Ending Violence Against Women and Girls

In commemorating the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, an annual international campaign which kicked off on November 25th and ran until December 10th, Yinka Olatunbosun reports on some milestones as well as the drawbacks in Nigeria’s criminal justice system in fighting the scourge

She calls him daddy. But he sees her differently. She is nothing but a tool for sexual gratification. Every night, he would leave his unwary wife in bed and lure the young girl into his study. He started by fondling her genitals. Then later, he made her watch pornography. He introduced the young child to oral intercourse and later, began to experiment all his sexual desires with her. Reports say he had done the same to his patients at the hospital and his older children from his first failed marriage. The matter is now before the police. But he is still a free man.

The story above is based on a real life experience based on an allegation made by a wife against her husband, who works as a medical doctor in Nigeria. Such stories of sexual abuse of minors have been largely reported in both traditional media and online platforms. As outrageous as some of these stories might sound, most of them are found to be true after intense investigation and prosecution.

More often than not, young girls are abused by persons close to them: relatives, domestic staff, teachers, neighbours or even religious associates. Historically, sexual abuse cases are often settled out of the court in Nigeria and perhaps, other climes. Years later, the victim would manifest signs of a damage sexual health or other psychological disorder while the unprosecuted perpetrator continues the cycle of abuse having been emboldened by the culture of impunity. 

In 1989, a milestone was reached when world leaders made a historic commitment to the world’s children by adopting the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child – an international agreement on childhood. Arguably the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history, it has helped transform children’s lives around the world.

For instance, under article 34 of the convention, all states signatory to the convention are required by law to protect the child from all forms of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse including the inducement or coercion of a child to engage in any unlawful sexual activity; the exploitative use of children in prostitution or other unlawful sexual practices.

Landmark Victories Against Gender-based Violence

In the past few years, victims of sexual abuse and violence-young and old- have been united in calling out serial abusers. For instance, the famous movie producer, Harvey Weinstein who was accused of multiple sexual offences was prosecuted and subsequently sentenced to 23 years in prison for criminal sexual acts including rape.

In June this year, the former R&B legend, R.Kelly was also sentenced to 30 years in prison for federal racketeering and sex trafficking charges. This came on the heels of decades of botched sexual abuse cases and a long trail of sexual misconduct around his supposed music mentees, fans and even his ex-wife.

Recently too in Nigeria, some cases of sexual abuse of minors have been thoroughly prosecuted and where abusers were found guilty, they had been sentenced. For instance, a toddler aged 2years and 11 months was sexually abused by a supervisor/pastor in Chrisland School, Victoria Garden City (VGC) named Adegboyega Adenekan and the abuser was sentenced to 60 years’ jail term by Justice Sybil Nwaka of an Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court in 2019. This decision was upheld by the Appellate court in 2020 thus breaking the cycle of impunity for sexual offenders in Nigeria.

Also, earlier this year in July precisely, the comedic actor, Olanrewaju James popularly known as Baba Ijesha was sentenced to 16 years in prison for sexually assaulting a 14-year old minor. The story did not go without counter claims by friends of the sexual offender, thus demonstrating once more the culture of shaming the victim instead of the abuser. 

Indeed, all these aforementioned landmark victories would have been impossible without the unity of victims to speak against the sexual offender. Notably, the #MeToo social movement against sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and rape culture, in which people publicize their experiences of sexual abuse or sexual harassment have proved to be a liberating tool for victims of abuse to seek justice. It has foisted courage in other women across the globe to speak out boldly against violence and abuse of women and girls.

This explains the theme for this year’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women dubbed 16 days of activism titled “UNITE! Activism to end violence against women and girls.” It is an invitation to everyone to play his or her role in ending violence against women and girls, show support and solidarity to women’s rights activists and to resist the rollback on women’s rights.

Drawbacks to Justice…

For women facing violence by men who are their spouses, partners, employers, superiors, mentors or religious associates, it is common to find many victims who prefer to suffer in silence rather than publicly shame their abusers. Often, the fear of being discredited by the abuser or losing their source of income or financial support may have prevented many from seeking justice. Some just wish to preserve their privacy at the expense of encouraging a criminal, violent behaviour.

Asides from the slow justice delivery, one major drawback to seeking justice for the victim is the culture of shaming the victim. In-laws and even the entire public shame or silence wives who speak out against abusive husbands. Thus, there is a need to educate the public to change their perception of the victims or survivors of gender-based violence.

Educating the Public 

There are several advocacy groups that are working towards changing the public perception of violence against women and girls to advance a better quality of life for this vulnerable group. One of them is the Knowledge Education Empowerment for All (KEE) Foundation chaired by an author and sexuality educator, Ifeoma Theodore Jnr.  For her, it is very important to prevent the abuse from happening to protect the young girls from a life-long trauma. She explained the timeliness of this year’s theme of “Unite’’ in an encounter with THISDAY.

“This year’s theme “Unite” speaks to collaboration, partnerships, and consolidation, to timely achieve a set objective. The World, led, of course, by the United Nations, have since realised and supported the advancement of the Rights of the Child. The theme is set at a great time, and so when all of us consolidate our efforts, especially at upholding the rights of the child, that child grows into an adult male or female empowered with knowledge and awareness, as essential life tools, which have been established as lacking among victims of conflict and violence against women.

“To achieve maximum results, everyone, individuals, government agencies, non-for-profit organisations need to come together as one, to tackle gender violence. One cannot work without the other. It is a collective responsibility. We are all part of the society we’ve created; therefore, we should also all be part of societal reform. Campaigns to this effect should be at the forefront of our daily living, to create residual awareness in our collective consciousness,’’ she explained.

Her organization, KEE Foundation is working assiduously at breaking many unnecessary bureaucracies and barriers to protecting the right of the Child, prevention against violence, starting from adolescents, teens and young adults.

“The foundation has many published works, which have been approved for use in schools and communities. These works have been distributed to various schools and communities to help facilitate needed discussion between adolescents and their caretakers,’’ she added.

Recently, the Anambra State government approved the use of Theodore’s published books “Trapped in Oblivion” and “My Daughters and I” in the state’s secondary schools. This is a huge step in the government’s commitment to protecting young girls from abuse using education as a tool.

“We envisage more partnerships and collaboration with frontline organisations like: related Government agencies, FHI 360, AHNI, NACA, UBEC, to mention a few. We all have a new theme and platform to “Unite” and perform better,’’ she said.

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To achieve maximum results, everyone, individuals, government agencies, non-for-profit organisations need to come together as one, to tackle gender violence. One cannot work without the other. It is a collective responsibility. We are all part of the society we’ve created; therefore, we should also all be part of societal reform. Campaigns to this effect should be at the forefront of our daily living, to create residual awareness in our collective consciousness