IT cannot be the case that the world would want to normalise and make bearable the general violence against women in all parts of the world. In spite of persistent complaints by women and their groups about the insecurity that has been the lot of girls and women across the world leading to innumerable attacks and killing of women, governments and authorities are finding it difficult to step up and put in place necessary policies and structures that would help protect women from the unending violence and attacks. Everyday we are inundated with reports of attacks and violence against girls and women everywhere in the world, with perhaps the sigh of resignation about the overwhelming essence of the situation. Women have been concerned mostly about the ugly and negative impact and effect of patriarchy and the need for women empowerment in order to confront the ugly implications of the patriarchal nature of the present configuration of the world and virtually all its societies. And even while the reaction from most governments and authorities has not been positive, this has not stopped women from taking on the challenge themselves, organizing and putting together efforts in order to have formidable strength and platform to raise awareness about their plight and working out strategies to overcome their oppression and suppression under patriarchy. This is something they are prepared to do in spite of and no matter the lack of necessary support from officialdom in societies.
Yet, even within this context of extraordinary initiative, forbearance and commitment from women, we do not expect that they would be left to cater to the responsibility of confronting the increasing spate of sexual and gender-based violence on their own. Security is a society and collective responsibility that is shouldered and borne largely by government on behalf of society and not an individual or gender responsibility. Indeed, the whole essence of the emergence of society is the need to supersede the anomie and insecurity of the state of nature where life is said to be brutish and short. It cannot be the case then that girls and women are being returned to the state of nature despite the continuing existence of modern human societies with the unending killing of and attacks and violence against the female everywhere in the world today. Nigerians were horrified sometimes ago by the dastardly and wicked assault on IniubongUmoren by one Uduak Frank Akpan who lured her with a deceptive offer of job/employment in order to sexually assault and kill her. This has been followed by reports of numerous other sexual assaults and killing of girls and women in Nigeria particularly for ritual purposes that it could be said that we now have an epidemic of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in Nigeria just as it is in virtually every other country in the world. It would seem as if the world has accepted the reality of the inevitability of sexual assaults and violence against girls and women even without the authorities being concerned as to what to do to stem the tide and save girls and women from unending attacks and killings.
Perhaps the ubiquitousness and pervasiveness of SGBV is further shown in the report of the killing of Sabina Neesa, an elementary school teacher, in a park at Kidbrooke in southeast London not too long ago. Police said that Neesa’left her home to meet her friend in a local pub and it was just five minutes walk for her’ before she was discovered murdered at the park. Neesa’s death is came some months after the gruesome murder of Sarah Everard while walking home also in London. Everard’s murder had raised worldwide concern about the plight of girls and women especially when it was discovered that she was killed by a police officer that should ordinarily be offering protection for her against assaults while on her walk home. The reality is that the world has become a dangerous place for girls and women as SGBV becomes commonplace. It is instructive in this regard that WalkSafe, a safety app, informed that violent and sex crimes had become prevalent around the park where Neesa was killed. And Clive Efford, the local MP, revealed that numerous women had died in violent attacks since Everard was murdered, to give further indication of the pervasiveness of gender violence and its gory implications for girls and women not only in London, but in the entire world. The truth of the situation, according to Jamie Klingler, is very scary: ‘It’s just an unending cycle of violence against women and it’s really depressing.’
But as we stated earlier, the most troubling indication is not just the pervasiveness of gender violence, but the reality that the authorities are not showing enough concern and are leaving the issue to women to confront on their own. Says Jamie Klingler: ‘Violence against women is not in the top three priorities of any police department … We don’t even rank. Nobody is taking this seriously.’ This observation is true of government and police and security agencies in virtually all countries in the world. It took massive online campaign and vigilance for the police to finally arrest the killer of IniubongUmoren in Nigeria, telling us that many other sexual assaults and killings not openly reported and enjoying media publicity and campaign are routinely swept under the carpet and treated with levity by the Nigeria Police just like most other police formations in the world. As far as the governments and their police and security agencies are concerned, girls and women are to keep themselves safe and protect themselves from gender violence, with the authorities unable to do anything concrete to confront and put a stop to the endemic sexual assaults and violence against women.
But this cannot be right, society and existing authorities owe girls and women the responsibility to provide security for them and protect them from persisting attacks and violence. Asks Jamie Klingler: ‘… council is giving out panic alarms and they’re giving out pieces of paper saying you have to walk with somebody … how is it all on us to protect ourselves rather than on society and the government and the police to keep us alive?’ This is the major question that the world has to ponder and answer in the quest to confront the present epidemic of gender violence. We cannot leave girls and women to the mercy of assaulters and killers without the whole of the society rising up to show that we have a collective responsibility to protect and keep girls and women safe and stem the current ugly tide of gender violence.
- Yakubu is of the Department of Communication and Language Arts, University of Ibadan.
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