By Gbenga Sodeinde
The Federation of International Women Lawyers, code named: FIDA, has lauded the Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University Oye-Ekiti, Prof. Fasina Abayomi Sunday and the wife of the Governor of Ekiti State, Erelu Bisi Fayemi on their respective, outstanding roles in combating Gender Based Violence (GBV) in Ekiti state.
While the VC was commended for his uncompromising stance against sexual harassment in FUOYE, leading to the recent suspension and dismissal of a lecturer, Mrs. Fayemi was lauded for her tremendous efforts in ensuring the establishment of both institutional and legal frameworks against GBV in Ekit State.
Speaking with newsmen recently during the 2021 annual Law week at the state’s high court in Ado-Ekiti, the Country’ Vice-President and the National President of FIDA, Barrister Rodah Tyodeh, congratulated both the VC and Mrs. Fayemi on their successes in the fight against GBV, saying the organisation is proud of them.
Fuoye’s VC is commended for displaying the attribute of a leader of high repute, who sees all his students as his own children and ready to protect and respect both male and female who cried out to him for any form of injustice. He is an epitome of true leader who has zero tolerance for female molestation. His effort in making Fuoye an institution where life of a female student is moulded and not sexually destroyed is highly commendable.
It is not easy fighting the monster of sexual immorality in our institution and the society as a whole, where majority carries the vote. Good job to both the FUOYE VC and the Ekiti state First lady who is a mother with big wrapper to all female folks in Ekiti state.
Barrister Rodah spoke about FUOYE’s recent suspension of a lecturer found guilty of sexual harassment, saying: “Punishing sexual harassment culprits is the right thing to do. If it has been investigated and the lecturer is found culpable, such act is criminal and it is punishable.
This is what we have been advocating for, that perpetrators should be punished. This is why in Ekiti, we have the sexual assault register and the name and shame mechanism so that it will serve as deterrent to others.
“So, if a university has punished a lecturer for sexually harassing a female student, I want to say congratulations to that University. “A very big thank you to Professor Abayomi Sunday Fasina and the Governing council of Federal University of Oye Ekiti.
Tyodeh also explained the importance of FIDA in sustainable development, saying: “FIDA is an organization of women lawyers who are into Law practice with a mandate towards preserving and protecting women and children and the vulnerables in the society.”
She went done memory lane to reel out the achievement of the organisation: “FIDA Nigeria started in 1964, and l can tell you that since then, for each tenure, it is like building a house, you start the foundation and others build on it and we have been building on what our matriarchs started 57 years ago and so far so good.
Spread wise, we are in all the 36 states of the federation including the FCT. Some states, because of the need and desire for communities to be impacted by the services of FIDA, have opened up other centers, so we now have 42 branches in Nigeria and they are doing their best in protecting the rights of women and children.
“We have been doing a lot of sensitization on the rights of women and children. We know the placement of women, the Nigeria women are not yet fully recognised in the society, there is still a lot of discrimination, there are quite a lot of prohibitive things done against the Nigeria woman. So Nigeria need to recognize that women’s rights are human rights and that is what FIDA Nigeria has been advocating for.
“So far, about 29 states have adopted the Gender Assault Prohibitive Law. Also, there is the Administration of Criminal Justice and Procedural Law and we are in the process of making states adopt that. When a law comes into effect, we push for the implementation of such laws. And it is the desire of FIDA to see that laws that are gender sensitive and gender neutrallity are fully implemented.
“We are pushing for proactive measures to be put in place and l can tell you, one of the things we are pushing for now is the institution of gender courts where GBV survivors can get justice. You find out that when you go to the regular courts these cases are delayed and the survivors are tired.
“The child rights law is another law we are pushing for its adoption and its implementation. The rights of our children must be protected and the environment must be made conducive for our children to live.
“Gender Assault Referral centers is supposed to be a one stop shop, where a survivor of a sexual based violence gets all the necessary attention that he or she needs, because in most cases, when a survivor gets to a police station without any fault of his or hers, the case ends there but with the Sexual Assault Referral center, you have qualified doctors in place, some psycho social support which include professional social workers with the appropriate intervention mechanisms, the police and the lawyers, so that once a survivor get there, they will follow up and ensure that the survivor gets justice.
