Inside Northern Nigeria’s Cultural Practices That Discriminates Against Girls Part 3
This is a multiple-part report; click here to read the first and second parts of the "Ordeal of the girl child" stories.
According to UN Women, 49 countries still lack laws that protect women from domestic violence, while 39 bar equal inheritance rights for daughters and sons.
Articles 15, 42, and 17 of the Nigerian 1999 constitution (as amended) recognizes the equality of rights, obligations, and opportunities before the law, also prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, and ensure that men and women have equal access to the courts in matters of contracts, torts, and all civil matters.
Legal implications
A careful examination of the Child Rights Act 2003 (CRA), shows that it incorporates all the rights and responsibilities of children; consolidates all laws relating to children into a single law; and specifies the duties and obligations of government, parents, and other authorities, organizations, and bodies.
Within the CRA, “no Nigerian child shall be subjected to physical, mental or emotional injury, abuse or neglect, maltreatment, torture, inhuman or degrading punishment, attacks on their honor or reputation”. Sadly child abuse has consistently reside in the confines of Nigerian society.
When this reporter contacted Barr. Lauretta Challa, a member of the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), for further clarification, the lawyer said the continued refusal of the Nigerian government to adopt, domesticate and implement international treaties and laws is the major problem.
While highlighting the contributing factors to the discrimination against the girl child in Nigeria, the lawyer noted that just 25 states have adopted the Child Right Act out of 36 states for fear of the definition of what a child is under the law as against some religions and cultures so that the girl child is still given out in marriage even as a minor.
Barr. Challa said individuals, organisations, and institutions are not subject to the law. Explaining that offenders do not face the wrath of the law with respect to punishment for the wrong they have committed.
“The patriarchal setting of the Nigerian society embedded in cultural practices and religious beliefs. Where a boy child is trained into leadership roles while the girl child is nurtured for only childbearing and homely roles, the boy child is taught to believe that the girl child is a parcel/property which he will later purchase as a wife to cater for his home front," she said.
The legal practitioner went further to say that even though prosecution is advancing at a millipedes rate, there are impediments hindering justice due to the patriarchal setting of the Nigerian society embedded in cultural practices and religious beliefs.
Barr. Challa said that the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act (VAPP) law is extant in regard to any form of infringement as the punishment could range from life imprisonment, years imprisonment with or without the option of fine.
She also decried that there is yet to be a landmark ecision in regard to the prosecution of early child marriage, education of the girl child, and workplace discrimination, because of religious and cultural sentiments.
“However the court has done well in giving a resounding judgment in Ukeje vs Ukeje where it said it’s discriminatory to disallow women from inheriting their deceased parents” she applauded.
The child rights law seeks to eliminate all forms of discrimination against children while guaranteeing their fundamental rights to education as well as prohibiting child marriage.
But the refusal to pass the law means that children in the state will continue to have their rights violated, without an explicit legal document to protect them against abuse.
Psychological implication
Recent research indicates that women are two to three times more likely to come down with a mental health condition than men.
Dr Juliet Yop Pwajok, a clinical psychologist at the University of Jos’ Psychology department, University of Jos, showed that gender discrimination is a contributing factor in mental illness.
“one of the responses to gender discrimination is trauma”, according to Dr Pwajok
She said that gender discrimination has severe and long-lasting consequences for women.
“Exposure to violence, objectification, discrimination and socioeconomic inequality can lead to anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, and PTSD”, she added.
Dr Pwajok advised that counselling and psychotherapeutic interventions can help individuals with mental health issues. Still, a systemic change is necessary to achieve equity and reduce mental health burdens and other challenges on the girl child and women.
* [not real names] sources pleaded to remain anonymous.
This is a multiple-part report; click here to read the first and second parts of the "Ordeal of the girl child" stories.