Culture of Silence Fueling SGBV in Northeast Nigeria – CDD
The Center for Democracy and Development (CDD), a non-governmental organisation, has identified silence as a major bane towards eradicating Sexual and Gender-based Violence (SGBV) in North-East.
CDD Gender Adviser, Dr Amina Nur-Alkali stated this on Wednesday in Maiduguri at a one-day community sensitisation organised to mark the 2023 International Women’s Day.
The 2023 IWD theme is “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality”.
Nur-Alkali said that women were unwilling to speak out about their experience, adding that, “the victims are being blamed, denied help or told to stop talking.
“This will further amplify brutal physical and psychological consequences for survivors as they are exposed to trauma, stigma, and as a result denied justice”.
According to Nur-Alkali, the CDD programme is designed to create awareness on SGBV, discourage the culture of silence, reduce stigma and enhance access to justice for survivors.
Also speaking, the Coordinator, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in Borno, Jummai Mshelia expressed concern over the inability of government at all levels to domesticate gender and equality law.
She said domestication of the gender and equality law would reduce SGBV in the society.
Mshelia advised women to seek justice through relevant authorities when their rights are violated.
For her part, Mugwa Kambasha, Chairperson, Stand Up for Women Society, advised victims of SGBV to keep evidence to hasten prosecution of offenders.
“The first step, is to take survivors to hospital and in doing that they should not do it all alone, they should also go with the police.
“After clinical analysis, it is the duty of the police to forward the case to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).
“The corganisation will pursue the case to logical conclusion, we go to court to ensure that women get justice,” she said
Allamin Foundation, a civil society and rights based organizations in Borno state northeast Nigeria, has recently trained 30 young females on the art or making money using basic trading skills.
The young women, mostly survivors of abuse in displacement camps, were equipped with petty business skills and handed token start-up cash at a two-day training on Tuesday, Jan.17, 2023.
The young women who are either survivors of gender based violence or persons in financial vulnerability, were also made to undergo some psychosocial session to enable them overcome their state of depression.
The Humanitarian Times, a Nigerian online publication predisposed to reporting issues around the conflict in the Lake Chad region reported that “though the Borno state government has shut down IDP camps, many displacement persons are either perching in host communities or in unofficial camps. Most of the participants were drawn from those conditions of displacements.”
The online publication reported further that officials at Allamin Foundation, said some of the girls were victims of rape or those made to mother children whose paternity cannot be traced.
Participants at the training.
The young girls were trained on various business ideas during a 2-day workshop where relevant resource persons coached them on how to do petty trades in basic commodities like cooking ingredients, knitting of native caps, sales of apparels or making and selling confectionery.
Idris Akanmu, an official at the Foundation said the girls were also given some psychosocial support to enable them overcome trauma.
He said the training was to help the girls and women overcome their traumas as well as to tackle possible depression that may come as a result of economic hardships.
“This is basically meant to build their resilience and make them economically independent so that they don’t become vulnerable for any form of abuse or manipulations,” he said.
One of the resource persons, Hajja Bintu Bukar, from the Department of Public Administration, Ramat Polytecnic, Maiduguri, said the young girls have demonstrated noticeable commitment towards being financially independent despite the bad experiences they passed through.
She said the about 30 participants were apart from receiving psychosocial counseling, they also had a petty business entrepreneurship training on little seasonal trades they can venture into without incurring any unnecessary losses.
“Their participation was excellent and they exhibited that commitment to be self sufficient economically, and we felt highly encouraged,” she said.
Mrs Bukar, one of the facilitators at the 2-day training
Mrs Bukar said at the end of the two days training, the girls were handed cash started pack to enable them start business of their own.
Participants testimonies
Binta Audu-Liva, a 21 years old, prospective nursing student, said she was part of the training because she had always craved to be independent financially.
“Lack of economic support is the major reason why many girls and women become vulnerable in camps and I have seen many who have been abused and abandoned ,” she said.
“I was eleven years old when Boko Haram chased us out of Gwoza about ten years ago. And since then we have been living in camps but my mother who is known for her business acumen did not stop her fried food businesses even when we were in the camp. That was what has been sustaining us, though at a very meager level, till when our camp was closed last year.”
Binta who was lucky to be among the girls that got government scholarship about six years ago was able to complete her secondary education in 2021. She was unable to pass her entrance exams for the nursing school last year .
“I’ve not been able to pass the required grades last year, but I have reapplied for this year, and I’m hoping to pass so that I can fulfil my dreams of becoming a medical personnel some day and be helpful to my community,” she said.
Binta said she would use the cash support given to her by Allamin Foundation to start the sales of Hijab – a business she is optimistic would be lucrative because “almost every one wears Hijab and females want to have them in variety.”
“I would be saving part of the proceeds I make as gain to support my education,” she said.
Adama Abubakar, a mother of six, said she had most of her kids in the IDP camp. She said she has issues recalling events clearly due to the trauma of what she passed through.
