• THE NEED FOR THIS AGENDA
A recent research show that 71% of women interviewed has once been stalked or monitored or been a victim/survivor on one form of violence or other; 46% has experienced harassment; 38% has experienced damage to reputation and credibility and 20% of those harassed online had a follow-up offline harassment; while 17% has experienced direct physical treat and/violence offline as a follow-up to any of the above mention women human right abuse.

Gender Based Violence (GBV) includes intimate partner violence, non partner sexual assault, female genital mutilation and cutting, sexual exploitation and abuse, female infanticide, child marriage and any other act of gender based violence that result in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual, or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threat of such act, coercion, or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.
Boko Haram Insurgence in Nigeria’s North East geopolitical zone has further contributed to a steep rise in violence targeted against women and children. Women are increasingly being used as instruments of war, for example, as suicide bombers or through forced marriage, which then makes them more vulnerable to stigmatization and rejection by their families and communities.
In Nigeria, GBV remains a challenge that significantly constrains women autonomy and opportunities. It is one of the most oppressive forms of gender inequality, posing a fundamental barrier to the equal participation of women to men in social, economic and political spheres.

The Nigeria Demography and Health Survey (NDHS 2018) says that in Nigeria,

Other Gender Based Violence
31% of women have ever experienced physical violence since age 15. In the past year, 14% of women have experienced physical violence. By state, women’s experience of physical violence since age 15 is lowest in Jigawa (4%) and highest in Taraba (68%). The most common perpetrator of physical violence against ever-married women is a current husband/partner (58%). Among never married women, the most common perpetrator is the mother/ step-mother (35%).

Female Genital Mutilation as a form of GBV
In Nigeria, 61% of women age 15-49 have heard of female genital mutilation (FGM). Overall, 20% of women age 15-49 have been circumcised. The most common type of FGM is cut, flesh removed (41%), while 10% are cut, no flesh removed and 6% are sewn closed. The prevalence of FGM increases with age; 14% of women age 15-19 have been circumcised, compared to 31% of women age 45-49. FGM is more common among urban women than rural women (24% versus 16%). The prevalence of FGM ranges from a low of <1% in both Adamwa and Gombe to a high of 62% in Imo. Most women have undergone FGM by age 5 (86%). FGM is most commonly performed by a traditional circumciser (76%), while 9% are performed by a medical professional.

LEGISLATIONS PROHIBITING FGM/C IN NIGERIA
Before the passing into law of the Violence Against Person Prohibition Act (VAPP) Act in Nigeria. Most lawyers, NGOs and anti-FGM campaigners in Nigeria were relying on the Nigeria Constitution and on the Child Rights Act (CRA) to speak against FGM in Nigeria. But one sad thing about the two foregoing laws is that it does not explicitly mention FGM as a criminal offence.

It must also be noted at this juncture, that currently 13 States in Nigeria have their own State laws expressly prohibiting FGM. These States includes; Lagos, Osun, Ondo, Ekiti, Bayelsa, Ogun, Delta, Ebonyi, Oyo, Imo, Edo, Cross-River and Rivers State.
Now let’s look at some of the provisions in the Constitution and in The Child Rights Act as it relates to FGM though not explicitly;

1. The Constitution: The 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (CFRN) which is the supreme law of the land provides in Section 34 that “no person shall be subjected to any form of torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”. FGM indeed falls under the foregoing categories and thus can be punishable under this section.

2. The Child Rights Act: The Child Rights Act (CRA), which was passed in 2003 in Nigeria also has some provisions that outlaws this practice. Section 11(B) of this Act provides also that “no child shall be subjected to any form of torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”. However it must be noted that this Act is only applicable in only 23 States plus the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja.

One particular thing you will note from the two foregoing provisions is that there is no mention of FGM. It was because of this fact that most lawyers, NGOs and anti-FGM campaigners in Nigeria rallied round and started to advocate for a Law which will specifically mention FGM as a criminal offence.

It was as a result of this push, that in 2015 under the Goodluck Jonathan’s administration that the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act (VAPP) Act was passed into law. This particular Act specifically mentioned FGM as a criminal act. It also made FGM and other forms of Gender based violence like rape, spousal battery, forceful ejection from home, harmful widowhood practices etc punishable offences in Nigeria. Apart from this, the VAPP Act also made provisions for the maximum protection of victims and also for the effective remedies for victims.
Section 6 of the VAPP Act provides for a set of punishments for FGM. Some of these punishments include;

1. Anybody who performs or engages another to perform FGM on any person is liable to a term of imprisonment not exceeding 4 years or to a fine not exceeding N200,000 or to both.

2. Anybody who attempts, aids, abets, or incites another to carry out FGM is liable to a term not exceeding 2 years imprisonment or to a fine not exceeding N100,000 or to both.

THE LIMITATIONS OF THE VAPP ACT IN NIGERIA
Three years after the passing into law of the VAPP Act, it is indeed disheartening to note that there has not been a single FGM conviction in Nigeria. The question that keeps agitating our mind is why is this so? In answering this question, we will like to categorize our answer into two major reasons.

1. The applicability of the VAPP Act: Currently, the VAPP Act is only applicable in Abuja and in Anambra State. What this literally means is that it is only applicable in 1 State out of the 36 States in Nigeria. The reason for this is that only Anambra State has domesticated this Act. Under our system, a Federal Law cannot apply in a particular State unless and until it is domesticated in that particular State.
This lack of domestication of the VAPP Act by several States in Nigeria then brings us to a recent issue which happened in Kwara State, Nigeria. This issue made global headlines. Just recently in Kwara State, a facebook user from Kwara State called Alhaji Adebayo publicly advertised for a free cutting of girls in Kwara State. This case we heard was duly reported to the police, but up till now he has not been arrested. One major reason, why we think that he has not yet been arrested and duly prosecuted is because of the fact that Kwara State presently has not taken steps to domesticate this Act.

2. Little or no awareness of this Act in Nigeria: Another major reason limiting the effectiveness of this VAPP Act is the fact that many Nigerians do not know about this Act. Currently in Nigeria, it is estimated that 1 out of every 100 Nigerians know about the existence of this Law in Nigeria. It is also estimated that only 10 out of every 200 Nigerians really know what this Act says or means.
A recent research conducted by us in Lagos State which is one of the 36 states in Nigeria shows that out of every 1000 women only 4% have ever heard of VAPP Act of 2015; only 1.5% acknowledged that Female Genital Mutilation and Cutting is Violence Against Persons k; 0.8% knows the punishment attached to such offence.
The purpose of this study was to determine the level of awareness among Lagos residence about the VAPP Act 2015. In this particular study, we adopted a descriptive research design. Specifically 3 research questions were posed to guide the study. A multi-staged sampling procedure using simple random sampling technique of balloting without replacement was used. We selected a sample of 1270 women accessing various health services in the 148 public primary health facilities in the 5 Administrative Divisions of Lagos state which has 37 local Government Areas.