Betty Abah is a published poet and a women and children’s rights activist. She is the founder and Executive Director of CEE-HOPE, a non-profit organisation based in Lagos. She recently produced a documentary titled RUN to fight the scourge of child marriage in the country, writes Hannah Ojo
As an award-winning journalist and author who has won acclaims both on local and international platforms, Betty Abah does things in no half measure. Betty has authored poetry collections namely Sounds of Broken Chains, Go Tell Our King and Mother of Multitudes. As a writer, she takes delight in using the arts space to advocate the wellbeing of women and children. Her recent work is a film on child marriage, which was shot in Makoko and Monkey village, Lagos.
Speaking on the inspiration behind the documentary, she said: “As part of our girl empowerment advocacy, we decided to raise awareness by producing a documentary that stabs at the conscience of the society, because we can’t be harping on the Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) when women and girls whose welfare is critical to the achievement of those goals continue to lag behind via the crude instruments of child marriage, and there is no concerted action on the part of government to enforce the Child’s Right Law, which forbids child marriage.”
Abah who had her early life in Otukpo, Benue state, confessed to have personally witnessed how early marriage killed off the dreams of relatives, friends and acquaintances. Also, her experience working with vulnerable women and children in slums like Makoko and other impoverished neighbourhoods in Lagos, further reinforced the fact that the menace of child marriage could be rampant even at the centre of a metropolitan city like Lagos.
“It may surprise you also to note that child marriage is rampant in Lagos, in slums and impoverished neighbourhoods where the state government doesn’t have even a passing interest. People are left to their own devices and they come to the cities with hangovers of their cultures and there is virtually no form of engagement, sensitisation or intervention from government. So for many, it is business as usual”, she explained.
As a purveyor of the arts, especially the genre of poetry, adopting film-making as a technique for advocacy would have been spurned by some experiences in her duty as a development worker. To this, she gave an affirmation: “We are getting a bit weary of holding seminars upon seminars. Life itself is dynamic, so why not opt for a more dynamic and creative way of making advocacy? Why not make use of the ubiquitous digital media since many people now sleep, wake and virtually live online? We decided to create something to take to them online and keep the advocacy (and) the discourse going; though we have began screening in poor neighbourhoods, to some of our target audiences, especially young people,” Betty revealed.
There is no gainsaying the fact that adopting the digital technique has helped in putting actionable information in the hands of the people, as the documentary has gathered large viewership on Youtube and on Wikipedia, where it has been uploaded.
A change in setting
Although Northern Nigeria is reputed to have the highest number of child brides in the country, Abah said the shift to the southwest is a deliberate choice. According to her, Northern Nigeria has the highest prevalence of child marriage in the country, so it has remained the focus of most researches, statistics, reports and advocacies. Adding to this is her understanding that child marriage is more of a national than regional menace, even if with varying degrees of occurrences across the geopolitical zones of the country. “In the end,” she said, “you have minus one life that should have made a great difference in millions of other lives. Until we vanquish all the negative cultures and traditions that promote child marriage and the denigration of womanhood in whatever form, we can’t say it’s uhuru yet. It is the reason why we are beaming the light in unlikely areas.”
Many of the characters in RUN are mainly young people playing roles of matured persons. 98 percent of the cast was drawn from Makoko in Lagos, Nigeria’s largest slum settlement. Virtually every ethnic nationality is reflected in the short drama including Igbo, Edo, Idoma, and Hausa among others.
Asked how she selected the actors, Abah told The Nation that the two communities where the film was set—Makoko and Monkey Village—are places where her organisation holds educational, development and girl leadership programmes.
“Most of the persons (actors, assistants, etc.) are part of our girls’ club or volunteers, with the exception of a few professional actors; and they understood that it was a small budget film. So, I would say that everything went well,” she added.
Although a low budget movie, the impact of the documentary appears to be more valuable in a way money cannot quantify. RUN explores themes centred on the impact of child marriage on girl education and the effect of patriarchy. The short film also highlighted the place of determination and support, as Abike, the heroine was able to return to school after her ordeal, since her mother was gracious enough to take over the baby’s nursing. Also, the ululations in the background, towards the end (rendered in several languages) as she runs back to school, symbolises the reality of child marriage as a national menace.
“Of course, there are so many ‘runnings’ in consonance with the need to flee from the menace. As a narrator, I also ran in solidarity. It was fun!” Abah recalled, smiling.
The objective of the short film, according to the producer, is to succeed in helping to drive the change that will enforce the Child’s Right Act.
“We would have succeeded in prodding the conscience of those in power, enough to make them act by enforcing the Child’s Right Act and stop the practice at all levels, no matter who is involved. Secondly, that the culprits, those who perpetuate it, will see reason to embrace change, stop the stone-age practice, and let our girls be girls, left alone to mature and get quality education towards gender equality and all-round development.
“Of course, thirdly, that the real target, the vulnerable girls especially in impoverished, marginalised and at-risk communities would be enlightened enough to see the bad sides of child marriage and resist it at every opportunity, or know where they can resort to for protection in the instance of being forced into it. Docility is not the same as respect or courtesy, and one of the things we teach young people is confidence, being focused and resisting things that impinge on their human dignities. Child marriage is one of them and girls have a right to resist it, indeed, run away from it!”
Apart from shooting films, Abah has also explored other art platforms to showcase CEE-HOPE’s work with vulnerable children and girls in Nigerian slums and impoverished communities.
