OYO State Programme Officer for the Resilient System for Sustainable Health Development/COVID-19 Response Mechanism (RSSH C19-RM) project. Mr Oluseun Adebiyi has told parents that poor parenting and exposure of children to drugs early can predispose them to gender-based violence later in life.
He said the incidence of poor parenting and exposure of children to drugs early in life is increasing in many communities, likewise the different forms of gender-based violence in many communities in Nigeria.
Mr Adebiyi, who spoke at the October edition of the Gender-Based Violence (GBV) coordination meeting of the RSSH C19-RM project, declared that most children that are being abused, either sexually or molested, are actually children that their parents are not actually taking cognisance of them.
Mr Adebiyi cited 4 cases of gender-based violence that were identified in the five LGAs that the RSSH C19-RM project was intervening through through community-based organisations.
According to him, “In October, cases of gender violence attended to include the case of an 11-year-old being molested by her mom’s elder sister husband and a case of a young man using drugs and going mentally unstable and also violent to his mom when not having means of buying hard drugs for use.
“A case of a female sex worker stabbed severally with a broken bottle as a result of her not agreeing to his proposition of friendship and two cases of abandonment of families by husbands for no tangible reason. One is not providing his immediate family with economic resources while the second one married another wife and abandoned the first wife and children.”
Mr Adebiyi declared that findings from the RSSH C19-RM project included that substance use has caused a lot of damage in our society and poor parenting is a common form of abuse of children.
He declared, “Sexual intercourse had been found to be one of the main reasons why men have relationships outside of their marriage. Bad parenting is a major cause of many children keeping bad company and bowing to peer group pressure.
“Lack of love and care from parents makes a children seek love outside, and they could end up being exposed to all forms of violence, negative peer influence, and hard drugs, with implications on their lives and future dreams. If she is a female, it can also increase her vulnerability to sexually transmitted disease.
“Drugs are everywhere. Even girls, like boys, are tempted or introduced to drugs. People smoke all around; they use all sorts of hard drugs. There should be a level of control that will not make all these things freely seen in every nook and cranny of our society.
“So the government should do something about the control of drugs so that it can also help in reducing violence in our society. This is because someone who takes drugs might be physically violent, and this might also make him commit gender-based violence physically to another person.”
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