Written by: Don Okereke (Twitter: @donokereke)
Wanton Abduction of Women, Children By
Boko Haram Militants
On
the night of April 14-15, 2014, Boko Haram militants brazenly abducted plausibly
276 school girls in one swoop from Government Secondary School Chibok, Borno
State. A handful of the girls supposedly wriggled free while a chunk of them
are still under Boko Haram’s captivity. Thanks to Social media and the #BringBackOurGirls
campaign, this atrocious incident generated global awareness and outrage.
Nearly two years down the line, the Chibok girls’ abduction has defied the dragnet
of Nigeria’s security, intelligence agencies and that of other advanced
countries.
Apart from the Chibok School girls
abduction, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) asserts that ‘’about 400 women and children, including at
least 300 elementary school students were also abducted by Boko Haram militants
from the town of Damasak in Borno State between March 13 and 15, 2015’’. HRW
recounts that the Damasak abduction is the largest documented school abduction
by Boko Haram militants even though it drew less public attention and outrage
than that of the Chibok girls. The
Nigerian government is obligated by domestic as well as international human
rights law to adopt measures to protect vulnerable persons - especially
children, women from child and human rights abuses. As the #BringBackOurGirls
campaign approaches two years, the best succor the Nigerian government will give
to the parents of the abducted Chibok school girls and those abducted from
Damask, is to secure their release. No stone must be left unturned in ensuring
the release of Nigerians in Boko Haram’s captivity.
Global Perspective: Violence Against Women Could Cost
the United States $500 Billion Annually
Violence against women is not
synonymous with Nigeria. According to a new study
released by the McKinsey Global Institute, ‘’violence is one of the principal
factors holding American women back’’. McKinsey researchers found that ‘’1 out
every 2 women in the United States has been a victim of sexual violence while 1
in every 3 has experienced violence from an intimate partner’’. The latter figure
is consistent with the average in 95 other countries McKinsey studied. Apart
from its emotional impact on women, McKinsey says violence against women takes
enormous financial toll on the United States. ‘’In total, violence against
women costs about $4.9 billion in direct costs including medical costs (70% of
the total), lost productivity (15%), and lost earnings over women’s lifetimes
(15%)’’. Kweilin Ellingrud, lead author of the McKinsey report
says, ‘’if you take into account intangible factors like pain, suffering, and
worsened quality of life, the total cost to the United States could be closer
to $500 billion’’.
Cases In Nigeria: Ose Oruru And
Ifeasinachi Ani Abduction Angle
Sometime
in 2015, one Yunusa Dahiru (alias Yellow) reportedly abducted 13 year old Miss Ese Oruru
from Bayelsa state (South-South) and took her to Kano state (North-West)
Nigeria, a journey that spans 824 Kilometres. It took the intervention of
activists and the social media to bring this incident to the front burner by
which time Miss Ese, now 14, was said to be pregnant and converted to Islam. At
about the same time, a tragic tale emerged of how a 14 year old Igbo girl, Miss
Ifesinachi Ani was
also abducted from Abuja and taken to Maiduguri and subsequently to Zaria
(Kaduna State) where she was purportedly converted to Islam and married off.
The aforementioned scenarios which are a tip of the iceberg reawakened the entrenched
but subtle practice of random abduction, proselytization and forceful marriage
of underage girls in Nigeria. Recall that prior to the above incidents, one Miss
Charity Uzoechina, daughter of a pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God
(RCCG) was a couple of years ago, proselytized, snatched up from her school - Federal
Polytechnic Bida, Niger State and allegedly ensconced at the palace of an Emir
- Etsu Nupe.
