16-Days Of Activism: Culture Of Silence Declining on GBV, Say Kingibe, Activists

The senator representing the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Hajia Ireti Heebah Kingibe, has observed a significant change in women’s response to Gender- Based Violence, GBV, noting that the culture of silence is finally collapsing.

Kingibe made the observation on Thursday in Abuja at an event tagged “Ending Violence Together Intergenerational Learning and Sharing” event, held under the theme “Unite to End All Violence Against All Women and Girls” as part of the 16 Days of Activism.

Speaking through her Senior Legislative Aide, Dr. Mercy Kwabe, the senator highlighted how the Senate Committee on Women Affairs has deepened its scrutiny of issues affecting women, especially those requiring policy review and legislative intervention.

Kwabe, conveying Senator Kingibe’s concerns, noted: “Another thing we’ve seen difference is that gradually we’re breaking the walls of the culture of silence that we’ve had in society for a very long time, where a lot of people keep silent when these things happen to them. Because when we talk about it, then we can fix the problem.”

She explained that the forum deliberately brought together young girls, middle-aged women and older women to compare generational experiences of gender-based violence, adding: “This program is an intergenerational conversation between older, middle-aged and younger women because sexual and gender-based violence is something that women from all forms of society actually experience. And because of that, you now have to look at the past generation, how did they respond to this?

“The middle-aged people, how are they responding to this? The younger people, how do we respond to this? Because we believe that this data is going to help us actually towards 2026 to strategically align ourselves with the thoughts of the people.”

Earlier, the Founder and Executive Director of the Tunani Initiative, Mero Ibrahim, said the gathering was conceived as a platform to allow different generations of women openly share survival lessons, strategies, and failures in the fight against gender-based violence.

“So what we’re doing here is bringing young women, adolescents, and older women, middle-aged women, together to discuss what they have learned in the struggle for equality, what they have learned in the struggle for the fight against gender-based violence, to learn from each other and to share with each other.

“So we believe adolescents have something to teach older women, and older women have something to teach adolescents and learn from each other also. It’s called Ending Violence Together.”

From another perspective, Programme Manager of the Social Justice and Equity Programme at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Foundation, Regina Ugbyigbo Alachi, warned that the battleground has expanded beyond homes and public spaces into the digital sphere. She stressed that although virtual, online abuse remains just as damaging.

She noted that society has “come a really long way, but there’s still a lot of work to do, especially as regards sexual and gender-based violence and how it has translated into online violence and it takes different forms and shapes. And the fact that violence happens online doesn’t make it any less real than physical violence as well.

“So what we have to do is understand that since the dynamics of violence has shifted from not just the physical space, but also now something that is online, something that is not really tangible, nothing that you can touch, but you feel it.”

She added: “we have to also find ways to advocate for survivors and victims of sexual and gender-based violence as well as online sexual and gender-based violence. Previous years were centered mostly on sexual and gender-based violence and how it happens in physical spaces.”

The National President of the National Council of Women Societies (NCWS), Princess Edna Azura, urged women to uplift one another, insisting that those in leadership positions must open opportunities for others.

“When women are either elected or appointed to power to bring other women close to mentor and groom them so as they are facing out, others are taking over from them,” she said.

Turning to the issue of gender-based violence, she urged government to “go by the policies, laws and reforms laid and let punishment be metted on perpetrators, so that others can take a lesson from that.”

She also cautioned young girls and women to place value on themselves and avoid risky pursuits: She urged them “to be satisfied with what they have because GBV occurs as a result of looking for greener pasture and before one knows it turns out to be something, therefore let them develop themselves because there are several ways one can develop to become what God has planned for them to be not until young girls are seduced and later rendered useless.”