Domestic Abuse: Women at Risk Do Not Know Their Worth—Ogechukwu Giovanna Onoh
.….call on Sen. Mrs. Oluremi Tinubu, Minister of Women Affairs, to hold a campaign to sensitize vulnerable women on the effect of domestic violence.
By Onome Naomi
An advocate for women and vulnerable persons Ogechukwu Giovanna Onoh address women’s over-forbearance of physical abuse by perpetrators, especially from their partner (the husband, fiancé, or boyfriend), by ensuring the abuser is apprehended by law according to the Domestic Violence Act.
Violence against women simply means all acts perpetrated against women that could cause physical, sexual, psychological, and economic harm, including the threat to take such acts or to undertake the imposition of arbitrary restrictions on or deprivation of fundamental freedoms in private or public life in peacetime and during situations of armed conflicts or war.
Domestic violence is a pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship that is used by one partner to gain or maintain power and control over another intimate partner. Domestic violence can be physical, sexual, emotional, economic, or psychological actions or threats of actions that influence another person. This includes any behaviors that intimidate, manipulate, humiliate, isolate, frighten, terrorize, coerce, threaten, blame, hurt, injure, or wound someone.
According to Oge, domestic violence is vastly spreading its reach in Nigeria as a result of tolerance and silence by the victims for fear of societal backlash. Meanwhile, most women are yet to understand and identify their worth, which enhances unrestricted abuses by the perpetrator to commit more harm in confidence that the victim/survivor does not have the right backings to make a case out of the battering due to ignorance of the law; a woman should be purposeful, she said.
In reference to stories of domestic violence issues in the public space via social media stories, Oge cited situations arising from physical abuse as she recapped on the trending story of a uniformed personnel who allegedly beat his wife to death. The story also says that during a rift between the now dead couple, both husband and wife inflicted violent injuries on each other, leading to their deaths. In another scenario, a husband cuts his wife’s palm off during an argument, and information has it that they are a newly wedded couple whose marriage ceremony trended on social media. Yet another situation is a husband’s fury during an argument resulting in a hammer to the head of his wife and death.
Oge further said,
“Domestic violence can be attributed to both the elites and the non-elites in the society; it is fast becoming a norm.”
“During my research, it is found that most women are to be blamed for their predicament for refusing to speak up; moreover, women do not pay attention to red flags in the course of their relationship before marriage, and this is crucial. A lady who notices that her boyfriend is violent will rather forgive him at the slightest plea than walk away from the relationship in the belief that when they get married, the man will not exhibit the violent trait.”
“In some other situations, women who stay in an abusive relationship do so for fear of the unknown; they are afraid to leave a relationship and start afresh with another. On the other hand, economic reasons (finance) are also a factor for victims to remain in an abusive relationship.”
“During an interview with some women who suffer physical assault from their abusive partners, they expressed the interest to leave their marriages only if they have the financial means to survive after divorce. Moreover, some of these vulnerable women already have children, which further relegates the decision to leave their marriages unless they are financially capable of providing the basics for these kids if they have to leave with them.”
In conclusion, Oge noted that economic and financial reasons are a challenge for several vulnerable women who intend to leave their abusive husbands. This begs for the intervention of the Minister of Women Affairs, Hon. Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, FSI, the Nigerian Women Lawyers Association, and the First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Sen. Oluremi Tinubu, to help empower the women by leading a campaign on self-esteem and financial enhancement and creating sensitization programs that will enlighten the women on ‘knowing when to walk away.’ In addition to this, Oge said domestic violence should not be handled with kid gloves; the guilty one should be severely punished by the law, and the implementation of domestic violence laws must be ensured.