“The sexual assault referral centers are in some parts of the states, Ekiti is one of them and some of our international partners are interested in having such centers in Nigeria. I am sure you have seen how it is working in Ekiti, it is a proactive measure against sexual based violence cases.
“Once the center is in existence, all you need is to ensure that there are well trained personnel in all the units and the facilities are also there and whatever you need to make the place effective should be in place. this is the sure way of making them functional.”
Speaking about the Law week, the FIDA national Boss, said: “A Law week is normally a time for us in FIDA to review our activities as owners of law, what we have done, and what need to be done. Theme is equity, equality and justice, looking at gender parity and its critical role in sustainable development of any society. We are saying that gender parity is germane to sustainable development in any society.
“The first lady had advised us on how to serve our society and the CJ also did because our role cannot be over emphasized.
We are giving some nuggets on how to best serve our immediate community… we will also engage the youths, the students and the girls to educate them on how to protect themselves against sexual assaults and how to know if there is any form of harassment.
“There is a Law, the Teritary Institution Sexual Assault Prohibition Act with the National Assembly, you know the case of sex for marks and we know this goes on in all tertiary institutions. So, the CEOs or VCs should come up with measures that will make the schools safe places for our young men and women.
“We should be proactive, we don’t have to be merely preventive. So it is a welcome idea if the institutions would have a sexual assault referral centre. When sexual harassment has happened in institution A, institutions, B, C, D and all should take proactive measures against it. It will be a great idea if all institutions would have sexual assault referral centres where students who fall victims will get justice,” she advised.
For Barrister Oluwatoyin Odunayo, Chairperson, FIDA, Ekiti State, the Law week celebration is organised to build on existing structures and strategize on how to strengthen the institutional and legal frameworks put in place by the Dr. Kayode Fayemi administration to fight GBV.
“We are celebrating our 2021 annual Law week and we have chosen to celebrate our amiable governor’s wife, Her Excellency, Erelu Bisi Fayemi. We are wrapping this annual Law week round her. She is the personality we are celebrating because of her tremendous achievement on gender issues in the state.
There have been a lot of institutional framework like the establishment of the Trustees’ Home where victims of Gender Based Violence (GBV), of whatever age bracket and sex are being taken care of. There is also the Skills Acquisition centres and the Sexual Assault Referral centre which is Moremi House, and there are legal framework, of which Ekiti is a forerunner, there are the Child rights Law, and laws prohibiting harmful widowhood practices and others and we can give the credit to the First Lady and the huge support by the governor and the highly cerebral CJ of the state and ever ready Speaker of the House.
” We are looking at how to strengthen the existing legal and institutional frameworks against sexual based violence in the state.Everything that has a beginning usual have an end. We have enjoyed the administration of our amiable governor.
We are now strategizing on how to work this walk against GBV beyond 2022 and how the right against GBV will continue after the JKF administration. We are looking at how to chart the course towards the sustainability of the gender friendly tradition of this JKF government.
” Government is out to help whoever is molested sexually. All these framework out in place cannot be effective without the instrumentality of human involvement. So we have to imbibe a culture of speaking up and not be afraid. No one will stigmatize you because the Law will protect you. For the general public, we should be one another’s brothers keeper. It is a collective efforts.
” All institutions need to have a gender policy which will state the procedure that would guide gender activities in the institutions. It won’t be a law but a policy. You know that you can’t build something on nothing. If that is done and the students know that there is a policy in place to protect them, they will be able to open up when they are sexually harassed. The students should be taken through the policy that is put in place.
We are hoping to pay a courtesy visit soon to appreciate the gender friendly Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University Oye-Ekiti, Prof. Fasina Abayomi Sunday for the good work that he is doing and we encourage the institution to have a gender policy. The policy will set done procedure and the procedure will enhaSnce continuity and fair play in this aspect, ” she said.