鈥..as community leaders hail DNF for pivotal role
In Niger state, leaders of the two main religious bodies in Nigeria, Christianity and Islam have agreed to join hands with Traditional institutions, Lawyers, a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), Dorothy Njemanze Foundation (DNF) and the Ministry of Women Affairs to stem the rising cases of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) in the state.
They made the pledge during a dialogue on how to prevent SGBV tagged, 鈥淔rom Gatekeepers to Bystanders: The Role of Faith and Culture in Ending Harm鈥, which took place in Minna over the weekend.
The Dorothy Njemanze, a feminist, survivor-led NGO which focuses on providing free and confidential support to victims of SGBV amongst others said the aims of the dialogue was to leverage on the influences of faith, cultural leaders other critical stakeholders to promote measures that would curtail SGBV.
鈥淲e need to connect the door between palace and the law, religion and rights between life and save lives鈥, Dorothy said, adding that DNF shifted its approach to work with communities in taking proactive steps towards ending the trend instead of waiting to respond to violence.
Traditional rulers, she argued are not only custodians of culture, but cultural tranfomers and therefore urged them to use their palaces to not only end harm against the female folks but create safe society for every boy and girl child or man and woman.
In their separate remarks, the village head of Maikunkele, Abdullahi Dada and Abubakar Mahmudu, the District Head of Etsu Audi Bida who led three other community leaders from Bida Emirate where most of the SGBV cases were reported expressed commitment to joining forces in tackling the trend in their domains.
While acknowledging receiving cases of SGBV, the traditional rulers who commended the DNF for standing out to champion the cause of the victims and leading the way to end gender based biases pledged to work with the agency to prevent such.
Also in their respective contributions, the Secretary of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Pastor Raphael Opawoye and Mallam Abubakar Yahaya, representating Ja鈥檓atul Nasiru Islamic (JNI), expressed readiness to evolve faith based approaches to check SGBV because their scriptures; Bible and Qur鈥檃n frowned at all forms of violence against women and girl child.
Mrs. Mary Yisa from the Ministry of Women Affairs in her contributions lamented the rising cases of SGBV and harmful practices against the girl child, including forced marriage, rape and breast ironing.
Mary who told the gathering that the Ministry receives report on cases of SGBV almost on a daily basis said the trend is common among a particular religion sect have left many of the victims traumatized and therefore called for collective action by stakeholders to eradicate the menace.
Earlier, Niger state Director/Coordinator of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Dr. Mohammed Nuhu gave an insight into how his office has is collaborating with DNF in the past two years has helped tremendously in achieving the success story.
Mohammed who is also Coordinating the Network for PARALEGALS working for DNF in the state said the Commission鈥檚 mandate included the; promotion, protection and enforcing the rights of citizenry, including victims of SGBV in Niger state.