Nigerian women target gender violence

Advocacy and human rights groups launch public campaign

By Michael Fleshman 
http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/vol14no2/nigerian.htm

In Lagos, a 15-year-old girl answers a knock on her door and finds herself doused with acid by a former boyfriend. She dies several days later, horribly disfigured. In the Niger Delta oil fields, soldiers enter the village of Choba after a gun battle and rape 60 women. Authorities deny that the incident occurred even after a photo of the assaults appear in a national newspaper and interviews with victims are broadcast on national television. In the northern city of Kaduna, a man whips his wife with a cane after an argument over household finances. The woman cannot file a complaint because no offence has been committed. Section 55 of the penal code allows a husband to beat his wife as long as "grievous hurt" is not inflicted -- regulating, but not criminalizing, this form of domestic violence.

These examples, drawn from the case files of Nigerian women's and human rights organizations, offer a glimpse into the social, traditional and political foundations of what Ms. Tolulope Lewis, a representative of a leading Nigerian non-governmental women's organization, Baobab for Women's Human Rights, described as an "epidemic of violence" against women. Speaking to Africa Recovery in New York, Ms. Lewis said that discriminatory customary practices, a constitutional and legal framework inherited from previous military governments and a blanket of silence surrounding domestic violence in particular have left women extraordinarily vulnerable to rape and assault. "It's no use going to the police," she said. "They say it's a private matter [between the man and the woman] that doesn't concern them. Sometimes they just ask the woman, 'what did you do to deserve this?'"

Government efforts to curb gender violence were half-hearted at best under the military government of General Sani Abacha, who seized power in November 1993 and ruled until his death in 1998. After the creation of an official Human Rights Commission in 1995 the government conducted two national workshops on the causes of violence and announced plans to establish legal aid and counselling centres for the victims. But the programmes enjoyed little credibility among Nigerian human rights and women's organizations and received little political or financial support from a regime that quickly became notorious for its repression.

UNIFEM initiative

With assistance from the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), Nigerian women have seized on the country's transition to democracy to launch an ambitious campaign against gender violence. The programme includes legal and social services for victims and their families, sensitivity training for law enforcement and government officials and community-based education activities aimed particularly at young people. UNIFEM and the Nigerian non-governmental Women's Centre for Peace and Development launched the project, Social Advocacy Against Violence Against Women (SAAVAW), in late 1998, with funds from UNIFEM's Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence Against Women.

Photo: Michael Fleshman

SAAVAW conducted the first of two workshops on gender violence in August 1998, drawing heavily on drama, song and dance to highlight the impact of gender violence on women and their families. SAAVAW activists also established Peace and Anti-Violence Education clubs in six secondary schools around the country. The clubs organize local activities to challenge stereotypes of women that foster violence and bring boys and girls together to develop ways to end gender violence in their communities.

The SAAVAW project formally concluded in July 1999 with a national conference on media reporting of gender violence and the launch of a new national non-governmental organization, Project Alert, to combat gender violence through education, research and advocacy. Project Alert is the first organization in Nigeria devoted exclusively to eradicating violence against women, and is intended to augment and coordinate the ongoing women's empowerment, counselling, and legal assistance programmes of other agencies, both governmental and non-governmental.

'Now the women are moving'

No one, however, is claiming an early victory. Ms. Bolanle Asimolowo, a representative of the Lagos-based Civil Liberties Organization, told Africa Recovery that despite significant improvements in respect for human and civil rights by the elected government of President Olusegun Obasanjo, "for women things are not very much different. We still have a long way to go."

Part of the difficulty, said Ms. Lewis, is the virtual absence of women in the new local, state and national legislatures. Just three of Nigeria's 109 senators are women, while only 12 women were elected to the 350-member House of Representatives. Nationally, fewer than 2 per cent of all elected officials are women, making it difficult to put women's issues on the country's political agenda.

"Violence against women cannot be separated from the broader issues of women's economic and social standing in the country," she noted, "and there is still a feeling that women cannot be leaders. We're encouraging women and men to see that women have their contribution to make to the democracy. We are speaking up now to break the silence. We have far to go, but now the women are moving."