INTERVIEW: How Bribe-Seeking Policemen, Poor Access To Data Frustrate Justice For SGBV Victims

Fisayo Aransiola Fakayode is an activist, human rights lawyer and researcher with Amnesty International (Nigeria). Speaking in this interview with THE WHISTLER on the sidelines of an event held at Baze University to mark the global “16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence”, the gender justice advocate outlined some of the challenges facing prosecution of SGBV offenders, including poor records keeping and police officers who frustrate delivery of justice to victims through seeking of bribe. Excerpts…

As a Human Rights Lawyer and Gender Activist, How Many Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) Cases Have You Handled This Year?

This year, it’s quite a number because they come into the office either by referral from other organizations or individuals working on the case or things like that, you know, using empirical evidence, you can use a number of cases that we get to kind of torchlight how prevalent Sexual and Gender-Based Violence cases are. 

Most cases are not reported because of stigma, discrimination, even and issues around access to justice for survivors.

Even if you look at sister organizations, and their data, you see that a lot of them are fragmented. The data you get from women’s affairs (ministry) is different from data you get from NAPTIP. So, realistically, we still have a lot of under-reporting in Nigeria, so that does not make you see the level of prevalence or how prevalent it is.

Based On Your Experience, Which Gender Suffers SGBV More Between Men And Women? 

They (SGBV cases) are predominantly against women. They’re more against women because they are the ones that suffer long-term discrimination in society through religion, education, and things like that. So, women are more affected than men. 

As An Experienced Human Rights Lawyer, Do You Think SGBV Is Common Among Youths?

Yeah, it’s also very prevalent amongst youths. So, we use to see issues around dating violence like in universities. You see issues around sexual harassment from students, sex for grades and most students don’t know whom to report to or when reports are not confidential, students are being victimized and things like that.

So, youths also face it in different forms. You see stalking of girls online by men. You see things around obsession.

You see many things like physical violence by a boyfriend against a girlfriend or a girlfriend against a boyfriend.

So, it comes in various forms and it’s pretty prevalent among young people. And that was why we chose Base University to bring together students from various universities to learn and be able to also stand up for themselves and others when things like this happen. 

Does Poor Parental Upbringing Contribute To SGBV Among Youths?

Yeah, definitely. Family is the smallest unit of society. And you see that most things that have been reinforced in the family end up going with us when we grow and that is what we show, that is what we exhibit when we grow older.

So, in a home where a father is beating the mother, such people tend to grow up to see that as the normal thing but that’s not the normal thing.

So, a lot of things we learn in the house. You see things like gender stereotypes, where you say oh a girl should stay at home so the brother can go to school or a girl cannot study science. A girl can’t ride a bicycle, all those things start from home. 

Those are gender stereotypes that the families are not challenging and that when people grow up with that, they inhibit it and then manifest such characteristics which in the sense of it is against gender equality that we’re all fighting for.

So, the home plays a very important role. It’s from the child at those small ages. We need to start imbibing values in younger people. You have to shatter gender stereotypes. You need to know that a man and a woman can be whoever they want to be.

A man has no right to beat a woman, it starts with the family, which should be a place for building values and molding character.

What Is Amnesty International Doing To Curb SGBV?

Yeah, at Amnesty International. We research and organize campaigns (against SGBV). It will interest you to know that we have conducted a lot of research on gender-based violence. The latest and most recent was the report “A Hard Journey” that we launched on access to justice for women and girls who are survivors of rape.

So, through that report, we highlighted the barriers that women and girls who are survivors of rape face in trying to access justice, like delay in the court processes, sigma, the attitude of police officers who say ‘bring money’, bring this and that. 

These are the kind of things we highlighted. And then through that report, we made recommendations to the government on how we can ensure that access to justice is available for women in a very efficient way. 

Advice Or Ways You Think The Government Should Do Better?

I strongly believe there are laws out there, but they’re not very efficient. When you have laws that are not efficient, it brings impunity.

So, people think the law is there but if I do whatever I want to do, I won’t be punished too. I think it’s very important for the government to ensure that cases that are reported of violence against women are thoroughly and promptly investigated.

People who are capable of those acts of violence against women should be punished in fair trials and they should be convicted as well.

And we must ensure that women also have support. Women who have reported (SGBV cases) have psychosocial support and also have access to avenues and platforms where they can report without discrimination without having to pay anything to the police. I think that would help to curb impunity in the country.

The Women’s Affairs Minister Said SGBV Is Worse Than COVID-19, What Do You Have To Say?

Yeah, that’s why we say that violence against women and girls is a shadow pandemic. You know, that’s a shadow pandemic and that’s why we saw a lot of it escalating during the Covid-19.

I wish people could come out to report more. We would know the gravity and the prevalence of this. But unfortunately, people don’t report and they’re blaming some circumstances because the system is not such that encourages reporting.

Are You Aware Of Bimbo Ogbonna’s Case? 

Yes I Am aware. 

The Husband Alleged That The Late Wife’s Family Won’t Allow Him See His Children And Has Threatened To Commit Suicide. What Do You Have To Say?

Actually, as an organization, we are working on the matter now, circumstances don’t let us give the public your opinion on public information on that, but as soon as we have a statement out you will surely receive it. We’re working on the case, but I’m aware of the case as well.