Economic Crunch Fueling Poor Parenting, Sexual And Gender Based Violence - Don.

By Lucky Isibor.

A university don, Dr.(Mrs) Olumese Olufunmilayo Fenny (Esq) has noted that the present economic crunch foisted on the nation by bad governance and irrational allocation of resources is tasking parenting and fueling Sexual and Gender Based Violence 

(S&GBV) in the country. 

The leaned law teacher made the assertion while delivering a lecture titled,

"The Quagmire in Sexual & Gender Based Violence (S&GBV): A Case Study of Nigeria's Evolving Economy and Its Impact on Sexual & Gender Based Violence", to mark the 2022 feast of  Barracuda lecture series of the National Association of Seadogs, aka Pyrates Confraternity, Edo Central Senatorial District held at Ekpoma.

Dr. Olumese regretted that technology which was supposed to improve the quality of life of our people is now being used by a larger part of the population to drive immorality and indecent acts just as she bemoaned the inability of the people to assess financial assistance to engage in micro businesses, the disappearance of the middle class, poor governance which has closed the labour market and frozen employment opportunities for the young ones adding that these have led to poor parenting, harmful cultural practices, youths involvement in fraud popularly known in local parlance as Yahoo and rituals. 

According to her, "it is true Nigeria's economy has no doubt evolved culturally, politically, technologically and socio-economically, but the nature of evolution, remains an issue for public contest having critically examined these indices, I found they impact on (S&GBV) in Nigeria, thus: 

"That; technology has led to lost / misplaced socio-cultural values by the overt copy and paste attitude of the people in the name of civilization / being sociable and people are exposed to all sorts of sexual immoralities / indecent acts. Lately are overt acts of bestiality, other indecent acts and gender expressions beyond binary. Hence, discerning assault on such persons becomes herculean regardless of its validation spectrum by Global Gender Equality Movements (GGEM) and (VAPP) Act, 2015 and the different (VAPP) State Laws.  

"That; some Nigerian cultural practices are harmful and include (harmful widowhood practices, female circumcisions & genital mutilations, denial of inheritance & succession rights, forced marriages etc) as they are all repugnant to justice, equity and good conscience, and so abuses peoples fundamental human rights as provided under Chapter IV of (CFRN) , 1999 (as amended). 

"That; economically, most State Establishments are moribund sequel to poor governance and the economy, now private driven;

That; there are difficulties in Accessing Financial Resources regardless of the worsened living standards which trigger a lot of vices like (S&GBV); 

That; there is geometric impunity in perpetuating (S&GBV) as daily reported on our media, especially since Osinachis mishap and more leverage to intentionally cause damage to lives and other peoples valuables;

"That; two distinct Upper and Lower classes have emerged and the Middle class has disappeared while children of the affluent Upper Class are often left to the care of house helps who may be predators of (S&GVB), children of the poor Lower Class are left to fend for themselves, may turn street wise and indulge in heinous crimes like assault and (S&GBV). Or worse still, become preys to perpetuators of (S&GBV) due to their economic state;

"That; sequel to poor governance, the labour market is closed to employment as the State sparingly employs and unable to pay salaries of its employees. This often leads to trade disputes like the ongoing ASUU strike;

Consequently; Parenting becomes more tasking, they are unable to meet family needs which leads to youth idleness, they may take to drug addictions and other sophisticated crimes like (Assault, S&GBV, Internet Frauds) usually accompanied by ritual killings) etc;

"That; poor governance leads to increased insecurity challenges like Bandit attacks currently experienced in Nigeria and often accompanied with killing and rape of both sexes (S&GBV);

"That; there is Gross Inadequate provision of Social Facilities like state of the art health care and shelter for the populace and in particular, victims of (S&GBV) from being further abuses."

While proferring solution to the increasing rate of Sexual and Gender Based Violence in the society, the leaned lecturer emphasised that it is wrong to assert that S&GBV affects only the female gender adding that it is real and affects the victim's sexuality, mental, physical, psychological, emotional and economic state and both the male and female gender.

"VAPP, 2015 prohibits not only all forms of violence against persons in private and public life, but provides maximum protection, effective remedies and sanctions for victims and offenders. Sexual and Gender Based Violence is real, harmful, it is on the increase and disrupts harmonious living hence, the quagmire on its cognizance and impacts beyond binary must not be ignored. 

"The State must be more proactive in implementing its management plan in collaboration with other stake holders through appropriate funding of the working committees, review of extant regulations where necessary, training and retraining of Social Welfare Protection Officers, the Police, NGO Care Givers etc for effective mitigation / possible prevention of this menace of (S&GBV) in the society. 

"Above all, there is need to adjust our mindset and restraints on harmful actions / lewd utterances capable of causing harm / injuries to others sexuality, emotions, psychology, physical and economic state. So, all hands must be on deck to mitigate / eradicate (S&GBV) and all other forms of violence in Nigeria." 

In his opening remarks, the chapter president of Edo Central Senatorial District of National Association of Seadogs, (NAS) Dr. Jude Obasanmi said the chapter was approved at the 2019 annual convention of the association held at Lekki adding that the association which is involved in the advocay for good governance and protection of the less privileged does not admit students as members for now.

He assured that the association will continue to ponder on how to achieve unity in the country.

"NAS is bent on lifting the conversation about societal ills from the mundane

level to a higher one where excellence will be the driving factor for our

collective national actions based on the principle of 'all before self'.

"We will not merely lift the radical sword of criticism, but we will also apply the healing balm of recommendations that could point to the right direction in which identified problems can be resolved amicably."