…says school girls becoming soft targets for terrorists unacceptable
By Gabriel Ewepu, Abuja
As Nigeria joins the international community to commemorate 2021 International Women’s Day, IWD, Monday, the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, CISLAC, Tuesday, demanded FG to close gender gap in all areas.
The demand was made in a statement signed by the Executive Director, CISLAC, Auwal Rafsanjani, with the subject ‘#Choosetochallenge All Forms of Inequality, and Women and Girls Exploitation’, while decrying long-standing stereotyping and discrimination of women and girls on all fronts.
The statement also expressed hope that the 2021 IWD celebration will challenge the long-standing disparities such as Gender-Based Violence (GBV); political and economic exclusion; education parity; sexploitation and maternal mortality rate which stands at 917/100,000 live births as at 2017 (World Bank, 2000-2017).
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The statement quoting the 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey, said 31 per cent of women between ages 15 and 49 have experienced physical violence while 9 per cent have experienced sexual violence as it is pertinent to note that the lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic further worsened the situation.
It added that sadly, the political commitments to addressing issues of gender inequality have been lacking in Nigeria. “The result of the lack of commitment is evident in the 2017 Global Gender Gap report where out of 144 countries, the country ranks 122nd in closing the gender gap; where one in every three Nigerian women has suffered physical and/or sexual violence.”
It also pointed out that the Nigerian political space lacks gender-focused inclusion, which globally, Nigeria currently ranks 181 out of 193 countries for female representation in parliament.
It also mentioned that for the 2019 general elections, only five of the 73 candidates who contested for the presidency were women. Also, women make up only four per cent of the elected officials after the elections. “Out of the 469 members of the national assembly, only about seven per cent are women. While of all the principal officers in the National Assembly (Senate and House of Representatives), only one is a woman. “Policymakers in Nigeria must recognize that there are developmental costs of ignoring women and denying them access to decision making and key resources.”
In the area of education parity, access to education for school-age girls in Nigeria is also low. Statistics from Nigeria’s Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) showed that males had higher enrollment numbers for basic education as of 2018 than females.
The insecurity issues in Nigeria has further exacerbated the already existing educational inequality as shown in the level of school enrollment.
“Young school girls have become soft targets for terrorists who have on several occasions adopted school girls in large numbers within the school environment with some of these girls still in captivity after years of negotiations with the government.
“While we have also seen the adoption of young schoolboys, we find it worrisome to see that usually, the boys are returned in their complete number while the same cannot be seen in the adoption of girls. This cannot be taken away from the kind of sexual exploitation which these girls may face.”
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The statement reads in part, “We are concerned further about the issue of sexual exploitation (sexploitation) which is fast becoming a norm in schools, workplaces and at the domestic front. It is no longer news that people who are saddled with the responsibility of grooming, imparting knowledge and providing supervisory roles in workplaces and at home have resorted to sexually exploiting women and girls.
“This year, 2021, CISLAC #ChooseToChallenge the following: We #ChooseToChallenge the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) and other relevant government agencies to prosecute reported cases of GBV; We #ChooseToChallenge political parties to amend their constitutions and make deliberate efforts for inclusive party decision making as well as an emergence into elective positions for women.
“We #ChooseToChallenge the legislature to amend all relevant laws to promote inclusion of women in decision making; We #ChooseToChallenge the government to fully implement the Safe School Initiative to guarantee the safety of school children, especially the girl child; We #ChooseToChallenge relevant authorities to provide the enabling environment for reporting cases of sexual exploitation and prosecute reported cases; We #ChooseToChallenge state governments to adopt and implement the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act of 2015 into their state laws.
“We #ChooseToChallenge the government to fully implement the 35% affirmative action at all levels; We #ChooseToChallenge the dysfunctional and poor access to health care for women which leads to maternal mortality and malnutrition.”
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