The UN Women Country Representative in Nigeria and ECOWAS, Ms Beatrice Eyong has called on wives of Governors in the country to support the efforts that ensure a perpetrator-centred approach in holding people accountable for Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) and survivor-centred approaches in reaching out to survivors remain a priority.
She made the call at the Strategy and Knowledge Sharing Workshop on Sexual and Gender-Based Violence for First-Time First Ladies in Nigeria.
According to Ms Eyong, SGBV is one of the most significant human rights violations that have negative impact on public health, social, economic and political development of the society, which needs urgent attention to curb the menace
“In 2021, gender-based violence across the European Union was estimated to cost around EUR 366 billion a year. Violence against women specifically makes up 79 per cent of this cost, amounting to EUR 289 billion. It is for this reason UN Women through the EU-UN Spotlight Initiative has enhanced engagement of the private sector to address violence against women and girls in the workplace and society through a private sector-led GBV Fund and uptake in the UN Global Compact and UN Women’s Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs). Excellencies, your offices present an invaluable opportunity to shape private sector’s influence on pervasiveness of violence in society. We call on you to continue challenging private sector entities to adopt policies to address violence.”
Ms. Eyong, further implored the women to utilise the moment to strategise and galvanize actions for eliminating violence against women and girls and to boldly take a stand against this menace.
“There are other laws that must be passed to ensure women are free from all forms of discrimination. We cannot talk about legislation to end violence without putting legislation that addresses women’s leadership on the table. It is statistically proven that when parliaments are more gender balanced, legislations that affect women and girls are increasingly tabled. We must sustain advocacy on the Gender Equal and Opportunities Bill which not only addresses economic violence but also advocates for affirmative action and inclusion of women. I challenge us to take passage of laws a step further. I use this opportunity to commend the existence of coasted model action plans in some states including: Bauchi and those supported through the EU-UN Spotlight Initiative in Sokoto, Lagos, Adamawa, Ebonyi and Cross River states. Costed model action plans will ensure that the critical provisions of the VAPP are realized and that survivors of violence, communities have recourse to justice.” She urged
The EU Ambassador to Nigeria and Ecowas, Ms. Samuela Isopi, stressed that sexual gender-based violence needs urgent attention in addressing it
“As we all know, sexual and gender based violence (SGBV) is a global pandemic that requires fundamental and coordinated action that would guarantee the safety and security of vulnerable women and children across the world. In Nigeria, the European Union continues to highlight the importance of the fight against SGBV through our political engagement with the government, and our development cooperation support in collaboration with like-minded partners and key stakeholders. Our two flagship SGBV programmes; the Spotlight Initiative and the Rule of Law and Anti-corruption (RoLAC) Programme, have been quite instrumental in advancing this agenda. The European Union has been pleased to see an appraisal of the landmark achievements made, such as the adoption of relevant legal framework at state level, the establishment of more sexual assault referral centres and shelters, the launch of a national sex offender register as well as designation of SGBV courts by the judiciary.” He stressed
For her part, The Chairperson of the Nigeria Governors Spouses’ Forum, Professor Olufolake Abdulrazak, highlight the achievement made so far in the fight against SGBV in Nigeria.
“We worked hard and made sure that we were able to ensure that the governor’s declared a state of emergency against sexual and gender based violence. We were able to work assiduously to make sure that we now have the compact in about 35 states plus the city. We’ve been able to come to get shelters and sack centers. These are the sexual assault referral centers in various states across the country. So this agenda is to make sure that we’re able to build on that, with the new facilities that have come in. We need to continue to make sure that there’s such centers available. We need to continue to make sure that the shelters are available, we need to make sure that we’ll continue the sensitization so they need to have a roadmap with which to follow.” She added.
According to the Wife of Lagos State Governor, Dr. Claudiana Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu, different activities have been going on in different local government areas of Lagos State
“We have this agency called Neighborhood Watch that also watches every word to ensure that the neighborhoods are safe. We haven’t got it right 100%, we’re still working on it. And that is why we’ve come here to harness our learning, interact with other states to learn what they also do in the other states and also interact with the developmental partners that are here.As the First Lady, we are the voice for the voiceless and there, we realized from this intersection, this conference that we’re having, that we must use politically, economically and socially wherever we go to make sure that the dust buster the act is stopped as much as possible zero tolerance.”
The Wife of Adamawa State Governor, Mrs. Lami Fintiri, said; “We have been doing a lot of things on gender based violence. Among them is renovating an existing building and also other new safe houses, which we are planning to build in three local government area of Adamawa state. As you know Activism to End Violence against Women & Girls! is around the corner from November 25. So I’m planning to do a press briefing and an awareness walk around the state.”
This two-day workshop is one of the critical interventions of the joint EU-UN Spotlight Initiative which seeks to eliminate all forms of violence against violence and harmful practices through women’s movement building to work together, provide support and resources towards addressing the causes and effects of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence.
