he Minister of Women Affairs, Mrs. Pauline Tallen has called for a unified action against domestic violence in Nigeria.
Mrs. Tallen who was speaking at the opening of a two-day workshop, on domestic violence organised by Prime Unique Women Initiative in partnership with her ministry with the theme, “Curbing the Menace of Domestic Violence”, said, the issue of domestic violence cannot be over flogged as it keeps increasing every day, leaving victims either greatly traumatised or even dead.
She said curbing domestic violence requires the concerted and collective effort of all stakeholders and who better to lead this conversation than women leaders who double as mothers in their states.
“This workshop has been designed to equip every participant with the requisite knowledge and skills to decisively put an end to this evil that is targeted at dehumanising our citizenry especially the women folk.”
The Minister who also said domestic Violence is a pattern of behaviour used to establish power and control over another person through fear and intimidation said it can happen to anyone, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, income, or other factors.
“It became really worrisome at the onset of the pandemic when there was a spike in the reported cases of domestic violence. I wonder about the unreported cases.
“Statistics has it that every;
nine seconds a woman is assaulted or beaten. 1 in 4 women will experience domestic violence during her lifetime.1 in 5 women and 1 in 7 men have been victims of severe physical violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime.”
She also said domestic violence is the third leading cause of homelessness among families adding that 7 million children live in families in which severe partner violence occurred and more than 3 million children witness domestic violence in their homes every year.
“Domestic violence costs a lot of money annually in law enforcement involvement, legal work, medical and mental health treatment, and reduced productivity in work places.
“On a typical day, there are more than 20,000 phone calls placed to domestic violence hotlines nationwide. Globally, over 35% of women have experienced physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner or sexual violence by a non-partner at some point in their lives.”
The convener, Prime Unique Women Initiative, Dr. Folake Yobah said, there will be effort that will be too much when we talk about domestic violence adding that children, women and sometimes men are victims of domestic violence.
She said although the largest percentage affected by domestic violence because of different factors that affect the abusers.
The workshop is set to proffer solutions as given by stakeholders who will be training us in how to manage the situation.
“It is a kind of train the trainers where women will go down to the grassroots to also train and sensitise other women on how to manage the situations. This is because women have a strategic role to play as mothers. If people have emotional intelligence we will have less crisis to manage.”
She added that this is targeted to the northern women and it will go round other region of the country.