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By Ebunoluwa Sessou

Religious leaders, traditional rulers and leaders have been urged to distance themselves from allowing justice to prevail when cases of Sexual and Gender Based Violence, SGBV are reported in their communities, saying constant interference allows penetrators to commit more crimes in the society.

This was the major discussion at the Sixth Quarterly Meetings with Civil Society Organisation in Oshodi/Isolo, Ojo Local Governments and Monitor Progress on SGBV Cases Management organized by Women’s Right and Health Project, WRAHP.

WRAHP with the support from European Union, EU-ACT implemented a-12- month project titled, Building Capacity of Civil Society Organisations to promote uptake of justice related social services in Ojo and Oshodi/Isolo local government areas of Lagos State.

The project, Agents for Citizen Driven Transformation was targeted at training CSOs to effectively respond and refer to incidences of abuse in their various communities. It started in August 2021 to September 2022.

While challenging the traditional rulers and leader as well as religious leaders to be proactive in ensuring cases of Sexual and Gender Based Violence, SGBV are taken to its logical conclusion, European Union Spokesperson, Lagos Chapter , Adesola Afariogun disclosed that the mission of EU is geared towards eradicating SGBV in Nigeria.

On sustainability, Afariogun said, the EU engaged WRAHP which hitherto trained other community CSOs in their various clusters. “We have trained 20 CSOs to carry out the work. We have brought relevant stakeholders on board. We have strengthened their capacity on how survivors can access justice without discrimination”, he added.

Some of the stakeholders, especially the CSOs who shared experiences during the 12months training lamented that cases of SGBV within the community have always been frustrated by the interference of traditional rulers and leaders as well as religious leaders.

According to them, “Religious leaders and traditional rulers prefer to settle cases of SGBV within their community rather than allowing Law to take its place. As much as they support us in the cause, they also frustrate SGBV cases from going to court.

“This singular act according to the CSOs allows perpetrators to walk freely on the streets and even commit more crime.

Speaking on the project, Director, WRAHP/Ireti Resource Centre, Bose Ironsi disclosed that, WRAHP has developed the capacities of the CSOs with particular attention to the vulnerable people in the society on issues of Gender Based Violence, promotion of women’s right and instilling leadership abilities in community women and girls.

According to her, “Mapping of 40 CSOs, training of 38 representatives of 20 CSOs, Quarterly review meeting at different local governments, printing and dissemination of 2000 copies of Lagos State Protection against Domestic Violence Law 2007, fliers, process map and infograhics.

“All the efforts put in place into achieving the goals is yielding positive results as there is increased number of reporting about 70 percent survivors of sexual and gender based violence received psychological support.

Chairman, Lagos Community Youth Development Initiative/ Community Development Association, Ojo, Moses Adedeji, in his reaction, advised religious leaders, traditional rulers and leaders to see SGBV as a project that should be community driven thereby ensuring victims get justice at all cost.

Meanwhile, Bella Akhagba, Founder, Bella Foundation for Child and Maternal Care highlighted some of the advantages of the training including capacity building, increased in the number of case reporting, and sensitization. She however lamented funding as a major constraint to getting cases of SGBV to its logical conclusion.

Oluwatade Titus, Director, Estabol Institute for Environmental Watch also applauded the organizers of the training but lamented that most of the challenges encountered emanate from the community that try to manipulate cases. “Some of them do not know the rights of SGBV victims”, he stated.

One of the parents, Zainab Bello, said, “Parents should monitor what their children watch at home. There are lots of cartoon programmes that promote domestic and gender based violence. Parents should ensure close monitoring of the videos, games among others platforms that promotes SGBV.

“Even if children are given assignments in school and they need to use the internet, it is our duty as parents to help them. Children nowadays are too much of an internet freak. We must caution them and model them properly to be great ambassadors “, she advised.