A faith-based media group, Journalists for Christ (JFC) International Outreach have unveiled their findings on the “Trends and Contexts of Misogyny and Tech-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence in Nigeria” in a report presented on Thursday 5, December as part of concerted efforts to call for the end of gender-based violence.
The public presentation of the report was led by the former presidential spokesperson, Mr Femi Adesina, at the Nigeria Institute of Journalism, Ogba Lagos, alongside journalism leaders and trainers like Former General Manager of Vanguard Newspaper and Provost of the NIJ, Mr Gbenga Adefaye; Executive Director Media Career Development Network, Mr Lekan Otufodunrin; Deputy Director of News and Training at Voice of Nigeria (VON) and Vice President JFC, Mrs Ugonma Cokey, Founder CEE HOPE, Mrs Betty Abbah and many other journalists and media practitioners.
The report is a product of months of research and stakeholder engagement and part of an advocacy and narrative-countering project against misogyny and online gender-based violence executed by the JFC with support from the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) and Brot für die Welt.
According to the project Officer, Blessing Oladunjoye during the presentation, the research employed the use of expert discourse, social media monitoring and focus group discussions to establish the findings presented in the report.
The research exposed prevalent trends and actors perpetrating misogynistic and tech-facilitated gender-based violence in Nigeria, and how they affect victims while providing recommendations for its eradication.
According to the report, this vice is prevalent among skit makers, bloggers and individuals with even large online followers, and although a large number of the perpetrators are male some female gender also contribute to online misogynistic trolls.
The sexist and misogynistic content online has lasting effects on women, limiting their engagement online and offline. It also tends to force girls/women to conform to societal pressures, often against their will.
The report recommended continuous public education and awareness campaigns while engaging necessary stakeholders to effect drastic behavioural change in society. It also encourages responsible social media interaction practices and collaborations between institutions in efforts geared towards stopping online misogynistic attacks and tech-facilitated gender-based violence.
Reviewing the report findings, Mrs Odum Oruoma, Lecturer at the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, noted that misogyny is at its core engrained in social construct and societal traditions where a particular gender is placed over the other. Many misogynistic thoughts and ideas are unfounded and based on misconstrued messages.
She called on the male gender which is mostly found responsible for this act to rethink their principles and change their approach to addressing gender-related issues. Mrs Oruoma also called on the government to do more to put better mechanisms in place to correct the menace in the country.
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Founder of CEE HOPE Foundation, Mrs Betty Abbah, while discussing the report noted that the report is poignant at the current time in society because it takes the first step in solving the social problem by calling it what it is and establishing factual grounds for the position. She said many people are ignorant of the issue or are complacent due to the patriarchal nature of Nigerian society.
Another discussant, Pastor Evans Adetokunbo stressed that the stand of Christianity on patriarchy is grossly misrepresented by many. Using citations from the bible, he noted that even in the Bible, God did not look at the world through gender lenses. As such no woman should be victimised or deprived of opportunities just because she is a woman.
