GENDER BASED VIOLENCE:A plague of distress in the society.
An appraisal of gender based violence in Nigeria.
Gender based violence are acts committed against a person based on their gender. Mostly women or girls are affected; such based violence is inflicted on women and girls by men. This is deep rooted due to the inequalities between men and women. Some of the forms of gender based violence include: domestic violence, rape, reproductive coercion, sexual harassment,child abuse, female infanticide, marriage by abduction, prenatal sex selection, female genital mutilation, stalking, accusations of witchcraft, breast ironing, obstetric violence, women trafficking, forced prostitution e.t.c .Women are forced to accept subordinate position compared with men and when they question such “subordinate position” they are told that “The society is positioned that way which is often back up with stand from “Religion” point of view. This is one of the weapons used by men to silence and unleash terror on women”.
A comprehensive approach to “gender based violence”, using ‘’Nigeria’’ as case study.
Nigeria is a society caught in an unfortunate situation, a society that often accepts heinous acts or crimes as normal part of the society. The story of “another girl”, “yet another women” killed by men. Sexual harassment, rape, domestic violence, forced child marriage are often reported on social media,newspapers , radio and television stations. Those stories often gets media buzz for few days and fades out.The terror mostly unchallenged and the perpetrator walk away scot free and move on to another woman or girl who is likely to be his next victim. Terror is mostly unchallenged and normalized in our society.
Recently the social media was on flame when the wife of Channels Television reporter, Ifeanyinwa Angbo, cried to the public for help in a two minutes and thirteen seconds video over alleged repeated assault by her husband, Pius Angbo. The couples has been married for six years with four kids .He often assaults her over little argument and the recent beating was because she advised him in her own words “to spend wisely and not spend on women recklessly since we have four children and they have to be trained”. The woman who had a child few weeks ago from caesarean was beaten to stupor with bruises all over her body.
The unfortunate highlight of the domestic violence reported by Ifeanyinwa Angbo was when the Benue state Governor ,Samuel Ortom took the position of a mediator to reconcile the couples. The move by the governor was shameful , especially for someone who signed the “Violence Against Persons” (Prohibition bill 2019). Why is the Governor contravening the law? He was quoted during the press briefing that:
“some of us are not innocent”.
The woman who suffered the domestic violence reported the case to the police but the Governor who supposed to uphold the rights of his citizens played the role of reconciliatory , a job that is out of his capacity. What type of message is the Governor sending out to the people?! Is he normalizing domestic violence?!
The video posted on the internet after the meeting with the Governor showed a woman still in pain with fresh bruises all over her body, the Governor and his wife stood beside the victim and the abuser shining their teeth. A victory for the unreluctant abuser.
While some twitter users were of the opinion that the victim made her choice to continue in an abusive relationship, making her “enabler” .What some of the social media user failed to understand is that the woman was manipulated and defeated by a system that suppose to investigate , arrest and charge the abuser.The system failed to protect the victim and indirectly protecting the abuser.
Titi Arowolo a Lagos banker, died as result of domestic violence on 24th of June, 2001. She was killed by her husband who repeatedly abused her and ten times she packed out of the house, he came back begging her to return to their home.
A lot of women died as a result of domestic violence and mostly the cases are unreported and the perpetrators goes scot-free.
A year ago, a family friend told me about a church member who died as a result of domestic violence. That few days after her husband battered her, she complained of headache and slumped on the bed. During her life time she reported the case to their church pastor but the doctrine was preached to her , in other for her to refrain from divorcing her husband.
Why is our religion organizations an enabler of abuse and silencing the victim?! All in the name of “the doctrine does not support divorce because divorce is a work of the devil and he must be defeated-Till death do us apart OR Challenges are bound to happen in a relationship/marriage and also that successful marriages comes with endurance”.
When I was younger, a family friend was taken to the mosque on the bases that she was suffering from mental illness . Meanwhile she was suffering from “Postpartum psychosis” she was tied down in the mosque and beaten with their so called “spiritual broom” and poured “holy water” so as to eliminate spirit that caused the mental illness in her body. Her aunty came to her rescue and took her to the hospital. Many women have died during child birth in a place of worship as a result of their family members taking them over for delivery. Why is our religion organization taking the role of health institution?!
The increasing stories of sexual harassment in schools from lecturer to students.
Rape as part of gender based violence experienced by girls and women can’t be over looked, the stories of Barakat Bello(18 years) , Uwavera Omozuwa(22 years) , Ada(13 years) who was raped and impreagnated by a 33 years old man.
Elizabeth Ochanya Ogbanje was raped by a father and son from the age of 9. She contracted Vesicular Fistula at the age of 13 years as a result of continuous rape by the perpetrators . she died at Benue Teaching Hospital . Jennifer(18 years) who was ganged raped , also trended on social media. Barakat and Uwavera were raped and murdered. Tina Mba, a 17 years old girl was killed by happy triggered Nigerian policeman.
I couldn’t erase the story of a girl that was raped by their landlord; I was probably 8 years old when this incident happened. The rapist also owned a mosque inside his house and was also in charge of call to prayer, he is basically a cleric. The matter was not reported to the police because of “societal victimization” I remember how people stopped going to the mosque to pray. Few months later, populace started attending the mosque again. The man went on to become “Oloritun” (Head of Quarter) with people dancing and singing his praises. As I grew older I get to have a clearer picture of the evil that was perpetrated by the man.
One of my cousin tenant raped a 14 years old daughter of a co-tenant, the victim mother accepted the sum of Fifty thousand Naira from the abuser in exchange of reporting the abuser to the law enforcement agency. A shocker!
Earlier this year , a family friend was almost beaten and almost stoned to death by her father’s village members for being the the cause of her father prolonged illness. A pastor allegedly accused her of witchcraft; it took the grace of a village member who called her mum to report the situation of her daughter to the policemen in order to avail the situation. How could they accuse a girl whose father has been battling the prolonged sickness before the girl was born?!
It is horrifying that these days rape, child abuse ,sexual harassment are seen as family matter that should be settled at home rather than the law enforcement agencies investigating ,arresting and charging the perpetrator to court. Those who tried to speak up are often bullied on the internet or get killed by their abuser. A victim of gender based violence should never be silenced for speaking up. Such crime should not be normalized in our society, the law should be allowed to take it full course in other to serve as deterrence to those indulging in such a heinous acts. Our society should be safe for women rather than endangering their lives.
Gender based violence is a violation of human right and the prevalence of traditions and culture should desist from subjecting women.Impunity must stop!
