Statistics show that there is an incessant rise in the percentage of persons suffering from domestic and sexual violence. Experts and Professionals dealing with family and domestic affairs have reported a rise in reports of domestic violence thereby leaving these Organizations with a great number of domestic and sexual violence cases to deal with as victims have now proved that more than before when they could take the heat, the lockdown has made the issue of domestic violence less bearable for them thereby resorting to their cry for help to these organizations.
The United Nations (hereinafter called UN) says around 23% of women in Nigeria are victims of domestic and sexual violence by their husbands. However, most women don’t come forward because of the fear of the end result of such reports. For instance, the practice of sacrificial cleansing rites to be done to cleanse a victim who reported in order for the victim to be accepted and welcomed back to their community[1] and in cases where such victim has children, the fear of labelling their spouse an abuser pushes them to keep quiet and take the heat rather than be put out in public in the name of protecting their family.
Domestic violence is a crime and recognized in the Nigerian society as a menace that needs to be curbed and in response to this menace, there are laws, statutes, organizations and bodies which have been set up with the sole aim of curtailing the menace and protecting the right of women and children.
However, with the present pandemic and compulsory lockdown, these victims’ ordeal have gone from bad to worse. Evidently, it would have proven more easy if there was no pandemic and no compulsory lockdown since it would have only required them seeing their abusers occasionally but where an abuser and victim are put on compulsory lockdown from dawn till dusk, it is hard to tell the mood of the abuser and any slight movement could be deemed as irritating to this abuser thereby leading to unwarranted violence. It is not strange news that everyone has been affected emotionally by the lockdown and somewhat irritated as it has tampered with one’s normal mode of doing things and the normal thinking and non-violent man could take it but what is expected of a person who prior to the lockdown, could not control emotions and only knows how to ease tension by exerting some form of force onto another person thereby exerting some form of physical violence and leading to the actual act of domestic violence.
With these occurrences, and in order to prevent the number of mortality rate from increasing from more grounds other than the COVID-19 Pandemic, these bodies and organizations responsible for protection of women and children from domestic and sexual violence have to be more responsive and to just as the Nigerian courts are now creating means to still run its justice administrative system remotely and adjust to the present happening, these bodies and organizations that deal with domestic and sexual violence should be able to come up with means with which they can meet up with the
present happening and the evolving circumstances that the world has now been forced into and find a way to protect the women and children who are suffering from domestic and sexual violence.
The UN in its report posits that the threat to women’s rights and freedom posed by COVID-19 goes far beyond physical violence. The deep economic downturn accompanying the pandemic is likely to have a female face and they perceive that the pandemic has threatened to bring back the condition where women only did menial jobs or had poorly paying jobs[2] and I couldn’t agree more because with the present happening, a large percentage of the world’s population have been laid off their jobs as women are disproportionately represented in poorly paid jobs without benefits.
The International Labour Organization estimates that nearly 200 million jobs will be lost in the next three months alone and many of them would be in sectors like domestic workers, casual labourers, street vendors, and in small-scale services like hairdressing.
VICTIMS SURVIVING THE COMPULSORY LOCKDOWN
With all that being said, it is important that the issue is tackled and the lives and sanity of these women and children are preserved and in order to do this, certain steps can be taken to take these victims to safer environments where they would not be living in the fear of any harm that may be done to them.
It is important in order to reduce the rising rate of domestic and sexual violence during the pandemic and even beyond the lockdown, the bodies and organizations involved with the protection of women and children should be more accessible and leave their lines open in order to attend to victims who may call for their help. These responsive teams should be available in all the states and have branches in different local government areas across Nigeria.
These victims should take the initiative to stay with family members during the pendency of the lockdown and to prevent their lives from being endangered and centers where victims can seek refuge where they have no family member to stay with pending the diffusion of the matter or the end of the compulsory lockdown should be set up. It is advisable for victims to take refuge elsewhere rather than stay and be at the mercy of their abuser as cases arise where victims kill their abusers and end up suffering jail terms and the punishment of the law the one time they choose to react to their abuser and the law would hardly pay attention to the fact that the victim had suffered in the hands of the abuser for a while before deciding to retaliate. The law does not protect the indolent.
Also, statutes and laws should be updated to meet the present situation as one of the characteristics of law is that it is dynamic and as such should meet up to the present pandemic situation to adequately protect victims of domestic and sexual violence.
Mayowa D. Oluwabiyi, Esq.,
A legal practitioner based in Abuja can be reached at md.oluwabiyi@oluwabiyi.com.ng
[1] Lawal Sherifat ‘Nigeria lockdown sees rise in domestic violence’ in Vanguard Newspaper April 30, 2020.
[2] United Nations-COVID-19: SG Op-ed on COVID-19’s impact on Women posted on 30th April, 2020 at https://www.un.org/africarenewal/news/coronavirus/covid-19-sg-op-ed-covid-19s-impact-women