Following events surrounding the suspension of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan from the National Assembly and poised to create an enabling ecosystem for women and girls to thrive devoid of inappropriate sexual advances, Baobab for Women’s Human Rights recently hosted a roundtable meeting with the theme, ‘Creating Safe and Supportive Workplace Environments for Women and Girls’.
[ad]
The meeting tackled prevalent issues relating to sexual intimidation, especially in workplace, discussing strategies for tackling the menace and ensuring the safety of women and girls in society.

Executive Director, Baobab for Women’s Human Rights, Bunmi Dipo-Salami, stated that the recent incidents have brought to the fore the issues that women across Nigeria go through that society had not been paying enough attention to.

“I know when we talk about violence against women, we’re always talking about the issues of rape, and the issues of physical, domestic and intimate partner violence. We haven’t beamed our searchlight on issues of sexual harassment. Yes, we have had a few cases that came to the public attention. We’ve had one conviction so far but we haven’t had it this intense and against people in high places,” Dipo-Salami said.

She called on the media to step forward by adequately sensitising Nigerian citizens and encouraging advocacy: “When the media understands what the implications of the violence against persons in Nigeria, they will be in a better position to clearly articulate strategies to go with the information to educate and sensitise Nigerians and enable the victims and survivors to access justice.”

Programmes Director, Baobab, Anne Lawal, noted that it is important to continue having conversations that aim to identify and tackle the pressing issue: “It is important that we have this conversation and create awareness and let people know that sexual harassment is an epidemic, it is affecting our society and we need to do something to stop it. We need to have some legislation and policies in place. At national level, we need to ensure that there is more awareness,”
Lawal added that sexual harassment is a very pressing issue which needs to be treated with urgency, as it is a vice with far-reaching consequences that impact workplace productivity and economic stability.
[ad]
“Sexual harassment in the workplace is broad and it affects every aspect of our lives. We have a population of around 49 percent women in Nigeria; we are already at a disadvantage in leadership and then you also have sexual harassment in those free spaces that they have to be able to be productive members of society. It becomes a problem, and at the end of the day, it goes on to affect our GDP, economy and our society.”

Programmes Manager, Gender Mobile Initiative, Maryam Mukhtar acknowledged that her organisation has continued to complement the efforts of the Nigerian government in tackling the menace of sexual harassment. She admitted that while other nations were making huge strides, Nigeria was far behind in the global battle against sexual harassment –

“For me, it is sad that at this point, we’re still having this conversation, and struggling to put these things in place. There are countries that have gone way past this. They are even training Artificial Intelligence to detect threats before they happen, and we’re here begging legislatives to pay attention to these things. There is no need for conversations around this, to ‘prove’ that it happened, we know that it happened, they are just in denial.”
Also speaking, Gender Activist and Consultant at Baobab, Ene Ede, believes that there has been a clear violation of National Ethics and Principles.

“In the National Assembly as a pillar of democracy, they will make sexist jokes, and they don’t see anything wrong with it. There is no decorum. It shows that the value system is being depleted, and if you look at Section 24 of our constitution, the National values are stated there clearly. We’re not talking about patriotism now; the National Ethics and Principles that we have thrown away, it is very unethical, even for every profession and culture,” said Ede.
Regardless of the laws in place, Ede noted that without proper conduct, the legal frameworks will be of no effect. She believes that sex can be a good thing, only if it is done appropriately, without bullying, power or enticement.
[ad]