Ms May Ikokwu, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Save Our Heritage Initiative (SOHI), called for an end to wife battering in Nigeria on Sunday.
“There has been an alarming increase in the prevalence of wife battering and other forms of Gender Based Violence as heightened by COVID-19 lockdown,” Ikokwu said in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
She stated that wife battering is not only a form of gender-based violence, but also a form of brutality against humanity.
“It is extremely wrong for husbands to beat or verbally abuse their wives because it has psychological consequences for the woman.”
“Most men do it even in front of their children.” “I implore husbands to be tolerable and calm regardless of the level of provocation in order to avoid homicide,” she said.
According to the SOHI CEO, wife battering is not part of African culture, and husbands should always love their wives.
She stated that domestic violence was not a part of African culture because African culture valued the dignity of womanhood.
According to her, women are future generations’ mothers who deserve protection and respect from their husbands rather than battering.
“Wives, like any other woman, cannot be subjected to barbaric practices when she is the medium through which new life is formed,” Ikokwu continued.
She expressed her organization’s commitment to continue advocating for husbands to change their behavior in order to make marriages safer for women.
Ikokwu, on the other hand, urged states to domesticate the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act (VAPP) in order to adequately address issues of wife battering and other forms of violence against women.