TACKLING GROWING GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE 

All stakeholders should do more to bring comfort to the violated

It is unfortunate that violence continues to manifest itself in new forms and trends against women and girls in Nigeria. The Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, has revealed that Nigeria recorded 2,755 cases of gender-based and intimate partner violence within the first four months of 2026, averaging 23 reported cases daily, while only 4 per cent of reported cases reached legal accountability.  “Females account for over 81 per cent of survivors and sexual violence constituting more than 82 per cent of reported abuses, particularly among adolescents aged 10 to 14 years,” Sulaiman-Ibrahim said to highlight the growing challenge of gender-based violence in the country.

We commend the proposed collaboration involving the ministry, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) and the ‘New Era Foundation’, an initiative of the First Lady, Mrs Oluremi Tinubu. The idea, according to reports, is to establish a ‘Patience Home’ that would offer survivors access to safe shelter, psychosocial support, healthcare services, legal assistance, rehabilitation, and economic empowerment opportunities. The ministry is expected to oversee day-to-day management, social services, legal support, advocacy, and empowerment programmes while the NPHCDA will coordinate healthcare delivery and quality assurance. The ‘New Era Foundation’ will provide the facility and infrastructure required for the home’s operations. The idea of establishing safe spaces across all the 774 local government areas and the deployment of ‘Women on Wheels’ mobile response units to provide trauma-informed care at the grassroots are also laudable.

According to the NPHCDA Executive Director, Muyi Aina, GBV is not only a human rights issue but also a critical public health concern with far-reaching consequences on survivors’ physical, mental, reproductive, and socio-economic wellbeing. Indeed, survivors also need protection, psychosocial support, rehabilitation, and opportunities for reintegration. The United Nations and World Bank have consistently argued that gender-based violence transcends the limited perspective of physical abuse to the economic implications that hinder national development.About 42 per cent of Nigerian women are financially excluded compared to 35 for men, “while women hold less than 5 per cent of elected positions,” according to the UNWomen Country Representative Beatrice Eyom.

Even though serious offences in our law books, assault and battery are hardly ever perceived as crimes by many of our law enforcement agencies, unless the acts ultimately culminate in death. From physical and verbal abuse to rape and even murder, it is evident that relevant authorities in Nigeria are not doing enough to tackle this menace. While spousal abuse cuts across both sexes, women and girls are predominantly the victims in the country. Unfortunately, most of them rarely report the violence they endure, for fear of being stigmatised by the society.

The situation is compounded by the patriarchal interpretations within the dominant faiths in Nigeria which preach endurance. Inevitably, the victim and the abuser are usually advised to find a way to settle their differences, rather than make public the injury or the violence within. More disturbing is that complaints of violence and abuse (against family members) made at our police stations, where girls and women can summon the courage to do so, are often dismissed as domestic matters, especially where such violence occurs between spouses. 

It is imperative that the authorities make more efforts to understand the underlying causes and dynamics of this growing violence, if only to redeem the stability of the family unit, and consequently, the larger society. We hope that the establishment of ‘Patience Home’ will become a model intervention for providing a comprehensive support system that restores dignity, promotes recovery, and empowers survivors of GBV to rebuild their lives free from violence and abuse.