By Halimah Olamide
The Chairperson, of the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), Olufunke Oduwole, has urged that there is a need to put words into action to ensure the elimination of Human trafficking and violence.
She made the assertion at day 15 of the Wole Soyinka Center for Investigative Journalism’s 16-day Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, themed; “Is our Challenging Economy Fueling Domestic Violence and Human Trafficking.”
Oduwole in her remark said that psychological violence oftentimes prevails before physical violence and highlighted that the financial and economic recession, has made such events rampant.
She further noted that the increase in the rate of complaints has further grown mediation, counseling, and litigations in the branch she manages.
“Before anything physical starts, there is bound to be psychological abuse. We cannot isolate the fact that a recession or economic challenge has also made this problem frequent and it’s now a big thing that everybody can see.
“Complaints within the Epe branch I’m supervising, the number of litigation even mediation counseling has grown. Gender-based violence has reached an alarming level within our country
“A lot of the GBV at this point in time, let us pay attention to this concept of economic and financial violence,
“The recession has caused a lot of problems. For the law to be effective, we have to walk the talk.”
In the same vein, Consultant, Human Trafficking, Migration and Policy Development, Godwin Morka, harped on strengthening family values, and increasing orientation, especially amongst the youths.
He also highlighted the correlation between economic challenges and how it may set unsuspecting people up for human trafficking
Morka gave instances of young school girls having to indulge in immoral acts as side hustles, as such children may come from homes where the parents pressurize them into contributing to the finances of the home
“There is a correlation between the economic turndown and rising cases of GBV.
“As long as people can be persuaded to believe in fantasies, they will continue to walk into traps and the economy has put a lot of pressure, especially on young girls. It has to start from the home because what we lost started from the families which is family values
“We have to start from family orientation, religious houses should begin to talk to our people about family values. We also need to talk to our young girls, there is no greener pastures anywhere
“We need to put our feet down as a nation and define who we are as a people because as long as materialism is our hiatus and our religion, there is very little you can say to anybody.” He concluded