Child Abuse, Life
Expectancy And Plight of The Nigerian Child
According to the World Bank, Nigeria’s life expectancy is tenably 52.11 years. To a large extent this
dwindling life expectancy is a function of hurdles such as unrelenting child abuse,
abduction, trafficking, exploitation, sexploitation, female genital mutilation,
child marriages, child labour, malnutrition, communicable diseases amongst
others confronting and stifling the Nigerian child. While many children in
parts of the country are increasingly deployed as suicide bombers scores are
out of school not because they are academically deficient but because they have
to eke out their parents’ income. The ramifications, statistics of child abuse
in Nigeria is mind-boggling: A recent report submitted to the African
Union (AU) on the rights and welfare of the Nigerian child revealed that about
6,000 children are in prison and various detention centres across Nigeria. The United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
reckons that as at September, 2015, about 1.4 million children were displaced
by the ongoing Boko Haram insurgency in North-East Nigeria. Also in 2015, about 450 children reportedly died of malnutrition in 28 Internally Displaced Persons’ camps in Borno state in 2015. In
what was tagged Nigeria’s silent crises,
‘’each year, no fewer than one million Nigerian
children die before their fifth birthday’’; malnutrition is said to contribute to
nearly half of these deaths. Similarly, the Country Director of UNICEF in
Nigeria, Ms. Jean Gough sounds off that ‘’no fewer than 10.5 million Nigerian
children are out of school’’. In another report, the UNICEF paints a grim picture of children’s lives in Nigeria.
It says that 6 out of 10 children experience some form of violence before they
turn 18, with half of them experiencing physical violence. Also prevalent in
Nigeria, is a widespread phenomenon of trafficking of children and women for
the purpose of domestic service, prostitution and other forms of exploitative
labour. Nigeria also featured prominently amongst the top ten worst countries
for child labour while Year 2000 report of the National Bureau of Statistics
(NBS) asserts that more than 15 million Nigerian children are
victims of child labour. If the aforementioned information is anything to go by,
it is obvious that the Nigerian child is endangered. Some analysts say this is
not the best of time to be born in Nigeria?
Statistics of Child Rape,
Sexual Abuse in Nigeria
According to http://www.kidsfirstinc.org/preventing-abuse,
1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys in the United States would have been sexually abused
by their eighteenth birthday and only 1 in 10 children report the abuse
themselves. The website went further to say that, ‘’child abusers are very
often "experts" at emotional manipulation of children, gaining their
trust well in advance of the actual abuse’’. In Nigeria, there’s no coherent or
clear-cut statistics of child sexual abuse or rape. Due to under-reportage and
lasting stigma, accounted incidents of child sexual abuse in Nigeria are only a
tip of the iceberg. However to give us an idea, a snap poll conducted by the NOIPolls Limited in partnership with Stand To
End Rape Initiative, STER, exposed the heightened prevalence of child rape,
sexual abuse in Nigeria. The poll revealed that almost 7 in 10 adult Nigerians,
representing 67 percent, think there is a high prevalence of child rape in the
country, while 3 in 10, i.e. 31percent, personally know of a victim of child
rape in their neighborhood. The Executive Director of
Women Aid Collective, Mrs. R. Ezeilo, said 51 minors were sexually abused or raped in Enugu State between April 2014 and August 2014. According to
her, the cases include 30 rape cases, four attempted rapes, 10 sexual assaults,
37 defilements and 15 other cases of domestic violence, adding that the cases
emanated from 14 local government areas of the state. Similarly, in 2013, a
pathologist, Dr. Jude Uchendu of the Central Hospital, Benin, in Edo State,
said the hospital recorded no fewer than 80 cases of rape between March and mid-October. In the Niger Delta, one in ten
women surveyed by CLEEN Foundation said she was either raped or survived a rape
attempt in 2012. This means that more women were raped in the Niger Delta than
any other part of the Nigeria in the same year.
Prevalence of Child Marriages in Nigeria
What
Is Child Marriage? The International Women's Health Coalition defines Child marriage as marriages that take
place before age 18. In 1979, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women submitted that child marriage is illegal. Similarly,
‘’the United Nations and other international agencies declared that child
marriage violates human rights and children’s rights. The Universal Declaration
of Human Rights states that individuals must enter marriage freely with full
consent and must be at full age’’. More often than not, child marriage is a function
of poverty, tradition, ignorance, religion and religion. Interestingly, child
marriage is not just a Nigerian problem but a global issue. According to the United Nations, about 39,000
girls under the age of 18 are married each day. The United Nations estimates
that, plausibly 140 million girls will marry between
2011 and 2020. According to Michelle Bachelet, M.D, Executive
Director of UN Women, “no girl should be robbed of her childhood, her education
and health, and her aspirations. Yet today millions of girls are denied their
rights each year when they are married as child brides”.
