•Coordinator, LAGOS DSVRT
Titilola Vivour Adeniyi is a legal practitioner and a bilinguist. She served as a Strategic Assistant to the former Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Lagos State from 2011 to 2015. She has a passion for policy formulation and implementation. Mrs Vivour- Adeniyi is committed to public service and human development as a means of touching lives, one at a time. She currently serves as the Coordinator of LASG Domestic and Sexual Violence Response (DSVRT). A few weeks back, this lady of substance was live on the City People Instagram Live chat with the Publisher of City People Magazine, SEYE KEHINDE, where she gives her reasons why the issue of rape cases are on the increase and many other issues. Below are excerpts.
We want to thank you for talking to us about the issue of sexual abuse and rape that has been on the increase in the past few months. How did we get to this point?
Thanks again for having me. I think this has been a long time coming. Sexual violence, domestic violence and child abuse are vices that have been in the society for a long time now. I think what is mostly on the increase is the commission and reporting of these offences. Now, we have Statistics to actually measure this, so we have data to measure this scientifically. About 40 years ago, people have been committing these crimes but the culture of silence, most of these cases have been swept under the carpet. It was like a taboo back then to come out and say you were abused and it came with a lot of stigmatization and also because there were no agencies or places to go to, to access justice. But now with the advent of social media and the government taking a stand against domestic and sexual violence, with the amazing work being done by the NGOs especially at the community level to change the mindset and advocate for zero tolerance of gender-based violence. We are now seeing an increase in the reporting of these cases thereby slowly breaking the culture of silence where people can be bold enough to share their stories.
What’s the relationship between rape, domestic violence, sexual violence and child abuse, in what way are they related?
Of course, they are. The umbrella term for it is Sexual and Gender-based Violence. Under this, we have rape, sexual harassment, sexual assault and the rest. The common indicator is gender inequality. That’s when one gender thinks they are superior to the other gender. Most times, the male thinks that they are superior to the female. Gender inequality is at the heart of sexual and Gender-based Violence, especially when it comes to domestic violence. Certain men feel like, wives or women should just be seen and not heard. They don’t see their wives as equals or they feel they don’t have anything to contribute and should just be kept away to have children.
Since you took the job in Lagos state, what has been your observations concerning these issues so far?
Well, it’s been an interesting journey so far. I have seen clients that did not even know that they were victims of domestic violence. They think it’s only when the abuse is physical before it’s term domestic violence. They don’t know that verbal abuse, economic abuse, stalking, harassment, sexual assault in domestic relationships could also be domestic violence. So we have had a lot of issues like that.
Also, in the society, you would be amazed when you see landlords and landladies call us to settle cases of their tenants who had sexually abused someone because they don’t want trouble or fight in their house. I said to a landlady one day, “are you related to this suspect ?”, and she said, “No oh, he is just my tenant.” The fact that the landlady feels like she has some sorts of power or a role to play when cases like this go to court is amazing. It goes to show the level of which some people equate this violence. Some think it’s just a slap on the wrist. They don’t know that in Lagos, Rape, sexual assault by penetration, defilement carry life imprisonment. Just slightly lower than capital offences.
There is also a division in the society, half are empathetic to victims and encourage them to come out and seek justice. And then the other half, engaged in victim-blaming, shaming the survivor etc and remove the attention from the alleged perpetrators to the victims. Let’s say from “Ade raped Ada” to just “Ada was raped”. So we have issues like that
There are also religious considerations. Most times before victims come to us, they would say they have spoken with their Pastors, Imam and they were told to just pray about it. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with prayers. But at the time when someone’s life is in danger or at risk of nor just murder but also great physical assault, then there is a problem. At that point, it’s not just prayer that’s needed but intervention is needed from the government and psycho-social support for the victims and perpetrators if they are willing to receive support. So we have that as some of the challenges.
We have found out that most people would rather listen to their religious cleric than you or I. That is why we need to continually engage this first responder and we have to do that on their roles in responding to sexual and Gender-based Violence. Imagine if you have pastors and imams using their pulpits to preach against it when they have a gathering and discourage it. It would begin to change the way we view things.
There have been a lot of lessons learnt but what gives me comfort is when I see a victim metamorphose into a survivor. That has been the joy in what I do.
Would you say that you have recorded a lot of successes in terms of how you have been able to help victims resolve their problems in terms of sexual and Gender-based Violence?
Well, the indicators for success would be if the victims are able to receive medical attention, counselling, psycho-social support and are helpful during the process of healing. And also the government and society are to secure convictions. Last year alone, we were able to secure about 90 convictions ranging from rape, defilement, sexual assault by penetration among others. So I think that’s an area of measuring success.
As regards to domestic violence, majority of our clients don’t want to send their partners to jail but rather, they want the beatings to stop or they want to be separated and the partners should continue to provide support for the children, Education, Medications etc. So that’s what we have been doing. Men also experience domestic violence. We get a restraining order to a survivor who feels threatened by their partner. That is being done by the court. Looking at our statistics since 2016, we have seen a steady increase in the reporting of these cases because they are more trusting in the system.
Although statistics also show that over 70% of sexual and Gender-based Violence is not reported but we won’t give up and we will continue to encourage people to come forward and seek justice.
How frequently do you get male reports as regards the sexual and Gender-based Violence?
