Violence Against Women And Girls -By Aminu Adamu

ABSTRACT

Violence against women is a major topic of discussion in Nigeria and international today, we can simply refer the most common act to be sexual violence. To make the topic of discussion complete, we have to consider the major factors that contribute through the actualization of the act. Among which we have; parent, victims, perpetrators, society institution etc. this article will be limited to the aforementioned factors in analyzing their contribution and if possible the ways to the amelioration of the indecent act.

INTRODUCTION

Sexual violence had become a daily routine in the recent days in Nigeria and international. There is no day in the country without a reported case of sexual violence especially rape in the media . Anyone can experience sexual violence but most victims are female. The person responsible for the violence is typically male and usually known to the victim.

The act of sexual violence is in recent times committed by close relatives, one would have thought that such obnoxious cruelty happens only in the western world, or Hollywood movies, considering the tenancy with which Nigerians uphold tradition, culture and religion . But no! Rather, spins-chilling tales of little girls who are daily abused sexually by those they call daddy, uncle, brother, friends and others ceaselessly flock the internet, leaving one to wonder what the world is turning into.

The United Nations defines violence against women and girls as “any physical, sexual or psychological harm caused by the act of gender based violence or suffering to women, including imminence of such acts, duress or imperious deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in private or public life.

According to UNICEF, six (6) out of ten (10) children in Nigeria experience emotional, physical or sexual abuse before the age of eighteen (18). And NFP have recorded 1717 rape cases between January and may in 2020 as 95% of child sexual abuses go unreported because of fear of stigmatization and 90% of child abuse victims know their abuser and despite overwhelming reported cases of sexual assaults, Nigeria has recorded only a significant number of rape convictions in its legal history.

When considering the act of sexual violence, there are so many factors that plays vital role in this act; parents, perpetrators the victims, as well as the society.

Parent are the source of all does victims of sexual violence, they are one among the two persons from whom is immediately biologically descended; a mother or father. Parent of those victims usually gives their own contribution through poor parenting and child upbringing. They abandon their duty of controlling the physical and emotional feelings of their children, this act usually leads the children to be feeling so distant from them and cannot let them know their problem.

Parents especially mothers abandoned their responsibilities of care upon their children leaving them under the care of a third party known as the nanny/house girl. Imagine a mother leaving at early 8:00am and returned at lately 4:00pm, within which she left her young and teenaged children with their nanny/house girl. Many cases of nannies assaulting younger aged children left under their care had been reported, among which a 43years old nanny was remanded for assaulting a 2years old girl.

Further, parents always take the world as it was before and give much trust to their close relatives such as their brothers (uncles to the victims), sisters (aunts to the victims), and other strangers that they deem in them to be a trust neighbor, which is very unfortunate in our modern world. You can witness a stage where an uncle will be demanding coffee at lately 9:00pm and the mother of those victims will send her daughter to take same to his room, what do you expect of our evil uncles of the modern world? Many cases of sexual violence are reported where uncles and cousins are involved in the perpetration. This led to the disheartening news of a little girl of five in Sierra Leone who was raped to death by a cousin and imagine his mother trying to hide such a devilish act of her son.

Street hawking exposes young girls to all forms of hazards, including sexual abuse . Some of our mothers are always after money, and they source such from sending their younger children to hawk from morning to evening some even late in the daily hours. A young girl of between 6-15 exposed to the world to source money. We always heard about how bad influence of the society do influence such young girls to abuse in the name of buying all what they out there to hawk with even additional money, and the mother will be a kind of happy her daughter sold all the goods. Some of those kids will always be after that person to sell all their goods without hawking.

Often, Nigerians are inundated with strange news of fathers who are supposed to protect their daughters from sexual molestation, only to turn out to be the sexual predators . A repulsive case among which everyone is left with astonishing expression was that of a man that defiled his little daughter of nine-month-old who was left in his care . Some of those fathers uses the opportunity of sleeping alongside their children in the same room, which is totally bad and always contribute to such aforementioned disaster. A 45-years-old carpenter, was arrested and charged to court for having carnal knowledge of his 18-years-old daughter in their one-room apartment.

It is very unfortunate for a father to be under control of his own younger teenage children after the death of his wife or when they got separated from each other, these also gave a room to sexual violation of those children. So many had happened of that nature good example is a report by vanguard news on May 25th, 2020 were a father was found of sexually abusing his 6 & 9 years-old daughters . Most of the perpetrators are individuals that cannot control their sexual desire, and others got exposed to explicit media.

