By Betty Anyanwu- Akeredolu
Nigerian Newspapers, on August 14, 2019, were awash with reports that Betty Anyanwu- Akeredolu, wife of Ondo State Governor, summoned what was tagged ‘a million-man protest march against the Nigerian Army. A randy Army Lance Corporal had raped a 300-level female student of the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, on July 31 at a military checkpoint along Akungba-Ikare road. I led the said protest to the state Commissioner of Police to add force to the matter for the obvious reasons. The randy soldier was dismissed from the Army and subsequently jailed for the offence.
Sometimes in April 2020, a pregnant, middle-aged woman was said to have hired a motorcycle rider from Ajagba, in Irele local government area, to a nearby farm settlement to purchase kegs of palm oil. The cyclist took the pregnant woman to another route under the pretence that he was going to help her get cheap palm oil. He drove the woman into a lonely path, suddenly stopped by the road and dragged her into the bush. He strangled the woman, dispossessed her of her mobile phone, the sum of N150,000 and raped her until she became unconscious. The poor woman was later found and helped by farmers; too weak and was already injured while struggling to crawl to the road. She regained consciousness after 48 hours and lost the pregnancy as a result of excessive bleeding.
The dust had barely settled when a 20-year-old girl from Owo town, in a viral video released online, opened up that her own biological father was having sexual intercourse with her. The girl said the sexual act with her father began a long time ago. Even now, the incestuous father has since been arrested and remanded at Olokuta Medium Prison in Akure while he is being tried by the court.
I would not bore you with sweeping statistics on the rate and frequency of sexual and gender-based violence. However, the sad incidences mentioned are only a few of many cases of violations that happened around us.
As First Lady, I have lost count of the number of cases of violence that I have received. I cannot possibly say exactly the number of rape cases involving children and women since we came on board. The effect of gory pictures I have repeated sighted from reports of physical violence is better imagined.
These cases have not only been prevalent, but they have also been persistent. To this extent, we have a warning in the words of an English-born American author, Jane Green. As Jane puts it: “You don’t have to wait for someone to treat you badly repeatedly. All it takes is once, and if they get away with that once, if they know they can treat you like that, then it sets the pattern for the future.” James’ words may seem to have aptly portrayed the situation in our state, over the years, with respect to violence against persons. Perhaps, we allowed ourselves to be treated badly and repeatedly without consequence, and thus set a bad pattern. But the good news is that the Akeredolu-led government found the situation intolerable.
The Governor, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN, also found the courage to, on the 14th day of July 2021, sign the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Bill into law. At this rate, Ondo state became one of the states with robust and operative VAPP laws; but more importantly, the government has successfully put in place a clear policy framework for addressing cases of sexual and gender abuse, violence and exploitation suffered by men and women alike.
Under the Law, violence is defined as any act or attempted act which causes or may cause any person physical, sexual, psychological, verbal, emotional or economic harm whether this occurs in private or public life, in peacetime or in conflict situations. It is also trite to note that the scope of the law covers all persons, male or female. Hence the law does not discriminate. It applies to both public and private spaces and provides maximum protection and effective remedies for victims, punishment of offenders and other related concerns.
Let me stress, however, that it is not enough to have the VAPP Act signed into law, it must be effectively implemented if we want violence curbed and eventually stopped. Awareness must be rigorously created to deter people from engaging in violence. Offenders should be seen to be prosecuted using the provisions of the VAPP laws, victims should be compensated and a register opened for convicted sexual offenders and made accessible to the public according to the tenets of the law.
Therefore, as critical stakeholders, you have pivotal roles to play in strengthening the implementation of this law in order to halt the ugly spate of violence. It is to that effect that building the capacity of law enforcers is in order and becomes all-important for better understanding of the character and scope of the relevant laws. Capacity building is a must-do in order to arm government actors with the requisite competence to collect, analyse and document data on violence against persons, and strictly monitor the enforcement of laws.
Going forward, it is muchly anticipated that the lessons from this workshop would greatly help in enabling and empowering our law enforcement personnel to make the laws work accordingly and to rid our space of the woes of violence against persons. As I profusely thank the Ondo State Agency Against Gender-Based Violence for putting this together, I would leave you with the words of another illustrious author, Christine Mason Miller.
Miller said: “At any given moment, you have the power to say this is not how the story is going to end.” I am optimistic that we have the power to say this is not how the story of sexual and gender-based violence will end in Ondo State. But are we ready to match our words with actions? The answer lies in what we do with the take-home from this workshop.
