By Edoamaowo Udeme
In a developing country like Nigeria, women’s voice is the least heard, in fact, in some communities, women no matter their wealth and education, must speak through a man, be it their son, nephew or any man of the family but not directly from her. In some families, a woman that escapes from an abusive marriage has loads of things to contend with, either she is forcefully returned to her husband or direct taunting from family members, so some prefer to swallow the humble pie and hang on. Little wonder some men, even the educated ones, take delight in violating and relegating women to the background. This explains why women become victims of Domestic Violence are hanging on their marriages even when it ends up taking their lives.
Joy’s mother is a typical example, having had three children from previous relationships, she decided to hang on to the last one, an Army Corporal, no matter what. When her husband brutally raped Joy, her 15-yr-old daughter, she lived in denial. Despite admitting that “my husband brutally rapes me, I have marks to show for it”, she blames her daughter for visiting her and even accused her for seducing her husband. I want to protect my marriage at all cost as I dont want to go back home after another failed marriage”. Her concern is the stigma and how she will be sneered at if she returns home.
Her husband when he was reported, denied the allegation but suddenly went on AWOL when examination proved that Joy was raped. He disappeared overnight with his wife in tow. She is standing by her husband because she doesn’t want to be shamed by the society.
Scared of stigma for having children from different fathers, Joys mother is insistent on making this marriage work even if she were married to a rapist.
Six months later, nothing has been heard of them despite being reported to the Military Police.
Another Victim, Blessing Emmanuel Ugele, 40, and mother of three was a teacher, who fell in love with an abusive man and all effort by friends and family to separate them was futile. For nine years, Blessing suffered abuse both sexually and physically.
Two weeks after having the third child through Cesarean Section, Emmanuel approached Blessings family pleading to take her home as he was lonely, his aim was to have sexual intercourse to which she rejected vehemently, she was beaten to a pulp with planks of wood.
This time, neighbors couldn’t stand it again as they descended on him with heavy blows. The same Blessing managed to beg them to leave her husband. He left her for her family who incidentally lived a stone’s throw from her, she was rushed to the hospital where she bled for one month, two weeks and two days before she died. In all this, the husband was nowhere to be found.
On April 27 2021, Blessing died from wounds sustained from beatings by the husband, Emmanuel went into hiding, he was caught and locked up at police station at Keffi, Nasarawa State, but barely three weeks after the wife’s burial, Emmanuel was released,
Emmanuel is a free man because of the Police and its challenges of bringing perpetrators to book through their own ill-equipped methods impeding victims’ justice and Blessings family worry of the Judiciary system that might take years and not wanting disgrace, had adapted the culture of silence. In this case, the blame is on Blessing who chose to stay even when she ought to have taken a walk and with no support system from the government, the story is as good as dead.
In 2019. Nigerians woke up to the news of the death of Ochanya Ogbanje who was used as a sex object by her uncle Mr Ogbuja and his son since she was 8 until till she died from a rape complications illness at 13, the uncle was arrested and in police custody while the case is in the court. Two years after, the son is still at large, largely because of the lackadaisical police and the slow judiciary systems.
In 2020, a 14-year-old Keren-Happauch Akpegher a boarding student of Premiere Academy, Lugbe, died. Autopsy report has it that she had used condom stuck in her vagina and it caused sepsis which was formed as a result of rape and sodomy. The school denied any knowledge despite overwhelming evidence pointing to it.
Mr Lemmy Ughegbe of Men Against Rape who formed #Justice4KerenCoalition said “Justice is still a long way short because of the Little or no premium placed on the life of Keren by the ruling class who are united in a conspiracy of silence and inaction in order to protect a big school owned by one of their own. It is on record that no government official has spoken or reached out to her family. Even efforts to get the police to retrieve CCTV footages of 15th and 16th of June 2021 has not been seriously attended to despite the vital information it may contain. We understand that the school says they do not have it anymore. How can that be? Clearly, the system is made for elites to protect elites and their business interests”.
“Issues around women is not receiving the attention and support it needs. The recent brutal rejection of the Gender Equality Bill is a clear indication of this fact? Misogynists would always want women treated as second class humans to be dominated and suppressed whereas women are genuine partners whose immense talents should be given serious attention in a mutually beneficial and complementary role. All men and women should be given equal access to opportunities to become the best version of themselves. Although Nigeria mouths this, but in reality, it is a pipe dream”.
The President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari on 1st October 2021 said he will establish Special Courts for swift judgements of perpetrators of Gender Based Violence. Four months later, February 2022, it was announced that 4 courts have been established with 4 judges appointed in Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, but how fast can victims get swift judgement that will enable others break the culture of silence?
