World Day of Social Justice

World Day of Social Justice is a day recognizing the need to promote efforts to tackle issues such as poverty, exclusion and unemployment. The United Nations General Assembly has decided to observe 20 February annually, approved on 26 November 2007 and starting in 2009, as the World Day of Social Justice.

Social justice is an underlying principle for peaceful and prosperous coexistence within and among nations. We uphold the principles of social justice when we promote gender equality or the rights of indigenous peoples and migrants. We advance social justice when we remove barriers that people face because of gender, age, race, ethnicity, religion, culture or disability.

Social justice emanates from social reality, a reality expressed in social institutions, groups and classes. The hierarchy of social systems organizes and controls the social actions of individuals in the family, in the community and in the workplace. Social justice or injustice emanates from these actions. Social justice can therefore be seen in terms of social relationship among people in the society generally. Social justice is about the problem of equilibrium, which is central in maintaining the stability of existing social relationship in a just manner. These are relationships established among people in the course of their spiritual and practical activities.

The scarcity of justice in Nigeria has essentially increased the threat and danger of crime and violence- assessing the fact that quality education is very expensive to get, admission into federal universities is very tough and the hardship that follows passing through the school is thoroughly exhausting-yet graduates poor out of school in thousands annually without job, even as millions are living in poverty, small scale businesses close down by the day primarily because of high cost spent on generating electricity by the business owners.

The leadership of Nigeria has practically denied the masses basic needs to survive especially in this modern age and also gradually normalized ‘pain’ on the populace, the masses are angered and the broad consequence is that, they have to survive through any means available to them, violence and crime are potential options in this situation. 

INDICATOR	YEAR 2002	YEAR 2012
Total population		172 million (estimated at 3% growth rate)
Urbanization rate	48.2 (2005)	49.8 (2010)
% of population living on less than $1/day	65.5	69.1
% of underweight children under the age of 5	29 (2000)
% of population with sustainable access to improved water source	Urban: 72 (2002) Rural: 48 (2002)	54 (2008)
% of population with sustainable access to improved sanitation	Urban: 48 (2002) Rural: 30 (2002)
Under 3 mortality rate (per 1,000 live births)	201 (2003)	157 (2008)
Infant mortality rate (per 1,000 live births)	100 (2003)	75 (2008)
Maternal mortality ratio (per 100,000 live births)	800 (2000)	545 (2008)
Literacy rate (% aged 15 and above)	66.8	63
Human Development Index	0.462 and ranked 147 out of 173 countries in the world	0.459 and ranked 156 out of 187 countries in the world

Social Pillar: Guaranteeing the Wellbeing and Productivity of Nigerians (multiple sources, including NPC (2009)

Many social issues and controversies in Nigeria if subjected to moral debates, it would not be difficult for anyone to conclude that the federal government is immoral, denying the people who own and deserve public resources their rights which has led to increased crime and violence in the nation.

The missing Chibok girls in Nigeria have not been found even after over 300 days !!! 

In conclusion, I hope something is done about the overall state of social justice in Nigeria. Every Nigerian has a right to freedom of declaring and exercising our equality in gender, age, race, ethnicity, religion, culture or disability.

I demand Social Justice

I demand that they #BringBackOurGirls

I demand free and fair elections

I demand employment opportunities

I demand affordable education for all

I demand a better Nigeria!!!

CREDITS:

http://www.un.org/en/events/socialjusticeday/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Day_of_Social_Justice

http://www.academia.edu/1151836/SOCIAL_JUSTICE_IN_NIGERIA_AN_APPRAISAL_OF_THE_ROLE_OF_THE_MUSLIM_UMMAH

http://saharareporters.com/2013/04/05/crime-violence-and-social-injustice-nigeria-interplay-rotimi-ogungbola

https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/1023nigerianationalreport.pdf