By Dayo Johnson

Over 80 million women and girls are victims of gender-based violence, The Executive Director of Women Advocate Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC), Dr Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, has lamented.

Akiyode-Afolabi, said this during a capacity building for female traditional rulers and female market women in Akure, Ondo state capital, over the weekend.

According to her,  ” Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG), a major component of GBV, is a global act that has been on the increase and affects one out of every three females

“The World Bank reports that 35% of females globally have been sexually or physically abused by their partners and non-partners

” ln general, over 80 million women and girls are victims of gender-based violence. The United Nations Population Fund study found out that 28% of Nigerian women aged 25-29 have been victims of physical violence since age 15.

” Domestic violence is common to all communities in Nigeria, and it is mostly associated with a woman’s action or failure to act”, she further identified saying the goal of the project is to reduce the occurrence of violence against women and girls in the southwest, Nigeria as the project is currently running in Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun and Ekiti States.

The Executive Director, lamented the increasing rate of sexual and domestic violence and exploitation on women and girls across Nigeria despite efforts by the government and stakeholders to check the threat.

She noted that despite the campaigns to end gender-based violence, failure to act or take action was responsible for the increasing rate of sexual and domestic violence. 

Akiyode-Afolabi explained that domestic violence was common to all communities in Nigeria, and said the capacity building programme was put in place for female traditional rulers and female market women to enhance engagement, capacity and accountability of community leaders and gatekeepers, including women agency, religious and traditional rulers.

While noting  that the project was with a support from Ford Foundation, she said the participants have influential power to create awareness on laws against violence on women and girls in the society.

“Women also often suffer violence due to not meeting up with some socially accepted standard of behavior.

“For this reason, have we called on you female traditional leaders (Iyalode) and leaders of market women associations (Iyaloja) in Ondo state to discuss the burning issue of sexual and gender-based violence and how the association and the council can address this vice in our communities. 

” We are to  build new ways and initiatives that deal with and confront cultural patterns of violence, dominance and power, while also empowering women and girls,” she stated.

Akiyode-Afolabi, who disclosed that the project was in collaboration with the State Ministry of Women Affairs and the Restoration of the Dignity of Womanhood(ROTDOW), said that violence against women was a violation of human rights.

She added that violence was a major impediment to achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.

“Such violence harms women, their families and communities socially, politically and economically. 

“It is now widely accepted that strategies to end violence against women and girls (VAWG) must include work with men and boys in other to identify promising approaches to ending VAWG as part of the need for a multi-sectoral responses to the ending of violence against women and girls,” she said

Also speaking at the ceremony, the state Commissioner for Women Affairs, Dr Adebunmi Osadahun, commended  the WARDC’s Executive Director for her initiative and resolve to end violence against women and girls in Nigerian society.

Osadahun urged female folks to have unity of purpose in defeating all forms of violence against women and girls, while calling on parents to stop showing preferential treatment for male children over female ones.  

While advising women to learn to be creative and  independent and avoid relying on men for their survival, she asked them also use their initiatives and knowledge to make headway in life. 

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