We have more for young boys that have been sodomized by their fellow boys. We have also seen an increase in the reporting of these cases. Another worrisome trend we have observed is the child to child sexual assaults. Cases where 14 yrs old have intercourse with a 3 yr old girl. We are dealing with children too. We try to investigate how the boy got exposed to something like that and how to help him come out of it and prevent him from being a criminal. Similarly, we have seen a 12yrs old girl having sex with a 5 yrs old boy. So it’s a very worrisome trend.
Do you think the state of the economy, society, loss of value system affects and influences these problems?
Well, I think it’s a combination of different factors that cause this problem. I also think the loss of the value system is a cause and also impunity. Most of these crimes have been perpetrated these vices and most times have gone unpunished perhaps because the victims did not report or because they have lost belief in the system or maybe some responder did not do the needful to ensure that perpetrator was brought to justice. So for so long, this has happened and impunity has encouraged perpetrators to keep on and commits this atrocity as though there is no justice system.
The media has also been instrumental in shaping the views and mindset of people. All kinds of media and the internet have made information readily available to people. Pornographic materials have been made readily available on the internet and you have a series of provocative content.
So yes, our beliefs and value system has contributed to where we are today.
I know you work hand in hand with other departments to carry out your duties, what has been the response of those units or departments that you work within trying to effect and implement corrections?
The Lagos state domestic and sexual violence response team has representatives from most of the relevant agencies come under one umbrella to respond. It’s a strategic approach because there is no one agency that can provide all the services that a survivor requires. For instance, A rape survivor would need medical assistance, need to lodge a complaint at the police station, may need to relocate from an environment due to stigmatization and may need the services of a lawyer and may need to be empowered.
All these services can not be provided by one agency. So that’s why all these agencies have to work together as a team, leverage on each other’s strengths and ensure that we are able to provide holistic support and end to end support for the survivor. I’m glad and happy to work with people who go out of their way to ensure that survivor who accesses our services receives adequate support as much as possible.
So apart from getting calls for domestic violence, does your office also respond to rape calls?
A.. We definitely do. We respond to sexual and Gender-based Violence. So everything related to that is responded to by us and we provide support. We are victim centred, and unlike in the past where victims are not carried along in the justice process, we ensure that survivor is part of the process and get their feedback. We ask to know where to Improve and how to serve them better. So we do all of that for our survivor.
How do you cope with the huge volume of complaints and challenges set before you? How you able to carry out your duties effectively?
We basically leverage on technology. As you have rightly said we can’t be everywhere at a time. We also leverage partnerships. It’s not every case that comes to my office at Alausa, some are reported at Badagry. So we leverage on partnerships that will provide this support at the community level. We reach out to such agencies at the community level and they help us investigate and do the needful. So we also work with people at the grassroots level so that the response is quicker in terms of service delivery and be able to attend to large amounts of complaints.
I recently stumbled on a photograph of the Governor holding a placard. Can you shed more light on what was happening there and what you were trying to achieve?
That was last year during the commensuration of the 16 days of activism. It starts on the 25th of November every year and lasts for 16 days but we did it on the 26th of November last year. It is good to see the demonstration of political will. So the Governor and first lady of Lagos state were there, the three tiers of government were there, the house of assembly and many more were there showing that in Lagos state, we would not tolerate sexual and gender-based violence and emphasising government support and letting people know that there is hope when it happens and what to do. So we are very grateful to the Governor and Attorney General for making that possible.
So what are you looking out for in this year’s event?
Oh in November, we are really hoping that the COVID-19 pandemic would have been long gone but we are looking at engaging men more because they play a critical role on responding to sexual and Gender-based Violence. This mindset of all men are scum will not work. This movement is not a women’s movement but a public health and general issue. Men need to talk to their fellow men that the abuse of a woman doesn’t make you a man. Men need to engage themselves and we are hoping to do more of that and promote positive masculinity. We believe that would help shape the mindset of the people perpetrating these crimes.
What kind of reactions do you get from partners of the victims or the suspect of these crimes when confronted with the issue?
Well, 80% of the time they tend to say “I did not do it” especially when there is no evidence to support the claims. They ask us to explain what we mean by domestic violence and then try to ward it off as normal scuffles between couples when they have challenges in the home. They sometimes say that the last time it happened was like 5-10yrs ago but they begged the victims. So they basically deny it mostly.
Though some are opened enough to tell you about what they saw growing up by those who raised them or role models in their lives and how it affected their mindset that they bring into the marriage.
The beauty is when they admit that they have a problem. They say a problem is half solved when it is admitted. So when we get to points like that, we link them up with psycho-social support for help with anger management and other things. We also monitor them when and during this process to see things would be solved. It’s very beautiful to have cases like that as opposed to those that deny the allegations where we would need to take certain actions. But generally, it can be quite interesting.
What would be your message to our audience and viewers that are listening in spite of the challenges they might be facing?
The unfortunate demise of Huwa and Barakat has created so much rage in the hearts and minds of those who have a conscience. There might be a tendency to think that Nigeria or Lagos is lawless and there are no laws to protect the residents. I would like to say that this is not true. My message is a message of hope. If you have experienced it, please know that it’s not your fault, and please speak out to the right people and relevant agencies of government so that the right referrals can be made so you would be able to have access to services. To the perpetrators out there, the clear warning is to desist from it. Lagos has declared a zero-tolerance to it and so get help if you need help and If you don’t, be rest assured that the full arm of the law will be unleashed on you.
Please how can people who need your services reach out to you or visit?
Unfortunately, the secretariat is still closed to the public but I’m sure when the lockdown is lifted completely, you can always visit our offices in the secretariat opposite the ministry of justice. You can also reach us on our major hotline 081379644048.
