By Mariya Shuaibu Suleiman
Kano State has the highest number of Gender Based Violence (GBV) cases in Nigeria.
An Anti-Sexual Harassment Advocate, Hajiya Halima B. Faruk who is also a representative of Kano State Sexual Referral Centre announced this over the weekend at a Stakeholders Dialogue Forum organized by the Centre for Awareness on Justice and Accountability (CAJA) under the Anti-Sexual Harassment Cluster (ASHA) to Commemorate the ‘16 Days of Activism’ in the fight against Sexual Gender Based Violence (SGBV) Schools and Campuses in Kano State.
“Among the states in Nigeria, Kano State has the highest rate of Gender Based Violence in Nigeria and this is indeed worrisome,” Hajiya Halima said.
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She therefore urged stakeholders to work hand-in-hand towards eliminating SGBV on Campuses and communities in Kano.
Also, a representative from the Ministry of Justice, Barr. Fa’iza also mentioned the number of SGBV cases the Ministry receives every month.
“It is true and sad that the issue of SGBV is so rampant in Kano, in a month, we receive more than hundreds of rape and gender violence cases even more than the arm robbery & homicide cases. This is something that is troubling our state and we can only mitigate it when we come together and join in the fight against sexual harassment.”
SOLACEBASE reports that the aim of the programme was to raise the awareness of stakeholders on the prevalent of SGBV in Nigeria and Kano State in particular and to strengthen the stakeholders’ collaboration to join in the fight against sexual harassment through series of physical and social media advocacies and campaigns in their various fields.
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In his opening remarks, CAJA’s Advocacy and Communication Officer Adam Auwal Dakata stressed on the importance of the meeting to enhance the capacity of the participants’ knowledge and skills to be advocating for anti-sexual harassment and therefore, charge the stakeholders that include:
the Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) Legal experts, Policy makers, Journalists, Kannywood actors and directors, Activists to champion their commitments towards advocating for the assent of anti-sexual harassment bill and raising the voices of SGBV survivors in schools, campuses and society as a whole.
During his presentation on understanding the concept of sexual harassment, causes and effects, Akibu Hamisu from CAJA said the victims of SGBV are always victimized as they are sexually assaulted and still face stigmatization from the community to the extends that some had to drop out from school because there is no clear policy to address sexual harassment in schools, colleges and universities.
He added that culprits should be named and punished.
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The Executive Director of CAJA, Kabiru Saidu Dakata, said that one of the major reasons for sexual harassments on campuses is that institutions do not have policies and laws to address SGBV, hence we submitted a bill so as to curtail the menace.
“ASHA cluster is a consortium of civil society organizations from different states who agreed to come and work together to address the prevalent of sexual harassment as sexual harassments can be found everywhere but we understand the one that is happening in tertiary institutions is becoming prevalent, every day we receive cases from them and we take those cases to the affected institutions but
we realized that those institutions do not have policies put in place to address those issues and it is in the effort to find a solution to this problem, we partner with the former Deputy Senate President, Senator Obarisi Ovie Omo Agege and submitted a Bill on Anti-Sexual Harassment to the office of the President after a lot of struggles and we are still waiting for him to assent to it before we can take further measures”.
Dakata added that the bill is specifically for tertiary institutions to ensure a uniform punishment of all the perpetrators of sexual harassments on Campuses not only Kano but in every tertiary institution in Nigeria.
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On her part, Hajiya Aisha Lawal Saji, the Kano State Commissioner for Women Affairs, represented by Malam Yakub Salihi, the Director of Planning, said the Ministry is working closely towards providing effectives measures to curtail the cases of SGBV and create a safer environment for both the girls and boys in Kano State.
The event also featured a panel discussion on the issue that include: Dr. Hafsat Yakasai, a Lecturer from Bayero University Kano, Barr. Fa’iza, a Lawyer from the Ministry of Justice, Barr. Aisha from Partners West Africa and Khairat Suleiman, a student representative from Bayero University Kano.
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