Though she lived in a host community camp with her husband, but they barely could feed well.
“Since we fled Gwoza life has been very tough for us,” she said.
“I can’t recall most of the things I went through about ten years ago, but it has been tough for me and my family since then. I hope to utilize this money to go into sales of groceries and other cooking ingredients to support my poor family. I thank the Allamin Foundation for this. To me, it’s a first of its kind.
“I lost my pregnancy as a result of the beating by my husband,” Aisha Mohammed narrated.
“It all started in the second year of our marriage when he started accusing me of stealing food items from his house.
Ishaku, my husband, has four children from his ex-wife, and all of us live together, the 22 years old Aisha said. Adding that “the food he provides for all has never been enough.”
“One morning, when Mr. Ishaku was getting set for his farm, Aisha said she got the worst beating of her life for daring to ask her husband for money to buy some food items for the family. And she received a beating that led to her suffering a miscarriage of her two months pregnancy.
“I asked him for some money to buy food items in the house because we have run out. In response, he went hostile and started shouting and calling me names: ‘you lack home training; get out of my sight, you thief’” he said
“He slapped, pushed me to the ground, and began to hit me. I had to struggle and wriggle myself out and ran out of the compound to my mother’s house”.
“I started bleeding that afternoon, and my mother suggest we go to the hospital,” she said.
“At the hospital, Doctors said there was a complication as a result of the beating, and that I had lost the pregnancy,” she said in tears.
“Days after I was discharged from the hospital, my husband came by to insult my mother and everyone in our compound saying that we deliberately aborted his baby,” Aisha recalled.
To halt the continuation of the life-threatening assault on her, Aisha said she has to report her case to the Social Welfare Department in Biu where she lives with a prayer to secure a divorce.
” At that time, all I wanted for him was to divorce me,” she said
But having been summoned and educated on the new violence against persons prohibition law Mr. Ishaku begged and rejected the request of Aisha for a divorce.
“The officials at the Social Welfare Unit managed to resolve the issue between us without me having the divorce, and they made him sign an agreement that he will never beat me again, and he will provide for my needs, he was forced to pay all the money spent for my treatment,” she said.
It has been eight months since Aisha returned to her husband after losing her pregnancy “and he has not raised his hand to beat or insult her.
Like Aisha, Binta, another woman from Biu local government shares a slightly similar story.
The latter was a tale of perpetual violence and years of mundane culture of endurance.
Binta, a 31 years old pregnant mother of three got insulted and eventually divorced for not cooking. Binta and her kids endured days and nights of hunger because her “irresponsible” would not provide for the family but continued to force her to spend all she makes from her tailoring business.
She was seven months pregnant when her spouse walked into their home and sent her out of the house for not cooking.
“I was then pregnant with my third baby. It was in the seventh year of our marriage when my husband started showing a nonchalant attitude toward me and my children.
“I exhausted all the money I saved from my tailoring and I don’t have the strength to work again due to my natal condition. That was when the violence started. He would insult me in front of the children and our neighbors.”
“One evening, I was lying on the floor, and he walked into the house and asked for his food, I told him that there is no food in the house and the children were also hungry, and he started shouting at me he cannot continue to live with me like that; he said that I should go to my parents because he was tired of me.”
“I was seven months pregnant when that incident happened, I went to my parents and stayed up to the time I delivered.
The Doctors said I needed blood, and my father had to send for him, but he refused to show up or pay for the pints of blood needed. So my family had to pay for everything at the hospital”.
“I don’t have any money to spend on you and your children” was what my husband said to my family as I lay lifeless on the hospital bed,” Binta Adamu said.
Binta said her father phoned the husband to invite him for a talk, “but he said if my father continues to disturb him he would divorce.”
“My father was so angry with his response, so he asked him to divorce me. And he came by that evening and divorced me,” she explained
Binta said the Socail Welfare in Biu, where the new Violence Against Persons Prohibition law was domesticated saved her and her children from endless torture.
“The social welfare department has helped me in retrieving my rights that were abused by Abdullahi,” she said.
But despite the termination of the marriage, Binta continues to suffer more rights violations from her divorced spouse who would not provide for her and her kids.
“My three-month-old baby became sick and I called him to ask for some money, and Abdullahi replied that when the baby is dead, I should carry the corpse to him.”
“My family is not rich enough to take all my responsibilities, so I had to report him to the Social Welfare Department, and they summoned him and gave him custody of the two children.
“He was also made to sign an agreement that every month he will bring the sum of ₦10,000 (about $22) to their office, which I will be using to take care of the baby, this is what we have been doing for the past four months now,” she said.
Biu local government area of Borno state has earned significant notoriety for such cases of domestic violence with women at the receiving end of it all.