Nigeria’s Child Rights Act, a
Paper-Tiger?
Whereas the United Nations
Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) happed in 1989, Nigeria became a
signatory to the Convention in 1991. A draft Child’s Right Bill was passed by
Nigeria’s National Assembly in 2003 which subsequently became the Child’s
Rights Act (CRA) 2003 after erstwhile President Obasanjo assented to it. The
Child Rights Act codified all national and international laws pertaining to
children into a single piece of legislation which stipulates inter alia: the rights and
responsibilities of children and duties, obligations of parents, governments
and institutions. According to the Child
Rights Act (CRA), a child is someone who has not attained the age of 18 years.
The CRA categorically asserts that a child’s best interest shall be paramount in
all considerations. According to Geoffrey Njoku, UNICEF Communication
Specialist in Nigeria, ‘’Children’s issues are rights issues which are covered
by body of laws to protect children and ensure that their rights are
realized’’. Mr. Njoku went further to assert that, ‘’domestication of the Child
Right Act (CRA) is key to our development and it is key to our existence
because without children, we will not have children in 50 years’ time’’. The
Nigerian government is urged to adhere to Sections 18
(1) of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria which declares that government shall
direct its policy towards ensuring that there are equal and adequate educational
opportunities at all levels. Similarly, section 18 (3) of the Constitution submits
that government shall strive to eradicate illiteracy, and to this end
government shall as and when practicable provide (a) free compulsory and
universal primary education; (b) free secondary education; (c) free university
education.
Why We Must STOP Child Marriages, Sexploitation
Ending
child marriages meshes with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's ‘’Every
Woman Every Child Initiative’’ and efforts to attain Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) 3, 4 and 5 to promote gender equality, to reduce child mortality
and to improve maternal health. The campaign against child marriages is reasonable
since child marriage preserves the cycles of abject poverty, poor health,
illiteracy, violence and impinges on the child prides’ overall progress and prospect.
Globally, child marriage is increasingly acknowledged as a violation of the
rights of the girl child because in addition to the foregoing:
v It
increases their risk of exposure to domestic and sexual violence, medical
conditions such as obstetric fistula (otherwise called vaginal fistula), STI’s
such as HIV amongst others
v It
exposes the girl child to the risks of too-early pregnancy, child bearing, and
motherhood before they are physically and emotionally prepared
v Child
marriage effectively hinders education of the girl child
v It
prevents or limits their chances of acquiring vocational and life skills
Recommendations: How To Stop Child Abuse,
Exploitation in Nigeria
1.
Couples must be guarded on the number
of children they bear and must not expect children aged 12 to 17 to fend, provide
for themselves and their parent.
2.
The 36 State House of Assemblies in Nigeria
are hereby implored to domesticate, ratify extant provisions of the Child
Rights Act so as to make it effective, legally enforceable.
3.
Consistent with the recommendations of the United Nations Fourth World
Conference on Women, the 3 tiers of government in Nigeria must
strive to eliminate all forms of discrimination against the girl-child, eliminate
negative cultural attitudes and practices against girls, promote and protect
the rights of the girl-child.
4.
The Nigerian government must do away with
all manner of discrimination against girls in education, skills development and
training; eliminate the economic exploitation of child labour and protect young
girls at work.
5.
Government at the federal and state
levels, corporate organizations and philanthropists should provide scholarship structures
to encourage access to girl-child education.
6.
The Nigerian Senate should
revisit the recently shut out ‘’Gender Parity and Prohibition of Violence
Against Women Bill’’ which seeks equal rights for women in marriage, education
and employment gender equality in marriage.
