AGNES NWORIE, ABAKALIKI
Khadijah Ibrahim-Nuhu, the Joint EU-UN Spotlight Initiative Communications Coordinator at UNICEF, has charged journalists of Ebonyi and Cross River States to deepen their roles in facilitating
end of violence against women and girls in Nigeria.
The Coordinator gave the charge during a four-day dialogue with media
practitioners on ethical reporting and advocacy to eliminate violence
against women and girls for Journalists in Cross River and Ebonyi States, currently holding in Calabar Cross River State.
The participants, 30 journalists were drawn from both print and electronic media for the training at Channel View Hotels, Calabar.
Khadijah Ibrahim- Nuhu urged the journalists to open up in discussions with the Spotlight Initiative Partners and resource persons so that they can deepen their role in promoting an end to violence against women and girls.
She noted that it was important for journalists to move beyond mere reportage of incidences of violence against women and girls to
investigative journalism, while being more invested in the issue of violence against women and girls through advocacy and solutions journalism.
The European Union-United Nations said that female genital mutilation still persists in Nigeria due to deeply entrenched cultural practices and beliefs, which vary across communities; with regional and ethnic variations.
It also identified ignorance and limited knowledge of the harmful nature of the phenomenon as well as existing laws against the practice as other reasons the act persists in the country.
The programme was put together by the organization in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Information.
In his presentation at the workshop on behalf of the European Union, the United Nations Children’s Fund Child Specialist, Victor Atuchukwu
further identified weak and poor enforcement of existing FGM laws, weak national and state level FGM response coordination bodies and
financial gains as some of the reasons why the practice persists in Nigeria.
He explained that the 2018 National Democratic Health Survey revealed that FGM among ages 0-14 was the most common among those whose mothers were circumcised, had no education and from the lowest wealth quintile.
Barr. Mike Aja-Nwachukwu of Ebonyi State Ministry of
Justice lamented increase in cases of violence against women and children in the state and called on media to rise to the challenge by
effectively reporting the cases and following up on them.
She raised the alarm over increase in child stealing in the state and said that the ministry had recorded over 30 cases.
“Children are being abused and the perpetrators are living in our environment. What are we doing about it as media practitioners?
Children are being stolen, and mothers suffer it most. What have you
done about it as journalists? In our ministry, we have over 30 cases of stolen children. Child stealing is on the increase in our state,”
she lamented.
