Source: This Day Live
Former First Lady of Ekiti State, Erelu Bisi Fayemi recently engaged an audience on gender issues in tertiary institutions.

It was a mixed audience of academics, students, public servants, community leaders and corporate executives. The purpose of the gathering was to figure

out how to make the best use of the opportunities to create a just world.

The convener, Coordinator, Gender Mainstreaming Office, University of Ibadan, Prof. Stella Odebode, narrowed down the purpose. The workshop sought to stir further debate and raise awareness about the plight and status of women.
All over the world women, children and the girl-child are vulnerable. In Africa, they suffer in silence. To trigger the discourse, the organisers could not have identified a better person who fits the bill.

As a crusader for women liberation, co-founder, African Women’s Development Fund and Founding Member, African Feminist Forum Working Group and former First Lady of Ekiti State, Mrs. Bisi Fayemi is knowledgeable on how violence against women can be tamed.

Her paper on Post-2015 Gender Issues in Tertiary Institutions posited that the war against women is a daily occurrence. Evidence abounds everywhere in screaming headlines of a jilted boyfriend who pours acid on his ex-lover; a female student who was gang-raped to death by cult members, a husband who stabs his wife to death; a four year-old girl raped by a neighbour; baby factories discovered in certain parts of the country, and women and girls kidnapped by Boko Haram insurgents.
She called for decisive action. “We need to revisit all the institutions which serve as pillars of oppression and restructure our terms of engagement. Economic, social, religious, academic, political cultural and technological sites of power need to be deeply interrogated and not merely accommodated or tolerated. It is through questioning the assumptions about power and privilege that these institutions represent that we can truly talk about transformative agendas in the years to come,” she said.

Citing the WEF Global Gap Report of 2014 where Nigeria was rated 118 out of 142 and in 20 Worst Nations to be a Mother in sub-Saharan Africa where Nigeria also came 12th, Fayemi said what it implies is that the status of women is still a very precarious one.

“Millions of women and girls continue to be rendered voiceless, due to the complex manipulation of culture, religion and tradition. Crimes against women, young girls and children are on the rise. Gender-based violence, femicides, rapes, sexual assaults, harmful traditional and religious practices, institutionalised gender-based discrimination and a pervasive culture of impunity, make private and public spaces in our country very unsafe for women and girls.

“For example, for us to understand violence against women, we need an appreciation of the structural and underlying causes which feed this menace from generation to generation and which creates an almost unbreakable cycle of oppression. We all grow up in societies firmly entrenched in patriarchal norms and values which influence all the institutions around which our lives are structured. It is these institutions, into which we are all socialised, that determine the value and worth of women and girls.

“As long as these institutions remain bastions of male dominance and control, the empowerment of women will continue to be severely limited. Acts which violate women and girls in public and private, are merely a symptom of the effects of a culture that emphasises the superiority of men over women and takes women on a long journey of subjugation throughout their life-cycle,” she noted. 

Speaking on how to make education safe for women and girls, she emphasised that there has to be zero tolerance for sexual abuse and exploitation of girls in schools, right from primary school level. “It is not enough to have sexual harassment policies; we need strong policy statements on gender-based violence. In cases of sexual assault and abuse, suspects and offenders need to be handed over to law enforcement agencies to be dealt with in accordance with what the relevant laws state.

“I also humbly recommend that the UI Gender Policy and the Sexual Harassment Policy be reviewed and strengthened, with attention paid to key concepts such as patriarchy and gendered power relations. The Sexual Harassment Policy needs to be renamed and reframed to address sexual violence in the institution.”
Rounding up her lecture, Fayemi said to have a workable agenda for empowering women, certain critical issues such as strong political will need to be addressed.
In his remarks, a civil rights activist, Mr. Femi Aborisade, emphasised the need for the socio-economic rights of citizens to be enforced as enshrined in the constitution.

He applauded the bold step taken by ex-President Goodluck Jonathan in assenting to the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act (VAPPA) in the twilight of his administration. Aborisade, however, expressed concern that the new Act might be difficult to enforce except the socio-economic right of citizens, as provided in the constitution, was enforced.

He challenged the new administration headed by President Muhammadu Buhari to chart a new course towards the enforcement of the socio-economic rights of citizens.

 

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