Features Akin Lewis, Adedimeji Lateef, Mercy Aigbe, Jide Kosoko, others
In commemoration of 16 days of activism against gender-based violence, ARDA Development Communication held the first public screening of its award-winning feature film in Lagos.
The movie, titled: “Beckma,” highlights the various forms of gender-based violence influenced by social norms and the challenges in combating them and providing recourse to survivors.
Actors such as Adedimeji Lateef, Mercy Aigbe, Akin Lewis, Jide Kosoko, Femi Durojaiye, Lord Frank, Uche Montana, Agnes Obi, Duke Elvis, Rhoda Inaju, Ejirooghene Asagba, Michael Ejoor were featured in the movie screened at the Ebony Cinema.
The exclusive screening of the movie in Lagos, which had students from selected secondary schools, was sponsored by Unity Bank to further educate the public about GBV through storytelling.
Beckma is a story about a lady who survived a tough childhood to become a vigilante fighting to protect women from abuse including domestic violence, rape, and child marriage, among others.
After the screening of the movie, Tawakalit Kareem, an ARDA Programme Associate, moderated a panel session interrogating some of the prevailing themes in the movie in line with the ongoing global discourse around gender-based violence.
The panel featured Best Okoduwa, the co-producer and director of Beckma; Tumininu Oni, the head of Case Management at the Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency (DSVA); and Faith Babajamu, programme associate at the Centre for Health Ethics, Law and Development.
In his remarks, Mr Okoduwa said that the movie spotlighted the major GBV issues to call attention to the urgent need to tackle them across society. He urged the government to invest more in sensitisation across the country.
He added that the fight against GBV requires a collective effort of both men and women, saying GBV is not a gender-specific problem, but an issue that affects humans.
According to Ms Babajuma, there is a need to dismantle patriarchal structures in society to prevent gender-based violence. She said that men need to be involved in the fight against GBV “because they have more power to influence men’s behaviour.
“We need to see how to dismantle the gender norm. We need to involve men to become role models and advocate against SGBV,” she said.
Mrs Oni of DSVA highlighted the work of the Lagos agency in the fight against GBV, and the challenges associated with suspects’ arrest, investigation, and prosecution.
While admitting that investigating and prosecuting a GBV case is expensive, she emphasised the need for victims of abuse to have concrete evidence saying they are key to the prosecution of perpetrators.
The panelists also highlighted funding as a major challenge for nonprofits working on gender-based violence in Nigeria.
