THE ADVOCACY ROLE OF WOMEN’S RIGHTS BASED NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS IN COMBATING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN LAGOS STATE, NIGERIA 1999-2007

Abstract

Domestic violence affects about 81% of Nigerian females. Despite being a signatory to several international conventions on the protection of women against domestic violence, the Nigerian State has not made adequate institutional provisions to protect women against domestic violence particularly in the private sphere. However, Women’s Right Based Non-governmental Organizations (WRBNGOs) in Nigeria have endeavoured to establish the political linkage between the private and public spheres in order to sensitize relevant State institutions to the victim’s plight – an issue that has not been adequately studied. This study therefore, examined the role of WRBNGOs in combating domestic violence in Nigeria, with a specific focus on Lagos State. It investigated the WRBNGOs’ domestic violence advocacy with concerned State institutions. In particular, it explored the best practice strategies with which the WRBNGOs responded to the diverse domestic violence experiences of victims. Data were collected using qualitative research methods. Sixty-two victims’ experiential case histories were elicited through in-depth interviews at three WRBNGOs. These were complemented with unobtrusive observation at the Welfare Office (WO) and the Office of the Public Defender (OPD). Key informant-interviews were conducted with 16 legislators, coupled with an opinion survey of 50 civil servants, on issues related to the passage of the Domestic Violence Bill (DVB) in Lagos State. Eight Focus Group Discussions were held: three with victims, three with men and two with police officers. Data were transcribed and clustered into six thematic areas. The WRBNGOs exhibited participant political culture by intensively lobbying the legislators to pass the DVB into law. Initially, the legislators exhibited subject political culture towards the DVB process due to the unpopularity of the sponsor of the bill at that particular point in time. This finding negated the manifest reason of culture which was given by 62.5% of the legislators. Subsequently, after the change of the unpopular legislator, the house passed the bill into law with a two-thirds majority vote. Another key finding of the WRBNGOs’ advocacy with other State institutions suggested that the strategies of mediation, counseling and legal aid adopted by the WO and OPD had short term effects on the lives of the victims. This was in comparison with the best practice strategies of shelter provision, economic empowerment, mediation, counseling and legal aid adopted by the WRBNGOs which had positive long term effects in the lives of the victims. Victims provided with shelter and economic empowerment by the WRBNGOs were much more able to survive their traumatic domestic violence experiences. There is a need for the State to collaborate with the WRBNGOs, to extend the service delivery of the WO, and OPD, to include shelter provision and economic empowerment. The implication of this for the policy and practice of the domestic violence law, is the need for the State to allocate adequate funds and to mobilize concerned institutions to exercise sufficient political will to enforce the law in Lagos State and throughout the federation.