•Scary antics of wild residents in serene Federal Capital Territory
Looking at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) at first glance, one is overwhelmed with the serenity and beauty of the city centre and a people who probably act too sane for violence. But GRACE OBIKE reports that beneath the façade of serenity is a city exploding with numerous cases of domestic violence.
SPARE the rod, spoil the child,” is a common phrase used to support the practice of physical discipline towards children; a phrase most Nigerian homes abide by religiously in the upbringing of children. Although the phrase is widely accepted and adhered to, there is little provision phrase for the extent to which the rod can be deployed.
In trying to keep to the phrase, an Abuja father took his a step further. According to the father (name withheld because the case is in court), he noticed that his 18 year-old-daughter was “acting funny” (Youthful exuberance or exhibiting teenage tendencies), so he told his pastor about the incident and the pastor asked that the girl should be brought alongside her friend.
Instead of advising the teenagers as would be expected of a man in his position, the man of God labelled them both as possessed and practising witchcraft. He then decided to cast out the devil in both girls, using acid. The man’s daughter was grotesquely disfigured and her innocent friend lost her life.
As would be expected, the pastor and his worshiper were caught by the long arm of the law and the man of God claimed he was only trying to rid the girls of the stubborn devil.
Another parent, Rebecca Matthew (not real name), took her own aspect of corporal punishment on her 12 years old daughter to the extreme. As a way of punishment, Mrs Matthew made marks all over the daughter’s body with hot electric iron for being disobedient.
Neighbours who saw what happened reported to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP). She was, of course, arrested and the child taken away from her and for treatment at the clinic at the NAPTIP shelter.
While receiving treatment, the child began convulsing and after being rejected at a general hospital, ended up being referred to the National Hospital where she was eventually diagnosed with tetanus from the rusty iron.
The most horrible of them all is the case of Martha Joseph (not real name). Her 12-year-old maid spilled palm oil in the house. She fetched a razor blade and went to work on the child’s body. The power in the house went off as she slashed and inflicting numerous injuries on the child but she did not stop.
It was said that when she spilled the child’s blood on the floor and the tiles became slippery, she claimed she thought it was the palm oil. So she kept slashing until power was restored and she saw the damage she had done.
The child was in a pool of blood with gashes all over, but instead of taking the child to the hospital, Martha took her to the shoemaker (cobbler) nearby and asked him to sew the child up.
The horrified shoemaker told her that he only sews shoes and not human flesh but Martha insisted and tried hard to convince him because, according to her, taking the child to a hospital or pharmacy for treatment would only raise suspicion and she would probably be reported.
She returned the child home when the shoemaker refused to sew her up while the latter contacted NAPTIP who swooped in.
Are kids the only victims?
One would assume that such horrors would only be reserved for kids that are young and powerless to abusers. Unfortunately, age is not a factor when abusers come out to play.
Twenty-year-old Godiya Yusuf (not real name) resides in Kaduna with her parents. During the holidays, she decided to travel to Abuja to visit her aunty with the aim of working during the holidays to help her family out before returning to school.
After the agreed weeks, Godiya was ready to return home and asked her aunty for payment as agreed. But rather than comply, the aunt fetched a stick and beat her severely for daring to ask. She injured Godiya brutally and instead of treating the young lady, she locked her up in her toilet with no food or water for six days. Godiya managed to keep hydrated by drinking water from the toilet’s water closet.
By the sixth day, the aunt’s boyfriend visited from Kano and heard a small whimper coming from the visitor’s toilet. He investigated and called NAPTIP. Unfortunately for Godiya, the horror did not end with the rescue because her injuries had been infected by tetanus and she was already convulsing by the time she was rushed to Wuse General Hospital.
A staff of NAPTIP who pleaded anonymity said: “It was with Godiya’s case that I knew how invested doctors can be with patients. After battling in the theatre for hours to save her life, the six doctors held prayer sessions at her bedside for hours until she pulled through, it was truly a battle to save her life.”
