By Meg Anozia
The utmost role of every nation is to provide security and protection for its citizens. In Nigeria, one of the challenges bedeviling people is the issue of insecurity in different forms. People live in fear of the unknown and the girl-child/women are the most vulnerable. Paradoxically, violence against women and girls is among the most widespread and devastating human rights violations in the World which requires great attention. The United Nation’s declaration on the elimination 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. Women are not empowered and often subjected to poverty and sufferings at different levels.
Right from time in immemorial, girls/women have continued to suffer unequal treatments especially in the developing countries where they are classified as second-class citizens. They are viewed to be the weaker sex and the underdog when compared with male counterparts; and have been exposed to various forms of violence. Unfortunately, most of the time, the attacks on women come from within their purported “safe zones”, such as homes, offices and even churches as has just been recently recorded in a Church in Benin-City, where a 16-year-old student was murdered and likewise the case of Vivian Ogu who was killed for her refusal to succumb to the sexual advances of armed robbers. These acts have great effect in women personality and the entire nation.
The traditional Nigerian indigenous community believes that the woman’s role is predominantly in the home with less opportunity to hold top positions in society. As such, women have no equal rights as men in the society which manifests suppressions at different levels. According to a 2010 UN report on violence against women in Nigeria and Africa as a whole, the scourge is still largely rampant, but hidden beneath cultural practices and beliefs and this can be traced to the predominance of the system of patriarchy across Africa. For instance, studies have shown that women farmers are denied access to inheritance land ownership despite their commitment in economic activities for the nation’s development.
Women are faced with lots of insults, mockeries, harassment, contempt, and deliberate deprivation of emotional care or isolation as the weaker sex. It is also common to notice how some men neglect their wives by failure to provide basic needs and deprive her from even owning a job. To some extent, she is turned into a punching bag, beaten and battered by her husband and subjected to being inferior among people. Another critical example of how women are terrorized by men is seen in tertiary institutions where female students are sexually harassed in campus. Some lecturers often force girls for sex in exchange for marks; else they fail examinations.
Widows are maltreated in different forms, especially by the husband’s relations and subjected under undue suffering and hardship. For example, certain cultural beliefs force the widow to perform some rituals to prove that she did not kill her husband and the inheritance of a widow most times depends on the sex of her children and their ages. If the widow is highly educated, the husband’s relations will be engaged in endless litigations with her. To some extent, the widow is forced to marry the late husband’s family relations and denied her husband’s properties. The widow becomes voice less and depressed without help.
These ugly situations of violence against women can cause physical injury, behavior problems, anxiety, depression, and suicide, reduced ability to work, impaired family function, less productivity and so on. Most often women suffer in silence, as most of the unlawful cases are not reported due to impunity, shame and gender inequality. These therefore, bring to the front burner the need for women to be empowered.
The girl-child is supposedly a future mother who is expected to perform the basic roles of a woman in the society. She is the biological female offspring from birth to eighteen (18) years of age. It is quite unfortunate that in Nigeria, the girl-child suffers unequal treatment and neglect to social molestation and humiliations that renders her at risks within and outside the home. Socio-cultural beliefs deny the girl-child great opportunities due to gender preference whereby the male child is celebrated even at birth while the girl-child is received with contempt and such questions are posed to God; why is it a girl not a boy? God has given me another prostitute? To some extent, the mother and the baby are neglected.
The girl-child is subjected to Female Genital Mutilation and Cutting (FGM/C) as a traditional act of circumcision aimed at curbing promiscuity to prepare her for marriage. This is proven by the World Health Organization (WHO) reports that Nigeria has the third highest absolute number of women and girls out of the 19.9 million who have undergone FGM/C Worldwide. Other maltreatments of the girl-child include; subjecting her to force and early marriage for her parent’s selfishness which can lead to fistula disorder during childbirth.
For example, UNICEF in 2017 reported that Nigeria has the third highest absolute number of child brides in the World – 3,538, 000 as the 11th highest prevalence rate of child marriage globally. Provably, in 2013, Nigeria became the talk of the global media when a serving senator promoted a constitutional clause allowing for early girl child marriage.
The girl child surfers child labour, over domestic chores rather than attend school, hawking during school hours especially when the family is poor, house help to other families which if not lucky could be maltreated. To some families, the girl child is seen as a source of family income through prostitution, commercial sex, homosexuals, etc. The girl-child/minors are abused sexually within and outside the home. Evidences have shown that the girl child is molested by biological father or step-father, siblings, relatives and other people outside the family.
Lady Anozia is the Noble President, Ladies of Saint Mulumba Nigeria (LSM)