Over the years, women have been subject of harassment, intimidation, victimization and all sort of subjugation thereby making them second class citizen in the society.
This gave rise to the emergence of all manner of groups and organizations across the world with a singular mission to ‘salvage’ women from such quandary. While gender imbalance can be found in any society and patriarchy may continue to subjugate and exclude women in the scheme of things however, such incidences are becoming too unbearable here in Nigeria and therefore, require a holistic approach to tackle it henceforth.
Recurring incidences of dispute in child custody among divorcees, abandonment, widowhood disinheritance, forced marriage, sexual harassment at both school and working place, intimidation, raping of minors, indiscriminate divorce occasioned by domestic violence, prostitution, maltreatment, utter injustice and all sorts of uncivilized behaviours meted against women and children has been on the increase particularly in Northern Nigeria.
Disturbed by this ugly development and in its avowed determination to ensure eradication or minimizing cases of maltreatment against women and children as well as the desire to promote justice and equity among the populace, the Women’s Right Advancement and Protection Alternative (WRAPA), a non-governmental organization established to champion the cause of women and other less privileged members of the society, adopted a rare and unique strategy by way of embarking on a sensitization and advocacy mission to stakeholders through institutional consultations and visitation of various with a view to enthroning and restoring the dignity of women in our society.
This laudable initiative by WRAPA, to say the least, is most commendable and worthy of emulation by all men of goodwill. Giving the quantum of the problem at hand, there is no better way of addressing these vices than to involve every member in the society.
Therefore, irked by this ugly trend and in line with the dictate of its mission and vision, WRAPA, established nearly two decades ago by the wife of the former Military Head of State, Justice Fati Lami Abubakar, decided to come up with mechanism of public enlightenment with a view to involving all stakeholders on this all important project of attitudinal change.
From 2006 to 2017 WRAPA under its Islamic Family Project (IFL) has rendered legal and humanitarian assistance to over 720 people mostly women and children in 22 states across the country, this figure is alarming even as it is worrisome.
According to the Secretary General of WRAPA 60% of the cases it handled were personally reported by the victims and or their relatives, 21% were through referrals by either the police, hospital officials and or other relevant bodies such as Hisba boards and the remaining 19% WRAPA picked them either from media reports and other channels of communication such as social media.
Therefore, in 2016, WRAPA, in collaboration with renowned Islamic scholars from different part of the country compiled various sermon (Khutbah) which deals with woman rights and protection in the society, the many advantages of family cohesion, as well as on the benefits of good and harmonious family life between husband and wife among others.
The Fatwa Committee of the Jama’atu Nasril Islam which is the umbrella body of all the Islamic groups in the country had endorsed and consequently gave WRAPA the nod to distribute the khutbah to the selected mosques across the seven states of the north west region comprising of Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi, Jigawa, Sokoto and Zamfara states for deliverance during Friday prayers intermittently since last year.
Overwhelmed by the success of the model Khutbah method, WRAPA moved further steps in order to make the project a huge success, through the adoption of advocacy visitation and consultation to different groups and individuals including government officials as another effective means of sending its messages across.
The idea behind the visitation according to the Secretary General of WRAPA, Hajiya Saudatu Mahdi, was to sensitize members of the public on the need to realize that addressing societal problems is a collective responsibility of all and sundry.
WRAPA in the aforementioned states have gone far in the visitations which had taken them to the Government Houses, States Assemblies, Emir’s and other traditional rulers, members of the Ulama’s, various associations, trade unions, conventional and Islamiyya Schools, opinion and community leaders, market women and many other groups both formal and non formal artisans among others.
At the moment, there has been a positive response from the various stakeholders so far visited in the seven states of the North West with a promise to ensure the success of the project aimed at salvaging the society from primitive practices. In Kano state, the Emir and the government have all vowed to support the activities of WRAPA, describing the sensitization and consultations as an effective mechanism of promoting attitudinal change for a better society.
It was the same story in Katsina, Jigawa, Kebbi, Sokoto, Kaduna and Zamfara states as the project got positive response from the many stakeholders visited, they all expressed willingness to collaborate and support WRAPA in advancing the course of women and children. Many of the stakeholders were of the belief that collective effort by organizations, government and the members of the society remain the only panacea to solving the myriads of problems bedeviling the society. They argued that, all hands must be on deck in order to salvage the situation.
Indeed, by embarking on institutional consultations, WRAPA had now reawakened the consciousness of the government, the ulamas, the parents and all stakeholders in the project of salvaging the society from the bondage. Indeed, if every member of the society will live up to his responsibilities and the society treats women with justice and equity, certainly our country will be at peace and there will be prosperity and development. WRAPA should be emulated by the various feminist groups in a bid to have attitudinal change against maltreatment and patriarchy against women in our society.
Azare writes from Bayero University, Kano
