Combating Gender-based Violence will Help Nigeria Meet Devt Challenges, Says  Lulu-Briggs

Yinka Olatunbosun

A leading industrialist and philanthropist, Dr Seinye Lulu-Briggs, has said that combating gender-based violence (GBV) and placing it at the core of its development agenda will help Nigeria meet growth challenges of the 21st century.

Citing a World Bank report that indicated how countries can only meet the development challenges of the 21st century with the full and equal participation of all male and female citizens, the philanthropist noted that reducing gender-based violence has to become a priority if Nigeria would meet set targets.

Lulu-Briggs made this observation as the guest speaker at the African Women Lawyers Association (AWLA), Rivers State branch event organised to commemorate the 2023 Pan African Women’s Day and 16 Days of Activism to end gender-based violence in Port Harcourt on Wednesday, October 25.

At the event themed ‘African Women in the 21st Century: Challenges and Prospects’, her NGO, the O.B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation received a Distinction Award for protecting the rights of women and children and selfless service to humanity.

Lulu-Briggs reiterated that empowering and liberating women is essential for unlocking Nigeria and Africa’s immense potential.

She said: “Gender-based violence is among African women’s most vexing challenges in the 21st century. During the COVID-19 pandemic, rates of gender-based violence increased across the world. In Africa, the pandemic eroded women’s and girls’ hard-won accumulation of human capital, voice, agency and economic empowerment built over international development concerted efforts over the past three decades.”

Dr. Lulu-Briggs lamented that despite the fact that most African countries have ratified the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the African Union’s Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, they have not domesticated these towards improving the lives of African women.

She observed that in Africa, the prevalence of intimate partner violence ranges from 10% to nearly 40%, some of the highest rates in the world. In Nigeria, one in three women has experienced domestic violence, physical, mental and sexual assault, forced and/or early marriages, and female genital mutilation by age 15.

The guest speaker shared her unpleasant widowhood experiences and said widows should not be “invisible and at the mercy of ‘the patriarchy’ and ‘harmful cultural practices and traditions.”

“At the O.B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation, we have supported the International Federation of Women Lawyers, FIDA Rivers Branch’s work to tackle discrimination and violence against women for many years. However, when I became a widow, I was compelled to do more, to support widows and to raise the visibility of our plight in 2019.

“Through the Widows Support Project, in partnership with AWLA, we reinvigorated this line of intervention by providing widows in Rivers State pro-bono legal assistance, skills training and financial support for the businesses of the widows of the Nigerian Army’s Division 6’s fallen soldiers and scholarships to ensure that their children remain in school. We also provided support for advocacy to address the discriminatory treatment of widows and their children.”

She further cautioned against isolating and harassing victims of gender-based violence but ensuring they get all the support and encouragement they need to speak up, get treatment and seek redress in the legal system.