Saving women in Nigeria from domestic violence, by Dr Adeola Alabi-Adeleke.
On April 9, 2022, Nigeria and the world at large woke up to another cruel announcement of the passing of gospel musician Nwachukwu Osinachi through violence from her husband. The number keeps rising.
Osinachi’s case became a media sensation because of her musical talent. Nigerian women cannot imagine how many of their kind have died of similar unfortunate violence. Gender-based violence is perhaps considered one of the most terrifying forms of inequality between males and females. Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) remains one of Nigeria’s most serious and widespread inequalities and, it is a manifestation of the historically unequal power relation between men and women, which derives essentially from culture.
The Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Violence against women defined violence against women as any act of gender-based violence that results in or is likely to result in physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life. This definition and that of the World Health Organisation (WHO) express violence as the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, against a group or community, that either result in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment or deprivation.
Domestic violence is now widely recognized as serious human rights abuse, and increasingly as an important public health problem with substantial consequences for women’s physical, mental, sexual, and reproductive health.
Some of the problem areas identified that could be considered as violence against women include: – Physical, sexual and psychological violence.
Physical violence or abuse includes women being physically intimidated by slapping, kicking, beating or threatened by harmful objects. Sexual violence is defined as being physically forced to have sexual intercourse, being forced to do something sexual found degrading or humiliating. sexual violence occurs within the general community, through rape, sexual harassment and intimidation at work, educational institutions and elsewhere; trafficking in women and forced prostitution and physical, sexual and psychological violence perpetrated by the state, where it occurs. Emotional and verbal abuse include; being insulted or made to feel bad about oneself. Females are often victims of this form of violence.
Surveys undertaken in 2012 and 2013 indicated that around 30% of women had experienced some form of physical, sexual or emotional domestic violence. Violence against women is in various forms. One of the identified violence is wife-beating. Wife beating was a common act of violence identified against women. Almost seventy per cent (70%) of the respondents reported that it is a common practice in their communities. Twenty-five per cent (25%) of the males reported that they beat their partners. The men generally explained that wife-beating is a way of correcting their wives.
That being said, we cannot wait for another woman or girl to be killed through any form of domestic violence. What is next to be done for women to avoid another Osinachi being battered to death? What is next to be done positively to make men realise that violence against their partner is inhumanity to mankind? What can be done not to allow this bad occurrence not to reoccur? I will suggest two or three things.
The first thing is legal. Efforts to eliminate incidences of violence against women through law enforcement had been in place for a long time through the coming together of more than fifty-five (55) different groups and individuals under the umbrella of the Legislative Advocacy Coalition on Violence Against Women, (LACVAW. The result of that activism was the signing into law of the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act on May 25, 2015.
The enactment of the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act, which proposes wide-ranging provisions for many aspects of violence, including violence against women, is a significant event that can transform the landscape of violence against women in Nigeria if it is well domesticated. The Legislation has recognised women as the sole beneficiary of the Law. Since 2005, the number of people that have been prosecuted by this law is limited when compared with the statistics of women who suffer violence. It is either that women are not reporting cases of violence or the law is slow at prosecuting the offenders. Better statistics are needed in this area.
Secondly, it is high time women spoke out. For two reasons. To save themselves and their family. The culture of silence can lead to untimely death and has led to thousands of untimely deaths. Women should remember that, once a man hit his wife the first time and the woman is quiet, that woman has become a punching bag for the man. Women speak up. Speak out. Silence in Violence leads to unplanned and untimely death. Speaking out about the violence we face is not to bring the family name down, but to save a life. Women, please, remember to confide in a person to save your life.
Thirdly, I want to address the male gender. Women are meant to be your helpmate and not punching mate or partners that undergo violence alone in silence. Our men should have a forum of discussion with themselves. Gender violence is not limited to any religious group. Let it be shouted out in the mosques, in the churches, among other traditional religions that women are not punching bags. Women are meant to be respected and protected as one of a man’s bone.
Women suffering from any form of abuse should report, to their Pastors, Imam, leaders etc if he is also not part of such evil, . It is not to shame the man, but to save the woman or the abused. Women in Nigeria are tired of this type of story.
Gender violence is a cankerworm to women’s empowerment and a significant limitation towards achieving gender equality in Nigeria.
Adeleke, a retired nurse and educator, has a PhD in History and International Studies and passionate about gender issues.
