INTERVIEW: We'll Continue To Wage War Against Abuse Of Women's Rights

Mrs. Olushola Akai is the Executive Director of Ajegunle Community Project (ACP), based in Olodi-Apapa, Lagos State. She is a woman with a golden heart, who has been at the forefront in fighting for rights of women and the girl-child in Nigeria for so many years. She frowns on the high rate of gender-based violence and discrimination against women and the girl-child in the society. She is of the view that the time is ripe to put a stop to dehumanization, marginalisation and other sorts of human rights abuse on women in the society, having seen and experienced what women go through in the society, starting from their immediate families.

Her organization has for a long time, been empowering women to occupy their rightful positions in the society by waging war against the abuse of their rights. Olushola Akai holds a Post-Graduate Diploma Certificate in Education and a Master's degree in Social Work. A former Treasurer for Society for women and Aids in Africa,(SWAAN) Nigeria Chapter, Lagos State branch, she was also a Secretary to Women in Nigeria,(WIN) Lagos State Branch. She has been a resource person on Gender-Based Violence, Democracy and Governance and has attended series of International and Local Conferences which have helped greatly in her work.

Tell us about your organization and its activities
My organization is called Ajegunle Community Project, popularly called ACP . It was established as a humanitarian and gender-based organization by the late Alhaja Roli Raliat Daniju. We fight discrimination against women and the girl-child. We empower women who are seriously in need of support to be self-reliant. We also organize seminars to sensitize women and the girl- child of school age.

Ajegunle Community Project strives in the area of advocacy, creation of awareness, networking, community mobilization and other intervention measures. So far, our activities are yielding good results.

You talked about gender- based violence, what does that imply?
Gender-based violence is a universal abuse of women's human rights. It is all the violence directed against women, mostly, by their intimate partners and family members. It could be physical, sexual, psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats like coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty. Gender based voilence occurs both in public and private lives. We see all these happen to our women in the society almost every day. They suffer in silence, without being rescued. So, having observed that, we decided to see how we could assist them, that was why we established Ajegunle Community Project. Since then, we have tried to empower many women and the girl- child in various ways. It is pathetic that women and young girls are often in great danger within their families, where they should be safe. In many homes, women face regimes of terror and violence in the hands of those close to them, those they should be able to trust.

Those victimized suffer physically and psychologically. The society makes it difficult for them to make their own decisions, voice their own opinions, protect themselves and their children. Their human rights are denied, and their lives are stolen from them by the ever-present threat of violence. It may not be easy to identify domestic violence at first occurrence, but some relationships are clearly abusive from the outset. Domestic violence often starts subtly, and gets worse over time. It may begin with occasional hurtful comments, jealousy or strange behaviours. As it gets worse, it becomes more frequent, severe and violent, and the circle of abuse worsens, the woman's safety and that of her children may be in danger.

There is also intimate partners' violence or battering, which occurs between people in intimate relationships. It can take many forms, like emotional, sexual and physical abuse. The female or male partners are sometimes abused, but domestic violence is most often directed towards women, and it is common. It happens to teenage girls and women of all backgrounds. On many occasions women had become victims of domestic violence, especially when they are in relationship with someone who controls their finances. Sometimes, they will be scared of asking for money due to the intimidations they will face from their male partners. Men always act jealously and possessive. They always accuse women of being unfaithful and want to know how we spend our time, who we talk to, where you go to, what we wear and want us to obtain permission before we do everything.

What do you think that can be done to solve the problem of gender-based violence?
Domestic violence is a health, legal, economic, educational, developmental and human rights problem. Therefore, strategies that cut across broad range areas should be designed, while finding solutions to the problem. However, more energy should be geared towards legal reforms on violence against women, education for building a culture of non-violence, direct service provision to survivors and perpetrators. Also, there should be intervention to help survivors to rebuild their lives. There are four principles to guide all interventions in attempting to address domestic violence, such as prevention, protection, early intervention and rebuilding the lives of survivors. It is a collective duty, irrespective of the sector anybody belongs, to denounce those practices and policies that silence and subordinate women. Everyone must reject specific legal, cultural or religious practices by which women are systematically discriminated against, excluded from political participation, public life, segregated in their daily lives, raped in armed conflicts, beaten in their homes, denied equal divorce or inheritance rights, killed for having sex or refusal to do so, forced to marry, assaulted for not conforming to gender norms, and sold into forced labour. We must establish a synergy for a fight against the dehumanization and marginalization of women. We must promote women equal rights and human dignity. The realization of women's rights is a global struggle, based on universal human rights and the rule of law. It requires all of us to unite in solidarity to end traditions, practices, and laws that harm women. It is a fight for freedom to be completely human. Ultimately, the struggle for women's human rights must be about making women's lives matter, everywhere at all times.

What programmes have you done so far to support women?
It is on record that we have touched the lives of women and the girl-child in different ways. We have organised several empowerment seminars and workshops for them, where we invited professionals to train them in different trades, and after that, we gave them soft loans to start up. In fact, many women have benefited from our empowewrment programmes. Aside that, we sensitize them on how to live good family lives. We also visit schools to educate and sensitize the female children on how to preserve themselves to become good future mothers. In a nutshell, we work to protect the rights of women and the girl-child in the society.

Would you subscribe to the passage of bill on gender-based violence?
Definitely, that will be fantastic. It is long overdue. Passing of the bill on gender-based violence into law by state and federal governments as the needed working tool for the prosecution of offenders of gender-based violence and discrimination in women and the girl-child, will really reduce the whole mess against them. ACP has been playing a bigger role over the years to ensure that women are free from any form of violence and human right abuses. I am not happy that millions of women throughout the world live in conditions of abject poverty, deprivations, attacks, violation of fundamental human rights and other acts of dehumanization. It is unfair that women's rights are being violated, especially by their male counterparts .

The freedom inherently possessed by women and girls of all ages are institutionalized, ignored and illegitimately suppressed by law, custom, and behaviour in a particular society, and when the violation takes place within the home, as it is very often, the abuse is effectively condoned by the tacit silence and the passivity displayed by the state and the law enforcing machineries. Therefore, passage of the bill into law would remedy the situation, and I think that it has to be done very fast.