blessed with her excellence and professionalism in the last three years.
Odinkalu in a post on his LinkedIn page —Prof. Fatima Waziri – Azi, Ph.D turned the NATIONAL AGENCY FOR THE PROHIBITION OF TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS (NAPTIP) from a forgettable entity into something that could work —.showered praises on the NAPTIP DG.
“With a deft combination of professionalism, passion & principle, she took the fight to traffickers & many of them ended up in jail or took flight.
“In the FCT, where the hashtag#NAPTIP under her took responsibility for modelling implementation & enforcement of the Violence against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Act, she also turned in significant scalps.
“But she also had strategy, mixing enforcement with education, enlightenment & prevention.
“It reflects very poorly on the current leadership of hashtag#Nigeria that they seem to think every agency exists to reward party lackeys. Of course, no one is indispensable but when the principal reason for transition in leadership in an agency like hashtag#NAPTIP is to make lackeys feel good, you have to worry.
“Anyway, that is not Fatima’s problem now. Gratefully, she has an alternative address & she can look back with pride at the legacy that she leaves behind at the agency.
“Thank you, Fatima, for showing what a difference one committed person can make even in the most difficult of situations. And thank you, Boye, for calling attention to an inspiring & different kind of record.”
Akingbolahan Adeniran, International Accountability Expert and Independent Investigator added to the commendations.
“She was just different. I find that I am often guilty of complaining about bad governance but rarely find time to recognize those who stand out in public service.
“I want to begin to change that, starting with the recognition of Dr. Waz as I call her, or Prof. Fatima Waziri – Azi, Ph.D as others more formally refer to her.
“Her appointment as the Director-General of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) in September 2021 was one of the few well-thought-out appointments at the time.
“By the time of her appointment, Dr. Waz had already distinguished herself as an academic with the Nigerian Institute for Advanced Legal Studies, as an anti-corruption adviser with the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, and as a rule of law expert working as Professor Yemi Osinbajo’s Rule of Law Advisor.
“I recall her enthusiasm at the beginning of her tenure. She realized what most political appointees never fully grasp throughout their tenure – that is, time is an appointee’s worst enemy.
“Within a month or so after her appointment, she started consolidating the national network of her agency. I was a state attorney-general at the time, and she met with me and others to discuss collaboration to ensure greater accountability for offenders and better support for victims.
“Although I left office soon thereafter, my former colleagues were full of praise for the capacity-building support she provided to the state’s task force against trafficking in persons.
“Now, we can see the results of her efforts. In less than three years, her tenure recorded 190 human trafficking convictions, representing almost 28% of the total convictions secured by NAPTIP in its 21 years of existence.
“For this to happen, she had to understand the agency and its workers. She prioritized the expansion of the agency’s operational structures to cover most of the country.
“Then, she introduced regular mental health and trauma sessions for officers of the agency to improve their productivity and overall wellness. She also succeeded in securing increased allowances for them.
“Dr. Waz redefined the terms of engagement with several donor agencies to ensure that their support was put to the best possible use. That way, she was able to maximize the use of available resources from an efficiency and effectiveness standpoint.
“Although there has been a baton handover to her successor, this much I can tell you – Dr. Waz is not done with helping survivors of trafficking in persons or gender-based violence. Her story is only just beginning.”
Responding to the posts, International gender and development expert, Olufunke Omoyemi-Baruwa said: “I couldn’t agree more, Prof. Fatima Waziri – Azi, Ph.D is a rare breed.
“NAPTIP was blessed with her excellence and professionalism in the last three years. I wish she had more time to consolidate on the good work she began but alas, our politicians don’t think about the import of their decisions on the institutions.”
