Solomon Attah
Lafia
Centre for Gender Studies (CGS) in the Nasarawa State University Keffi has called on the government and other stakeholders to urgently take steps towards addressing gender based violence in the country.
The Director of the center, Dr. Hauwa’u Mainoma who made the call during the Seminar Series organised by the centre in Keffi lamented the rate at which female folks are been abused daily, saying the seminar was aimed at mitigating the effect of abuse especially on female students in the university.
The Director explained that the centre which was established in 2017, organised the seminar with the theme ‘Gender Based Violence and the Survival of Education in Nigeria’ due to the increasing rate of gender based violence in the society especially in academic institutions across the country.
Dr. Mainoma therefore stressed the need for all hands to be on deck to ensuring that all forms of violence are curtail in all strata of the society, and emphasized that, all gender should given equal opportunity to realise their potentials.
The Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Suleiman Bala-Mohammed, who represented by Akinwumi Olayimi, Deputy-VC Academic commended the centre for organising the seminar been first of it kind
The VC said that the management of the university would support the centre to making it a centre of excellence, and would make it to be in the forefront of championing the cause of gender based violence in the country.
Also, Professor Charity Angya, Former vice Chancellor, Benue State University who was the lead paper presenter, said gender based violence is not just physical attacks on someone based on the persons gender, but on the emotional and psychology being of the affected persons.
Mrs Angya said that both gender suffered violence in one point or the other in Nigeria, but women did not only suffered more than men, they are vulnerable.
The presenter explained that gender based violence exists in places of work, family and academics environments due to discrimination in careers and field of studies.
Angya noted that education is a right that all persons should acquired, and called on the government to abolish any custom or tradition militating against girl child education in the country.
She therefore said that the only way to remedy gender based violence in Nigeria is for men to massively move to career and courses hitherto assumed to be exclusively reserved for women and women too should do the same.