Numerous cases exist of men reporting their wives for abuse. NAPTIP’s claims includes that of military men in Abuja who have been rescued from abusive wives and a lot more women have almost had their lives cut short by abusive husbands.
Influential workers with places like the Central Bank or Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) involved in domestic violence and not including the hundreds of workplace abuses and thousands of unreported domestic violence that take place unchecked.
How serious are cases of SGBV?
The Director General NAPTIP, Dr. Fatima Waziri-Azi, said as much as the government works on keeping women and children safe, most of the crimes of Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) happen at the community level.
She said to curb it the country needs to target those cultural norms that make such crimes fester.
Waziri-Azi stated that the rate of violence against women in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) alone is really alarming.
She said: “In 10 months from January to October, the agency received 1,100 reports of domestic and sexual violence from the FCT alone, out of which 126 reports were investigated.
“Out of these 126 cases, 26 were resolved via mediation or alternative arbitration while 54 of the reported cases were withdrawn mostly due to pressure from family and threats from community leaders on the victims. We currently have 84 cases in the court and so far, we have secured four convictions.
“Most times when people report and we start investigations, file matter in court and start prosecution and the next thing the women will write and say she wants to withdraw the case and we find that 100 percent of the time, the reason is because of societal pressure from family, community and fear of reprisal.”
A study commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, the United Nations Population Fund (UNPFA) with support from the Norwegian Government found that 28% of Nigerian women aged 25-29 have experienced some form of physical violence since age 15, 15% of women experienced physical violence.
The level of exposure to the risk of violence varied on the basis of marital status, and that “44% of divorced, separated or widowed women reported experiencing violence since age 15, while 25% of married women or those living with their spouses have experienced violence.
The most common acts of violence against women in Nigeria include sexual harassment, physical violence, harmful traditional practices, emotional and psychological violence, socio-economic violence and violence against non-combatant women in conflict situation.
To see to an end to SGBV, Nigeria adopted a Framework and Plan of Action for the National Gender Policy in 2016.
s a result, the federal and state governments adopted several legislative and policy instruments, including The Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act of 2015, which prohibits female genital mutilation, harmful widowhood practices, harmful traditional practices and all forms of violence against persons in both private and public life.
Despite all of that, the Minister of Women Affairs, Dame Pauline Tallen, while speaking at a stakeholders meeting of EU/UN Spotlight Initiative high level monitoring in Sokoto, said her ministry received complaints of over 10,726 cases of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SBGV) in recent times with Sokoto recording 738 cases.
She lamented the high rate of physical, psychological and emotional violence against women and children in recent times and noted that the common forms of violence and abuse reported included rape, child marriage, wife battery, sexual harassment, sexual exploitation, prostitution, incest, negative widowhood practices, slavery and trafficking of girls.
Why are people abusive?
The Centre for Relationship Abuse Awareness says it is difficult to point to a specific reason of why people become abusive.
The centre said most abusers have certain beliefs and attitudes. Sense of entitlement, a belief they should have power and control over their partner, belief that they can get away with it, learned experience that being abusive gets them what they want and the belief that their lives should take priority.
A member of the NAPTIP Rapid response unit who did not want his name mentioned said: “Most perpetrators, from our findings, are going through unchecked mental health issues. The problem with our country is that we don’t invest in mental health checkups; we just believe everyone we see on the street is in the right state of mind.
“We also believe that another factor contributing to this is frustration arising from the economic downturn creating bottled-up anger in people and they sometimes vent it out on people close to them; and then the culture of silence. People need to get to the place where they realise that crime is crime anywhere.”
He said fortunately, more people in Nigeria are speaking against domestic violence, compared to what obtained before. He also said the rate at which people call NAPTIP to report cases of domestic violence goes to show that NAPTIP as an agency is so passionate about ensuring that the issue of gender based violence becomes a thing of the past.
He added that people have confidence in the agency because they believe they can get justice when they come here. Others are led to report from the testimonies they hear from people every day on traditional and social media. They report with the hope of getting the same.