Lagos – A community health expert, Dr Olalekan Makinde, on Thursday urged all levels of government to prevent people from hiding under culture and tradition to carry out domestic violence on children and women.
Makinde, who is also a Senior Registrar, Department of Community Health, Lagos University Teaching Hospital( LUTH), Idi-Araba, made the plea in Lagos.
He spoke at the Health Week and Scientific Conference of the Association of Resident Doctors, National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi, Lagos.
The theme of the conference is ”Child Abuse: Deliberate or Inadvertent-A Menace to the Society.”
He said that awareness must be created on the prevalence, danger and prevention of domestic violence.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), domestic violence is ”the range of sexually, psychologically and physically coercive acts used against women by current or former male intimate partners.
‘’It primarily involves the battering of intimate partners, sexual abuse of children, marital rape, abusive treatment of one family by another thus violating the law of basic human rights.
‘’Domestic violence also includes any behaviors that intimidate, manipulate, humiliate, isolate, frighten, terrorize, coerce, threaten, blame, hurt, injure, or wounds someone.”
Makinde said that domestic violence had gradually become an epidemic.
”It has been reported in all groups and classes of people, regardless of age, economic status, sexual orientation, gender, race, religion, or nationality,” he said.
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Makinde said that domestic violence had intensified over time, while the perpetrators often apologise profusely for their actions or try to convince their victims that they did it out of love or care.
‘’Reliable data on violence against children in Nigeria is scarce because violence is often not reported.
”It occurs mostly within the context where it is regarded as ‘normal’, such as within the family circle or behind the privacy of homes.
‘’A research conducted by UNICEF in 2007 revealed that 85 per cent of violence reported by the respondents was physical and 50 per cent was psychological violence.
‘’Other types of violence reported among learners in basic education level in Nigeria included gender-based violence (5%), sexual violence (4%) and health-related violence (1%).
“Most violence against children occur at the hands of the people charged with their care or with whom they interact daily – caregivers, peers and intimate partners,’’ he said.
Makinde said that there was an increase in reported cases of domestic violence in Nigeria and generally in Africa, where some cultures promote various forms of violence against women and children.
‘’A survey done in Nigeria reported that about 70 per cent of respondents have been abused by a partner and the same survey reported that more than 90 per cent of those abused were women and children.
He called for effective programmes that teach young people communication and problem solving skills, which could prevent violence and stop violence in dating relationships before it occurs.
Makinde said that awareness creation was the major key to prevention, while legislation against domestic violence was also needed and should be enforced to the letter.
In his remarks, Dr Olatunji Babalola, a consultant orthopaedic and trauma surgeon, National Orthopaedic Hospital, Lagos, said that children who experience abuse and neglect are about nine times more likely to become involved in criminal activity when they grow up.
‘’Violence can be prevented by addressing the underlying risk factors; including social norms that condone or allow violence and gender inequality to continue.
‘’An effective response to violence against women and children needs to go beyond the health sector.
‘’When the health system is coordinated with the criminal justice system, education, advocacy and civil society, an effective response to violence against women and children can be sustained,” he said. (NAN)