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It was indeed a heart-rending sight at the conference hall of Halal Fountain Hotel, Kaduna State, Nigeria, when the video clips of some of the worst cases of violent behaviours against women were shown to participants of a two-day advocacy workshop on July 5.
A Lagos-based non-governmental organisation, Project Alert, organised the programme, which drew participants from civil society groups, government departments, the legal profession and the media. Although, the moderator of the session had explained to the audience what they were about to see, she did not however, warn the participants, especially those whose tear glands are located outside their eyes to get ready for the free surge of the expressive fluid. As soon as the video receiver came alive with the preamble to the documentary, it was obvious that the people were going to get more than they bargained. From the first shot in the first sequence to the credits at the end of what could aptly be described as the show of badness against fellow human beings, no one in the hall could console the other.
Only people with the heart of granite would not be frayed emotionally after watching the documentary. It showed how bestial and insensitive our societies have become and the sheer insistence of our people on cultural practices that have no iota of respect for the dignity of the human person. It was unfortunate that some animals called men would defile a being, which cannot in any sense of the word be classified as a woman. Come to think of it, what spirit would drive a man to descend so low as to consider having carnal knowledge of an under-aged child or the husband who amputated the leg of his wife on trumped-up allegation of infidelity or the police officer who chooses the other side of maintaining law and order by desecrating a teenager?
The Kaduna State commissioner for women affairs, Hajiya Safiya Tukur in her elevated position does not forget what is happening to other women who are less fortunate to attain her position. She might have been a victim of one kind of violence or the other. That was why she expressed concern over the increasing level of violence against women in all parts of the country. She said rather bleakly that on daily basis, thousands of Nigerian women are subjected to several forms of violence in the home, office, on the road, inside buses, in the market place and called for action against such unwholesome attitude on the part of the society.
For instance, 12 year-old Amina Batati may not live a normal life again. Left in the custody of her uncle probably due to the indigent nature of her parents, she was given out as a house help to a woman in Lagos. The bargain was that the youngster would be paid N1, 000 per month as salary. After the first three months, the story changed as the child was set ablaze by her mistress for allegedly stealing pieces of meats from the soup pot. Mama Adeola, as the mistress was fondly called, who would have experienced the pains of pregnancy and childbirth had the guts to bath the child with kerosene and set her on fire. Why would a child who is loved and well fed steal some pieces of meat from the soup pot or why would Mama Adeola not burn her own children with fire for petty offences?
Miss Ifeoma Ani of Ugwuoba Girls Secondary School, Orji River in Enugu State had not the slightest inclination that attending a Christian revival meeting tagged, “Adoration” at Abakaliki Road in Enugu town would negatively change the course of her life. Like her colleagues, she had high hopes for a spiritual reawakening as she set out for the Adoration Ground. During the course of the programme, the teenager and her friend decided to get some snacks in a nearby shop to satiate their hunger. On their way back, they met two policemen, a Mr. Ahmed Omonanor and another simply called Augustine, who apprehended them on alleged wandering and were given the beating of their lives. When Ifeoma’s friend who was unable to bear the bruises from the horse whip lashes bolted leaving her at the mercy of the randy policemen, not even her pleas for mercy and her tender age could make the “officers” release her. She was dragged onto a motorcycle and taken to a house opposite Abakaliki Road police station
in Enugu where she was “dealt with” carnally throughout the night. As her captors threw her out of the illegal prison the next morning, she was warned not to tell anybody about the “Operation Fire For Fire” carried out on her by the law breaking officers. Today, Ifeoma is living with the trauma of that experience even as good Nigerians are struggling to bring her defilers to justice.
Or take the case of the 45 year-old Mrs. Salome Awaraka who was allegedly killed by the convoy of one of the State governors from the South-South zone on July 7, 2002 at kilometre 5, off Bulu-Nyiama, Ave community in Delta State. She was said to be returning from a wedding ceremony in Owerri, the Imo State capital when one of the cars in the governor’s convoy in an attempt to overtake an on-coming vehicle collided head-on with a stationary Bluebird car that Salome and her friend were travelling. Salome’s relations insisted that while the governor and his aides were busy trying to save the lives of members of his entourage, their relation and her friend were left unattended until Salome died. But would helping the wounded ladies even if it was their fault, deprive the governor of his exalted office or would serving a human life constitute a breech of the governor’s protocol when leadership is about the living?
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Ibanga Isine
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