Editorial: Taking action to reduce violence against women in Nigeria

The December 2022 report on an online platform, Statista, about female molestation in Nigeria is something to worry about. The platform submitted that in 2019, there were 59 reported cases of sexual violence in Nigeria, majority of the victims were female, which accounted for 56 cases. Compared to 2017, the number of cases reported to the authorities increased.

In 2017, the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS) went a step further by providing statistics for specific crimes. According to the statistical agency, that year, 2,279 cases of “rape and indecent assault” were recorded by police across the country. However, in its report titled “Statistical report on Women and Men in Nigeria” published in 2021, the NBS revealed that the number of females that experienced rape and sexual abuse in 2017 was 18 out of 26 cases. In 2018 and 2019, 62 and 59 cases were reported respectively, of which the number of females were 60 and 56 persons

The report revealed further that the percentage of women age 15 – 49 who have ever experienced physical violence since age 15 increased from 27.8 per cent in 2013 to 31 per cent in 2018, while among ever married women who reported experiencing physical violence, 60.6 per cent suffered it from their ‘Current Husband/Partner’ in 2013 and slightly decreased to 58.0 per cent in 2018.

Among women age 15-49, the percentage that ever experienced sexual violence irrespective of person that committed the act was 7.4 per cent in 2013 and increased to 9.1 per cent in 2018. About one out of three women (33.4 per cent) age 15-49 have experienced physical or sexual violence in 2018 while it was 29.6 per cent in 2013. The percentage of females between the age of 1-11 trafficked were 72.28, 31.56, 67.81 and 58.6 percent in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 respectively.

The percentage of female trafficked for forced labor was 43.48 per cent in 2016 but increased significantly to 78.53 per cent in 2017 and dropped to 70 per cent in 2018 and decreased to 9.23 percent in 2019. In 2016, all victims trafficked for prostitution were females (100 per cent), however, it was 97.94, 97.58 and 99.59 per cent in 2017, 2018 and 2019 respectively.

We also observed from media reports in 2022 that about 335 persons experienced different forms of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) in the first quarter of that year. The experience ranged from sexual abuse, physical abuse, and spousal abuse between January and April 2022. While the Northeast and Southeast regions have the lowest report on SGBV, the other zones have high records of SGBV.

Leading the geopolitical zones in the reports of SGBV so far in 2022 is the Northwest with 266 persons, followed by the South-south with 50 persons, Southwest with 12, Southeast with four, and North-central, three. However, only the Northeast recorded one incident.

In 2019, the Federal government launched its first national sexual offenders register, a database of those convicted for sexual violence in the country. The register was opened to serve as a strategy to stop those engaged in violence against women and is managed by the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking Persons (NAPTIP). Since its launch, the register has recorded 1083 reports with 197 convicted, 526 cases are still in court while 187 are under investigation.

This register is a step to shaming and blacklisting culprits but there is need to do more with social sensitization on the need to respect the female gender. The three tiers of government must be committed to this.

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