By Onwa Ekor
Nigeria children and adolescents have been charged to reject internal colonialism, instead hold firm to a nation where freedom of thought, conscience and belief is guaranteed for all.
This was the take-home message during the 2026 Conscientising Nigerian Male Adolescents (CMA) public forum held in Calabar, the Cross River capital.
The event, organised by the Socialist Library of Nigeria (SOLAR) in partnership with Media and Information Literacy and Intercultural Dialogue (MILID) Foundation and supported by Open Society Foundation (OSF) had gathered participants to honour the duo of Comrades Bene Madunagu and Biodun Jeyifo, who during their lifetimes displayed that ideas were powerful when used to challenge oppression.
Madunagu posthumously turned 79 on the day of the public forum while Jeyifo who hitherto chaired the Board of Advisers of SOLAR turned 80 on January 5, this year, were viewed as remarkable revolutionary intellectuals whose lives continued to inspire struggle and hope.
Presenting his paper titled, “Conscientization and society: CMA as a critique of the past and vision for tomorrow,” the SOLAR Coordinator, Comrade Chido Onumah, maintained that children and adolescents are prime victims of and sometimes accomplices in the injustices perpetrated in the family including exploitation, oppression, discrimination, slavery, dehumanization and violence.
Onumah further explained that the CMA program aims at educating and assisting Nigerian Male Adolescents to become conscious while rejecting ethnic domination and class oppression.
CMA Coordinator, Dr. Uwe Edeke, explained that, “we are in a male dominated society where the right of women and children are greatly hindered, hence the essence of CMA program is to question the origins of oppression by oppressors of family and society,” charging participants to champion the change.
In her presentation on, “Tackling gender based violence: The role of the media,” Comrade Chiamaka Okafor-Onumah, argued that media remains a great influencer of gender based violence, hence youngsters especially males must use media positively and never promote violence of any kind.
Administrator of SOLAR, Edwin Madunagu, recalled the process which led to the birth of CMA as a counterpart of Girls Power Initiative (GPI).
Madunagu who expressed pleasure that through the group, young men are now taught to respect the dignity of young girls, argued that, “whoever holds another in bondage is also holding himself or herself, hence the unity between men and women should not be done out of pity.”
A participant and student of NICO Secondary Commercial School, Calabar Municipality, Francis Prosper, said: “I have learnt a lot about female genital mutilation, discrimination against women and others, but what interests me most is consent which is the need to get permission from one in order to perform an activity.
Earlier, Digital Archivist, Uyi Bassey, in her welcome speech informed that boys trained in the CMA program are encouraged through conversation to question harmful ideas especially around gender and to understand their role in building a more fair and respectful society.
The event drew five students each from eight selected participating schools across Calabar South and Municipality, their parents and educators for the interactive session.