Mostly, victims of rape are women, girls and even minors. Victims also play their role under; indecent/provocative dressing (i.e. dressing half naked), hugging & kissing opposite sex (which is regarded as a normal behavior in the modern world), visiting of boyfriends (they do visit their boyfriends in their rooms alone), bad companionship (leading them to night partying with strangers and bad influences).

My always question is that, why are always minors, under aged and even helpless babies involved in such evil act? Are they capable of inducing the perpetrators? It is quite disheartening to come across a recent case of a man who stole and rape a three-month-old baby in Nasarawa State , it feels so bad to see such devilish act. Some opinions are that, some perpetrators are involved into rituals and that’s all need for the minors. They use the minors to fulfill their ritual obligations, what a wicked world are we into for God’ sake. However, some men tend to prefer young girls as sexual partners because they assume they are sexually inexperienced and as such they are less likely to be infected with sexual transmitted diseases (STD).

Community is another factor that contributes to such acts, in society with weak sanctions, many unemployed youths, societal norms that support male superiority and sexual entitlement as well as maintaining women inferiority and sexual submissiveness are very likely to be endangered with multiple of sexual violence cases.

Victims of sexual violence are always open to serious emotional trauma, unwanted pregnancy, unwanted abortions, bleeding of their private parts, social phobias, sexual dysfunction, sexual transmitted diseases (STD), suicidal and stigmatization and ostracization by family and others when it comes to marriage.

How do we reduce the rate of sexual violence?

There must be a collective action against this barbarism and inhuman practices. It’s a collective duty of all and sundry in the society to contribute in curbing this menace . Some of these majors include; parent education classes , public enlightenment & education at schools, social club mosques, churches through the media, improvement in our community law and many more.

Parents education is the primary stage of tackling the problem of sexual violence. Parents should have to embark on bringing their children closer and make sure you know all the needs and problems of their children, make them like your friends and teach them about their body parts and people around them, parents do not always talk to their children about body safety early enough. They think that kids are too young it is too scary. But it is never too soon, and it doesn’t have to be a scary conversation , I will refer you to read the book of Bolaji Abdullahi “sweet sixteen”.

Public enlightenment should be the regular work of the day by community elders, NGOs, and educative session at schools, mosques churches, social club and the media as well. The community needs to be enlightened on the effect and problems that sexual violence cause to our society and our children as well. The victims also need to be taught on how to prevent themselves from been violated sexually.
We also need reforms regarding our community sanctions which plays a vital role in such dubious act, to me, I will suggest that the National Assembly pass a law for all fathers be castrated when found in such stupid and devilish act of sleeping with their daughters. Our laws need to tally our behaviors, special courts need to be innovated and new laws that will suit the rigorous rate of sexual violence, if we surely need the eradication.

In conclusion, many Nigerians see violence as a normal part of daily life, especially in the confines of the family and local communities. This behavior is strengthening the nature of silence that need to be broken if women and girls are to live free of fear and violence . Parents must surely work hard in monitoring the whereabouts of their children regarding place, time and people they come in contact. Educative and emotional conversation between them should be a daily routine. The responsibility of eradicating sexual violence rest with me, you and the whole community. When we are waiting for the government or other NGO’s to do the right thing for us, we will always live in agony and sorrows of such evil act.

REFERENCES:
Nextier SPD “sexual violence; why the rise?” 10th June, 2020. https://reliefweb.int/report/Nigeria/sexual-violence-why-rise
https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/sexualviolence/index.html

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Sexual assault and the culture of silence in Nigeria

https://www.who.int/reproductiveheaith/topics/violence/en/

Khadija Bala 25th July, 2020. “Legal consequences of child sexual Abuse in Nigeria”. https://dailytrust.com/legal-consequences-of-child-sexual-abuse-in-Nigeria

Pulse Nigeria 16th March, 2020. https://www.pulse.ng/news/metro/court-remands-nanny-43-over-alleged-sexual-assault-on-a-2-yr-old-child/5p6v9qc
https://www.lindaikejisblog.com/2020/6/5year-old-girl-dies-after-her-cousin-raped-her-and-her-8years-old-sister.html
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https://www.vanguardngr,com/2018/04/men-raped-impragnated-daughters-speak/
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https://Saharareporters.com/2020/06/23/man-who-raped-three-month-old-baby-nasarawa-arrested

10 Ways to Teach Your Child the Skills to Prevent Sexual Abuse

Bolaji Abdullahi “sweet sixteen” published 2017, special Edition published by Masobe Books 2018. Surulere, Lagos State.

U.O Eze “Prevention of sexual assault in Nigeria” Ann ib postgrad med: 2013 Dec; 11(2): 65-70. https://www.ncbi.nml.nih.gov/pme/articles/pmc4111066/