7.
Girls who are already married should be
encouraged to further their education, access to employment and life skills,
sexual and reproductive health information and services such as HIV prevention.
8.
The Miss Ese Oruru and Ifesinachi Ani
abduction cases MUST not be swept under the carpet like the famed case of
Yerima marrying a minor. Commensurate punishment must be meted out to serve as
deterrence to would-be child abusers, paedophiles and exploiters. Explains why
it is dangerous to set a precedence of impunity.
How To Protect Children
From Sexual Assault
The following recommendations on ways to prevent or protect
children from sexual assault are derived from the United States-based RAINN - Rape,
Abuse and Incest National Network website:
1. Be involved in the child’s
life: Being actively involved in a child’s life
can make warning signs of child sexual abuse more obvious and help the child
feel more comfortable coming to you if something isn’t right. Take action to
protect your child if you suspect or hear causes for concer.
2. Demonstrate interest in a
child’s day-to-day lives. Ask children what they
did during the day and who they did it with. Who did they sit with at
lunchtime? What games did they play after school? Did they enjoy themselves?
3. Get to know the people in
your child’s life. Know who your child is
spending time with, including other children and adults. Ask your child about
the kids they go to school with, the parents of their friends, and other people
they encounter daily.
4. Pick caregivers, school
carefully. Whether it’s a babysitter, a new school,
or an afterschool activity, do some due diligence before selecting a caregiver,
school for your ward.
5. Talk about the media. Incidents of sexual violence are frequently covered by the news
and portrayed in television shows. Ask your child questions about this coverage
to start a conversation. Questions like, “Have you ever heard of this happening
before?” or “What would you do if you were in this situation?” can signal to
your child that these are important issues they need to talk with you. Learn
more about talking to your kids about sexual assault.
6. Know the silent, warning
signs. Become familiar with the warning signs of
child sexual abuse, and notice any changes with your child, no matter how
small. Whether it’s happening to your child or a child you know, you have the
potential to make a big difference in that person’s life by stepping in.
7. Encourage children to
speak up: When someone knows that their voice will
be heard and taken seriously, it gives them the courage to speak up when
something isn’t right. You can start having these conversations with your
children as soon as they begin using words to talk about feelings or emotions.
8. Teach your child about
redlines: Let your child know that no one has the
right to touch them or make them feel uncomfortable. It is important to let
your child know that their body is their own. Just as importantly, remind your
child that they do not have the right to touch someone else if that person does
not want to be touched.
9. Teach your child how to
talk about their bodies: From an early age, teach
your child the names of their body parts. Teaching a child these words gives
them the ability to come to you when something is wrong.
10.
Spend time with your child: Set time aside to spend with your child where they have your
undivided attention. Let your child know that they can come to you if they have
questions or if someone is talking to them in a way that makes them feel uncomfortable.
11.
Assure the child s/he won’t
get in trouble: Many perpetrators use threats
or cajoling to make children keep quiet about abuse. Remind your child
frequently that they will not get in trouble for telling you things, no matter
what they need to say. When they do come to you, follow through on this promise
and avoid punishing them for speaking up.
Conclusion:
Having
espoused the lifelong psychological and medical adverse effects of child abuse,
forced early marriage, early pregnancy, obstetric fistula, female genital
mutilation, rape, child trafficking, abduction, exploitation, gender based
violence (GBV) amongst others, common sense and superior argument entails we
jettison aforementioned practices in Nigeria. We must jettison archaic practices,
cultural or religious belief systems that undermine the wellbeing of our
children, women and humanity.
Written by: © Don
Okereke
Follow Don on
Twitter: @DonOkereke
******************************************************************************************
Bio:
Don Okereke is a proven security analyst/consultant passionate about writing,
advocacy, humanity, mentoring, researching, gathering and disseminating
information. He is innovative, information technology, Social media-savvy and has
over 17 years combined Military (Air Force), Private Security, entrepreneurial,
management skills/experience distilled from Nigeria and the United Kingdom.
No comments:
Post a Comment