The root cause of the trends
“The toxic normality of women taking their responsibilities has created a belief across the state that pabir/bura (the main language spoken under Biu emirate) women can endure any form of pressure in their marital home, which directly triggers violence against women,” Hafsa Isa Baffa, an official of International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), in Borno state said.
Harmful social norms sustain violence against women and girls like women’s sexual purity, protecting family honor over women’s safety, and men’s authority to discipline women and children.
On another part, Poverty is seen as a major cause of intimate partner violence in Nigeria.
the commemoration of the Internal Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women 2022, Net Operating Income (NOI) conducted a survey to ascertain Nigerians perceptions of marriage and other factors responsible for domestic abuse, Nigerian’s response shows that 60% of intimate partner violence in the country is caused by poverty. Explaining that hardship leads to frustration and anger and at the slightest provocation, people find themselves resorting to violence as a means of expressing their dissatisfaction.
The Magira of Biu, Hajiya Larai Mai Umar said “Poverty is a strong influencer of intimate partner violence among our people which directly reinforces the cultural normality of women striving to feed their homes.”
“It is rare to find a man abusing his wife if she is the one providing or in any way supporting the family.” She explained
“Magira” is a traditional title at the royal palace of Biu emirate, meaning Queen Mother.
Nigerian Minister of Women Affairs Pauline Tallen has in 2021 said “Poverty is one of the principal causes of Gender-Based Violence in Nigeria, as women that are economically not empowered are vulnerable to abuse.
The big intervention
The state government, in collaboration with International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) flagged off the domestication of the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Law (VAPP) in Biu and other communities in southern Borno.
Officials in the state and Biu local government said though some of the local courts in the area lack jurisdiction to make VAPP operational, its domestication at the Social Walfare Department and the sensitization done about the new law have significantly mitigated the prevalence of Gender Base Violence GBV.
The Chairperson of FIDA, Hafsatu Isa Baffa, said “The state had been using other extant laws, like the Penal Code Laws of Borno 1994, which are less potent, to address gender issues. But with the adoption of the VAPP 2021, “we were able to sensitize both male and female traditional rulers through the traditional justice system in the locality on how the different laws operate and how they can resolve issues within the community with the help of the security, emirate council and people in the law.” Hafsat Isa Baffa explained.
“Through the record keeping centers, we have about 120 cases and over 90 cases were resolved as they forward the ones they cannot handle to the state level.” The FIDA Chaiperson explained
Way forward; using the law
An Assistant Chief Registrar (1), High court of justice Biu, Barrister. Mohammed Yahya acknowledged that “We have been encouraging community leaders in Biu, to keep on enlightening women to report any form of assault as it can result in life-damaging.” Adding that, community leaders are like a bridge between victims and the law.”
“The aim of the enlightenment by district heads is to develop the women’s courage to report their plights.” he said.
The Gender Base Violence focal person, at the social welfare department Biu, Yusuf Ibrahim, said the abridged version of the VAPP Act that was adopted in the locality has guided them in redesigning their policies and giving them legal power as local government agents.
“Our office is a go-to place for women with intimate partner violence cases and any other form of assault against women and girls.” he explained.
“To bring the men who deliberately fail to take responsibility for their wives yet assault them to justice, we liaise with the people in the law and designed some strict rules like making the offenders sign an agreement and making them compensate for physical damage caused by their actions,” he said
“We also have the support from our head office, which is under the ministry of women affairs, security personnel, particularly civil defense and the police department, in dealing with anyone who attempts to violate our rules or any signed agreement.”
Findings
According to WHO, intimate partner violence has an effect on women’s health. Data from the organization showed that 1 in 3 (30%) women globally, have been subjected to physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner. 42% of women who experienced intimate partner violence reported an injury as a consequence. The organization also says women between 15 and 49 years, who have been in a relationship, report that they have been subjected to some form of physical and/or sexual violence by their partner which negatively affects women’s physical, mental, sexual, and reproductive health, and increases the risk of having HIV.
Also, National Network to End Domestic Violence reveals that Over 90% of homeless women have experienced severe physical or sexual violence at some point in their lives, and 63% have been victims of intimate partner violence as adults.
A 2013 study also showed that women who experienced intimate partner violence were 16% more likely to suffer a miscarriage and 41% more likely to have a pre-term birth. Its effect is extended to children suffering a range of behavioral and emotional disturbances. Other effects of intimate partner violence may hinder social and economic cost, as women suffer lower self-esteem, isolation, inability to work, loss of wages, or lack of interest to participate in regular activities.
It was earlier reported that Borno State Governor signed the VAPP Law on January 10th, 2022, and FIDA, Borno State branch presented the same abridged document to Biu Local Government Area on October 1st, 2022.
The World Health Organization further stated that Violence against women is preventable. The health sector and Non-Governmental organizations can provide comprehensive health care to women subjected to violence, and as an entry point for referring women to other support services they may need.
This story was supported by African Women in Media as part of the Reporting Violence Against Women and Girls initiative.
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