It
was indeed very horrible and in fact a gory sight watching the video clips in a
social media of the beastly act of the wicked men who masqueraded as members of
the Vigilante group, engaged to secure the market in Ejigbo, against the poor
wife of a wine tapper and Nike, her step daughter, in February 2013, on a mere
allegation of stealing pepper in a market. This incident again reminds us that:
1.,
Nigeria is a failed or failing state incapable of providing food, security and
other basic necessities of life, to its highly impoverished citizens.
2.
That the Nigeria police and in fact the other security agencies, are
ineffective when it comes to responding to crisis, averting violence and
nipping crime in the bud. This is notwithstanding the highly improved and
fabulous allocation from successive budgets.
3. That as a nation, we are suffering from bad
leadership and bankruptcy of followership, as shown in the delay from February
to December 2013, before the incident becomes public knowledge.
Before now, men were not perceived
to be as heinous as they had exhibited in the Ejigbo saga. The stripping of
women naked in the open market and the insertion of broken bottles in their
vagina, an ordeal that took about one whole hour, where all sort of Special
Police and combined Team of Police/Army Patrols are supposed to be stationed,
are not only murderous, but crude, brutal, disgusting and very excruciating.
We need to thank Dr. Joe Odumakin and
her NGO and in fact all other NGOs that brought the incident to the open and
challenging all the three arms of government to ensure justice against the
strange, horrific and emerging form of violence. However, the press statement
granted later by Hon Kehinde Bamgbetan, Chairman, Ejigbo Local Council
Development Area (LCDA), Lagos, left no one in doubt that justice may be far
from Nike and her step mother. According to him, he had reviewed the incident
with the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) and it may be difficult to make any
impact considering that the crime took place nine months earlier and that the
victims may have relocated.
One would have expected the DPO or the
Commissioner of Police to refute the claim and assure Nigerians that the police
would rise to the occasion and unravel the terrorists. The incident may just go
to the archive like the case of Franca Ogbu who was bathed with acid by her boy
friend in 2010 and Chika Egbo, the 25 year old student of Enugu College of
Education, whose fiancé poured acid and defaced her face. Or the widely
publicised case of Yerima and his marriage to an under-age girl or that of Mrs
Chime against her husband who is still a serving governor, in the country.
It is the hope of every well-meaning
people to see that the criminals are arrested, prosecuted and sentenced. In
other places where government shows no strong interest in matters of public
concern, private investigators usually spring into action and unravel the case.
In the case at hand, apart from the solidarity by discreet and un-publicized
condemnation shown by public, only Janet Fashani, a New York based Attorney and
her partners, show financial commitment, by offering N25,000 for information
that can lead to the arrest of the culprits of the Ejigbo violence. It is not
that Hon Kehinde Bamgbetan cannot afford more, but the problem is, if he
insists that the culprits must be brought to book, who are those that will
ensure his re-election bid or future political careers? Majority of those who
would be very happy by the arrest of the vigilante men don’t vote. They cannot
afford to languish under the scorching sun only for the politicians to upturn
the ballots.
So the problem here borders on lack
of political will to do the right thing. It goes beyond problem of masculinity
or feminism. It has to do with state apathy and deficiencies in the execution
of law and order. In fact, violence against women is driven by complex
socio political factors. Patriarchal ideas about men and belief that
this is indeed a man’s world, is not only held by men, but also women.
In some cases, raping a woman is seen as a means of asserting power and energy
and show that man is stronger.
Due to this, there is need for an effective,
very holistic method and social revolution to readjust the wide conception of
feminity, redefine masculinity, empower women and create a Welfare Centre at
every police station or Local Government Areas or Wards, to manage and report
of all sorts of violence against women including domestic violence, stalking,
dating violence, sexual assault and the rest.Dr. Joe Odumakin’s NGO and other
NGOs should be strengthened to be able to do beyond publicizing human right
abuses.
In Philippines, The Bathaluman Crisis Centre
Foundation, established in 1991, doesn’t only publicize violations; it helps
women victims and survivors by providing psycho social support services, group
counseling and Referral Centres, to deal with physical and emotional trauma of
victims.
The Nigerian government should be
more challenged to combat violation of rights of women. In US, government set
up the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW). The OVW Act, enacted in 1995,
renewed in 2005 and 2013, enabled OVW to reduce violence against women,
administer justice and strengthen services for victims of violence against
women. Through government funding, OVW has so far awarded federal grants of
about $4.7 billion to communities across the United States.
Furthermore, Nigeria as a country
needs to tap maximally from the succour provided by International Organizations
and multilateral agencies such as the Amnesty International, World Health
Organization (WHO) and United Nations that has declared 25th November of every
year, as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against women.
While the police needs to evolve a more result oriented method to arrest and
investigate violence cases against women, the prosecutors and the lawyers should
co-operate with the courts to seek redress for the victims of violence against
women.
Francis Ogunbowale
