By Dickson Omobola

A non-governmental organisation, Boys Quarter Africa, BQA, has lamented the neglect of the male gender in Nigeria, and warned that if not rectified, it may have far-reaching implications on society.

A Family Life practitioner, Mr Gbemiga Soname, said this at the BQA Relaunch and Release of Five-year Impact Report held in Lagos.

Soname, in his address, titled: ‘The Man Crisis: Neglecting Boys Threatens Families and Societies,’ said in 2022, only about 4.3 per cent of Nigerian men aged 25 and above had attained a bachelor’s degree compared to 14.2 per cent in 2021.

He said: “Neglect could be done willfully or unknowingly. You could neglect someone without knowing you are neglecting the person, and you could affect it purposefully.

“So, there are parents not showing up for their children unknowingly. And there could be those who do not also show up knowingly. Globally, men are more likely to die by suicide than women. In South Africa, for example, the male suicide rate is five times higher than that of female.

“A study analysed in Nigeria from 2010 to 2019 says that 80.6 per cent of reported suicide cases have to do with financial constraints and marital conflicts being common contributing factors. One major reason why single men don’t want to marry is because of financial constraints. That same situation is what gets men to commit suicide.”

Meanwhile, Founder of BQA, Solomon Ayodele, who said the future was for both male and female, added that to create a future that accommodates both genders, there was a need to build a bridge between what our men understand and what our boys should know.

According to him, in the last five years, the NGO had done over 100 projects across five countries in Africa to ensure the growth of men.

Ayodele said: “All of the complaints, the issues, the challenges, the whining about the masculine tribe require proper attention. This is what we are starting with, to say that we want to break the stereotypical barrier in the minds of our boys.

“To let them know that boys can cry, boys can be emotional, boys can be vulnerable, boys can wear pink. And also to let the world know that boys are being molested. The things girls go through, boys go through them.”

On the reason for releasing its five-year Impact Report, the Founder of BQA said it was the right tool to spread the word and to let people know that there was a need to create a bridge between those who feel caring for the male gender was an extreme narrative and those who see its importance.

He said: “For BQA, there are a couple of things we are doing in the coming days. We are spreading our signature Boys Too Campaign across more states in Nigeria and more countries in Africa. At the campaign, we will talk to people about the abuse of the boy child.

“So, we say rape is rape, irrespective of the gender. We are also spreading our impact project at correctional homes. It is called the Extreme Project. Through this project, we are engaging with boys in the remand home, correctional centres to help them exchange their pain for comfort.

“We are also engaging the informal sector through one of our initiatives. We want to bring in boys and men to become allies towards ending violence against boys, against women and girls.

“Finally, we are creating a more structured safe space for men through our Guyversation Project, where we want men to know that it’s okay for them to express their mind. It is okay for them to be down. It’s okay for men to feel bad. It’s okay for men to go through mental issues. We want to go through a process of destigmatization so that we can let men know that you can speak up. You can share what you feel.”