What Are the Missing Elements in Nigeria’s Femicide Conversations?
Despite the rise in social outrage and femicide awareness, there are certain underlying issues that are yet to be addressed.
To my 37 followers and new readers, welcome to my blog. I must warn you that the story you’re about to read is one that is sad, sensitive, and triggering. But no matter its gruesomeness, it needs telling all the same.
“There is no gender war. Men are killing women, and that’s it.” — @theohotu on Twitter (X).
I assume that a sizeable number of us have heard of the word ‘femicide’, the intentional killing of women based on gender. We might have even heard of a couple of crimes related to this. But sometimes, we forget the true gravity of the word.
To help us understand femicides better, I will recount the recent, unfortunate case of Justina Nkang. It’s a story that many people might already know, but as often as we can, we need to remind ourselves of the realities at hand.
You see, for many people, October 22, 2023, was a normal day in Nigeria with the average man’s challenges. But for Justina Nkang, it was to be the worst day of her life — the day she was to be murdered by her boyfriend and dismembered.
Justina, who was a 300-level undergraduate student at the University of Port Harcourt, was last seen booking a ride from the Prestige Specialist Hospital.
It was two days later that her friend, Amanda, raised the alarm and sparked the search for Justina. She later got her wish and found Justina four days later — but as a dead and slowly rotting corpse in the house of her killer and three-year boyfriend, Damian Okoligwe. The smell was what prompted his neighbour, Emeka, to alert the authorities. Upon discovery, Justina’s dismembered body was found in a ghana-must-go bag. Her breasts and private parts were also missing.
It would have come as a surprise if he actually confessed. But true to a killer’s form, he didn’t. I’ll never forget watching him being paraded by the police in handcuffs on Channels TV, while repeatedly saying, “I didn’t kill her; I found her dead in my apartment.” It was for this reason that he also decided not to call the police.
Typical. The only thing missing from his statement is blaming the father of lies for his transgressions. But let me not digress.
Now, as expected, the story of Justina Nkang hit a nerve on social media. It sparked outrage against the killer as well as concerns about the high rate of femicides and missing women in the country. In 2022 alone, it was reported that at least 401 women died from sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in Nigeria, with 45,000 women dying worldwide of femicide in 2021, according to UN Women.
But as usual, there would always be those who blame women for the cause of their demise, even in death. People like these guys.
The essence of telling you Justina’s story was to show you the true nature of femicides — that like its older cousin, Death, it is no respecter of persons. It doesn’t matter what you do, and who you are, it can catch up to you in the most unfortunate way.
In reading some of these comments,(as well as their follow-ups), you might notice a growing trend of awareness towards femicides and brutal killings of women. I consider this a win for gender advocacy, but I also can’t help but feel that there are critical underlying issues we have yet to talk about.
And while Justina’s story renewed the conversation, a true resolution to femicide and other forms of gender-based violence (GBV) cannot be achieved without addressing them.
To avoid speaking from a place of ignorance, I had a gender advocate and Gatefield’s Chief of Staff, Joy Una; Gender and Development Worker, Tawakalit Kareem; and Twitter feminist voice, Sharon Oluwalana, speak to me on some key elements still missing in Nigeria’s femicide conversations.
The need for a multi-sectoral approach
For Joy, many gender advocates, civil societies, and non-governmental organizations are already doing the groundwork to address femicides, but it can never “replace the workings of an efficient and effective government.”
She suggests that in order to create positive behavioral change, there was a need for government agencies such as the National Orientation Agency (NOA), the education sector, and private sector industries eg Nigeria’s entertainment industry, ‘Nollywood’, to draw out a comprehensive plan for a specific duration of years that would instill the necessary values and “create positive messaging that would eventually lead to the respect of the autonomy of these women,” she says.
Despite the lack of strong cross-collaboration with all of these sectors, there have been partnerships in recent years between international human rights organisations like the UN Women and A-list Nigerian actresses such as Stephanie Okereke Linus and Genevieve Nnaji in championing the fight against gender-based violence.
“People need to know the consequences of bad behavior.”
Other critical points that Joy raised were the demands for stronger law enforcement and legislature, and robust policy actions. She strongly emphasised the need for legal retribution against SGBV perpetrators.
“This way, it serves as a deterrent to anyone else who might want to do the same thing,” she said.
To add context, statistics show that the ratio between the number of reported cases and convicted felons of GBV is extremely low, to put it mildly.
In October 2023, the current Minister of Women Affairs, Mrs Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, reported that within the last four years, only 306 offenders from 8,540 open cases have been convicted. Between September and October alone, 24,720 cases of gender-based violence have already been recorded, with 975 fatal cases and 1,505 cases closed due to fear and intimidation from the survivors or even their communities.
Enough with the cautionary tales for women. Men are the cause.
You’d agree with me that a critical part of the femicide conversation is not only the elements missing but also what needs to be taken out. And for Sharon, the incessant cautionary tales of men for women is a good place to start.
“Men are the ones killing women. Women that speak up are tagged with all sorts of names until everyone forgets that men are actually doing the damage,” she further emphasised.
The intentions for these cautionary tales from certain men, according to Tawakalit, are usually birthed from an angle of ‘financial insecurity.” It comes with the feeling of jealousy that the woman in question is not paying these sets of men enough attention due to their low income. In her words, “Shebi you want to follow rich man? You go see.”
Respect for the (woman’s) right to life
In many of the conversations online, I have noticed that there is a lack of respect for the woman's right to life from a good number of men. And I’m glad that Tawakalit noticed it too.
“Let me give an example. When Augusta’s (aka Austa) case was trending online, there were interactions and engagement with people trying to seek solutions. Shortly after that, the case of Mohbad’s death came to the limelight, and that caught national attention. Some feminists tried to bring it to the limelight and they were being shut down because Mohbad was the subject of conversation. But wasn’t she also human? Did her death no longer matter because she was a woman?” she cried.
Thankfully, Austa’s killer was apprehended on October 21, 2023, by her brother with the help of Sierra Leone authorities in Freetown. But the fact still remains that women’s rights are also human rights, especially our right to life.
A feminist champion of women’s rights in government
To wrap things up, according to Joy, Nigeria desperately needs ‘feminist women’ spearheading the fight against femicide, as well as other forms of SGBV.
This dig was precisely made at Ohanenye, who has only clocked a month in office but has made a series of gaffes — from her threatening the United Nations with a lawsuit over ‘mismanaged funds’ to her leaked audio threatening imprisonment on sexual harassment survivors of the University of Calabar’s (UNICAL) former dean, Dr Cyril Ndifon.
The former Women’s Affairs minister, Pauline Tallen, wasn’t a saint either. In June 2023, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) accused her of alleged misappropriation of funds and corrupt enrichment to the tune of N2 billion. In 2017, another Women’s Affairs minister in Goodluck Jonathan’s regime (2011–2015), Zainab Maina, was accused of defaulting on a N61 million loan from the National Economic Reconstruction Fund (NERFUND). This loan was not used for the benefit of women but as collateral to finance her personal business.
With the crop of ministers we’ve seen hold office, Joy’s comment serves as a wake-up call to the Minister of Women’s Affairs.
We need a woman who is not guided by the current cultural norms of the subservience of women to the men in their lives and society. We need a woman who will campaign for us, not just publicly, but privately in the rooms that matter. We need the “feminist woman” to launch policies that address femicide and gender-based violence legislature, enforcement, and even eradication.
And we need her now.
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