Barr. Chinyere Moneme, Chairman, SGBV Committee Nigerian Bar Association Bwari Branch, and also a Prosecuting Counsel, who also prosecute for the State is of the opinion that “Establishing the SGBV Court will enhance the swift judgement for the victims/ survivors, but there is a need for the Chief Justice of the FCT to also assign SGBV cases very speedily, the period of time it takes to assign a matter is worrisome. Within that period, the parties get disinterested or disenchanted. Even when cases are assigned, sometimes the adjournment takes too long. from the time the matter is reported to the police and they file their charges in court, the registry is supposed to take special notice and fast-track the assignment of SGBV cases”.
“The administration of criminal justice makes provision for a day to day trial. There is no reason any criminal case cannot be concluded in two weeks, if the petition has three or more witnesses, you take one daily and conclude your findings, except when it requires technical aspects like the unavailability of the medical personnel that may have examined the victim, but that can be handled earlier to accommodate the two weeks’ time frame”. She added
While Barr Gladys Emmanuel, a member of FIDA is of the opinion that even though justice may be slow, some women develop cold feet in time and resort to family settlement instead of the courts. On if that is happening because of the delayed justice system, she disagreed saying that sometimes the women change their minds in just a few days and you can’t compel them to do otherwise.
In its report in a book, NIGERIA: A HARROWING EXPERIENCE; Access to Justice for Women and Girls Survivors of Rape, Amnesty International, showcases that Nigeria’s failure to tackle rape crisis emboldens perpetrators like the Army corporal and Emmanuel, and silences survivors.
Rape cases skyrocketed in Nigeria due to COVID-19 lockdown, between January and May 2020, the Nigeria Police recorded 717 cases, by April 2020 the upsurge got to 3,600. While the National Human Rights Commission NHRC noted that it received 11, 200 reported cases in 2020.
Clifford Thomas, Executive Director of Foundation for Civic Education and Human Rights Advancement, an organisation that offers legal aid, assistance and social services to victims of human rights abuse, told Amnesty International that: “Parents also do not help matters. They flog the child, they beat the child. They further abuse the child for ‘allowing herself’ to be raped. And because of this, they are afraid to speak in the presence of their parents.”
Sadly, the unreported and undocumented rape cases doubles the reported ones, for instance, During the COVID-19 lockdown, a health reporter, there was receiving incessant phone calls for intervention on health issues, she came up with a Facebook group for easy reach, which later culminated to Network Against Domestic Violence Foundation (NADVF), the platform came up promising to protect, share and intervene on GBV issues without referencing the sources and in less than six months, it recorded 87 unreported cases of rape and 315 physical Domestic Violence against women, girls and children, with about 5000 members on the platform, anonymous tips on GBVS are passed via SMS hotline.
On that platform is the story of a father who sleeps with three daughters and his wife choose to adopt the culture of silence while promising her kids freedom when they gain admission to tertiary institutions. The story of a man who raped his three months old to death. A girl who has twins for her father, a 4-year-old whose father started fingering at the age of one and later used scissors to cut open her private part for easy entry with his penis.
These and many more are underreported. The victims include women, girls and infants, some of whom died as a result. Rape is being treated as a family affair as families are ashamed to expose the perpetrators and even the victims for fear that “She will never get any husband if the world knows that she was once raped” said the mother of one of the victims.
Despite the (VAPP) Violence Against Person Prohibition act being passed into law in Nigeria in 2015, it is sad to note that rape is still underreported because of scourge due to stigma, victim blaming and cultural norms, especially silence. The Judiciary system is slow in dispensing judgement, that explains why the perpetrators are emboldened to act because they can either bribe their way out or the victims would be shamed and tired of several trips to courts which might take months sometimes years to get judgement.
For instance, the FCT Social Development Secretariat during the Joint EU-UN Spotlight Initiative to Eliminate Violence Against Women and Girls stated that of the 444 arrested rapists in 2020 it has only recorded 1 conviction, so what happens to the 443?
“While rape remains at an epidemic level in Nigeria, there are no accurate nor consolidated statistics on rape. Data is critical for assessing the situation of women’s rights as well as for developing adequate laws and policies to combat sexual violence and its consequences” Said Amnesty.
This report is not different from the reporters experience over the years even when reaching the Police Gender desk of New Nyanya Police Station which has Karu as its jurisdiction to get Data of reported cases, “we cannot release it to you until we get information from the Police IG” said a policewoman who refused to be named, while the Local Chief of Karu said issues like that is a police case, we usually refer them immediately to the police.
The judiciary system is not helping matters, the reason most women don’t speak out, because they probably have seen what happened to other women who spoke up and nobody helped them.
With the establishment of the Special Courts, if well implemented, the possibility of swift justice for Victims / Survivors will be ensured and perpetrators will not be emboldened to act.
Refs
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#This article was produced with the support of the Africa Women’s Journalism Project (AWJP) in partnership with the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) and through the support of the Ford Foundation.
Blessing Ugele shortly before her death
Emmanuel and Blessing Ugele with their children
