The Socialist Library and Archives (SOLAR) in partnership with MILID Foundation held a public forum on Saturday, March 21, 2026, in Calabar, Cross River State, as part of its Conscientizing Nigerian Male Adolescents (CMA) project Class of 2025/26.

The CMA project was developed out of a deep concern for the well-being and potential of male adolescents and its impact on gender relations. The current intervention is supported by the Open Society Foundation (OSF).

For over three decades, the CMA project has graduated more than 13,500 young men, each equipped with tools of anti-sexism, anti-patriarchy and critical consciousness to challenge the existing norms of our patriarchal society. It has consistently championed the values of equality, critical consciousness and responsible citizenship.

Presenting a paper titled, “Conscientization and society: CMA as a critique of the past and vision for tomorrow,” the SOLAR Coordinator, Dr 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. He said the CMA program aims at educating and assisting Nigerian Male Adolescents to become conscious of their society and the inequality that it breeds.

During her session on “Tackling gender-based violence: The role of the media”, Chiamaka Okafor-Onumah, Executive Director of MILID Foundation, argued that media is a great influencer of gender-based violence. She noted that young people, especially male adolescents, must understand media and use it positively to eschew violence of any kind.

CMA Coordinator, Dr. Uwe Edeke, noted 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 institutions and practices that engender oppression in the family and society.”

Recalling the process which birthed CMA, Dr. Edwin Madunagu, Administrator of SOLAR, Comrade Edwin Madunagu, recalled the process which led to the birth of CMA as a counterpart of Girls Power Initiative (GPI), a feminist institution that empowers children and young females to become catalysts for change and bring about gender equality in Nigeria, which was founded in 1993 by Bene Madunagu and Grace Osakue.

Madunagu who expressed pleasure that through the group, young men are now taught to respect the dignity of girls and women, noted that, “Whoever holds another in bondage is also holding himself or herself, hence equality of men and women should not be done out of pity.”

The event which drew students from different secondary schools across Calabar South and Calabar Municipal Local Government Areas, their parents, guardians, educators, the media and civil society organisations was also an occasion to honour the lives and struggles of Prof. Bene Madunagu and Prof. Biodun Jeyifo, both members of the SOLAR Advisory Board who were committed public intellectuals who believed that scholarship must not be neutral in the face of injustice. For them, knowledge must serve liberation.

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, SOLAR’s digital archivist, Uyi Bassey, in her welcome speech said the boys trained in the CMA programme are encouraged through conversation to question harmful ideas especially around gender and to understand their role in building a more equitable and humane society.

The forum highlighted the concept of conscientization as a process that goes beyond formal education, encouraging individuals to develop critical awareness of societal contradictions such as patriarchy, inequality, and systemic injustice, and to take action to address them.

Participants noted that many of Nigeria’s pressing challenges, including gender-based violence, lack of access to healthcare, unemployment, poverty, and rising crime, are interconnected and rooted in deeper structural inequalities within society.

The CMA programme, established in 1994, was presented as a strategic initiative aimed at addressing these issues through critical education, focusing on topics such as sexism, human rights, reproductive health, and cultural barriers to gender equality among adolescent boys.

In his closing remarks, CMA Coordinator, Dr. Uwe Edeke, stressed the importance of sustained advocacy, stating, “We live in a male-dominated society where the rights of women and children are often hindered. The essence of CMA is to question the roots of oppression and prepare young boys to become agents of change.”

In articulating anti-sexist education for the menfolk, SOLAR believes that male adolescents stand out. For it is during this period – when the male is growing into manhood and is very impressionable – that he absorbs the most backward social prejudices against women. That’s why SOLAR targets male adolescents through the CMA project.