Last year was a progressive year for the ‘He for She” phenomenon which is very dear to the heart of the chairman of the Nigerian union of journalists (NUJ ) Comrade Dauda Ilya who is a special ambassador for the program. So when stake holders associated with the phenomenon gathered at the pinnacle hotel to review progress made so far, it was obvious that regardless of what watchers may describe as slow due to the extreme confidentiality associated with issues like lingering rape, slow and steady still wins the race as spelt out by Lilian Uneagbu who is the Programme Coordinator Gender and Humanitarian UN Women who spoke with Sam Kayode in this interview after the interactive session. Below is an extract of the interview.
Do you think the parents of that little school girl allegedly abused by her class teacher in a private school in Maiduguri has a chance of getting justice based on the violence against persons prohibition YAPP law?
Yes, they have the chance to get justice. I would say that just like one of the traditional leaders mentioned here, with the presence of why the conflict has been a sad thing. It has also given an opportunity, for actors, communities to understand what violence towards women and girls is. Whether you are talking about domestic, physical emotional, physiological , economic and then the result, which is rape. Rape is really not the thing, it’s usually the result, in terms of someone is actually either economically dis-empowered and vulnerability is heightened. And so with that kind of awareness now it’s already kind of made a way or cleared the ground for the implementation of the vapp law which is also all that has contributed to actors now coming together. The passage of vapp law wasn’t just one actor’s work its a collaborative effort of the government, traditional leaders and the stakeholders whether the NGOs both the national and Internationals NGOs working together to see that the law was passed.
So as you can see the law has the responsibility of different actors, everybody comes to the table with something. So now the state has domesticated it. The implementation also lies of course with the state. However, all the stakeholders have their roles to play but instead the state must continue to lead. Because its the state that has the institutions. When I said the state I am referring to the government, you have the police, you have the judiciary and all these actors. And then you have the traditional leaders of course the media. So you see actors who like you the media lead through the channels that we have, creating awareness on what is obtainable in the vapp law and how that can be used and the judiciary making sure that it’s properly interpreted and applied. And the police also looking at it. You can see it’s whole actors coming together. So it’s actually an opportunity as a tool, a policy, or let me say its a law that will help prosecution of perpetrators’ in this case. So yes it can.
How enlightened is the judiciary about this new law considering the fixation about the old law which may take some time to give way for the new one. Do they train them in workshops?
Yes there have been workshops. I know from the perception of UN women for instance. They are well involved and engaged because, for instance we had different actors working with them and engaging them. As I said it’s not a document for lay person’s. The lay can’t design a law document. So when you say they are not involved, I am not from the judiciary, but I only work with my experience, with everybody but I kept all actors together. So the judiciary has being part of that. I know for sure that there were workshops that we handled, that culminated into every other process, that was driving all that process.
If you ask if I can penetrated Zakin Biam, Gboko, Otukpa or even Makurdi in Benue where I have worked for instance I will say yes, but here what are your challenges in penetrating the barriers of secrecy and making them feel that there is a difference between wrong and right when it comes to over 700 unreported rape cases in a year?
It depends on where you are coming from, because for me, I look at every society as progressing. You said, you can penetrate Zakin Biam, but there will be probably years before now that you can’t penetrate Zaki Biam. Every society is progressing and for me I also think that, this is a progressive society. As you can see before now, one good step is the awareness, people are now aware that if you just wake up, even if I offended you and you slap me, you shouldn’t slap me, it’s assault. We should discuss it, if you think I wrong you, seek justice. There are instruments, there are institution you should seek for redress for justice but don’t harm me. Because you are hurting the person as a result of you having more powers than that person. So that awareness is already in penetration and its a gradual process. Having the traditional and religious leaders here today is progress. Because you know before probably if you invite them to this kind of event, they will not come. They are making open statements now that they are attending and these are big institutions. Before now it was really a no go area, but these are institution that continue to exist. Even in terms of human existence, human beings may expire and disappear all of them someday will come and go. That position…..the position of stigma will remain, these are institutions that existed before them. So will they now take this opportunity but also kind of a step towards saying that, look this is bad, we should not do it. And saying that even drawing up action you can see almost all of them and also the Christians speaking up, even giving examples, saying that my wife is this. You can see that this is the kind a change we are look forward to. So when you say that its difficult to penetrate I see the positive side, I see work in progress and probably few years ago from now, you will be saying that Ok Borno can be penetrated, how do I penetrate here. For me it’s a progressive one, I won’t say its that bad because they are accepting us. They are listening to us, they are making you know, because the most difficult thing in life is change. Change, is constant but is also difficult. Because we always know when change is coming, we feel our life is threatened so we have to adjust. For instance COVID came people struggled, some people even died of depression because it was difficult for them to change their life appropriately. I believe there are many of us that prefer for instance meetings online now, we prefer to seat on our laptops and do our meetings online now go to the physical world which we are used to. So we came to accept that change and we walk towards that. So for me I also think that fighting against gender based violence or violence is a progressive one. And we should look at the gains that we have made and sustain those gains progressively and improve on that. The challenge is when we retrogress gains made. However, what I am seeing in Borno is a movement, I mean the passage of the vapp law is progress. What we now have to do, is put in action to that and that is implementation that is bringing the same actors who came together to put down vapp law, adopt it here and domesticate it to come together associate the judiciary, security, institution, the tradition and all stake holders.
