James Sowole in Abeokuta

A non-governmental orga-nisation (NGO), the Centre for Women’s Health and Information in Nigeria (CEWHIN), has stressed the importance of involving youth in the campaign to end Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG).

Speaking with THISDAY at a consultative forum for traditional, religious leaders and youths, the Executive Director of CEWHIN, Mrs Atinuke Odukoya, said  it was discovered that youths were not properly carried along in the campaign.

She said it was during an encounter with the youths that the organisation discovered  the existence of new group  known as “Cooler Ministry,”  on campuses of Nigerian tertiary institutions.

According to her, the group, which is operating under the guise of religion, subjects  female students to various exploitative practices including but not limited to house chores for a pastor, who is also a fellow student.

Speaking at the  forum held with youths at the Green Legacy, Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), Abeokuta, Ogun State, Odukoya said the event, was an eye opener.

The forum involving the youth, was organised in furtherance of CEWHIN’s Partnership for Enhansed VAWG Prevention Among Traditional and Religious Stakeholders, was  organised with support from Ford Foundation.

The executive director said the three-day consultative forum and particularly the one that involved youths of between 18 and 35 years, had been very revealing.

She said: “It has been a mixed pill like a pot pouri. If we did’nt have this workshop, I just wondered where and how we will be. In the past three days, we have been engaging ourselves on how certain things can be prevented.” 

“It is amazing what kind of mindset the people had. I know for certain that if, for instance, the people we have here do not gain anything, they will have another opinion of what concerns them.”

“I was amazed with the kind of examples and experiences that people had gone through.  

“The project itself is actually targeting traditional and religious leaders. We started with the town hall meetings that involved every member of the society. The young people were there and they said you have not been talking to us and there is no way you can do this thing without talking to us, so we realise that there is a gap there and we have to fill that gap.  

“While engaging them, i have heard things that i have never heard in my life. From them i heard of Cooler Ministry.  I was amazed and asked which one is this?  It involves some of the Youth Pastors on university campuses who are behaving like their Father in the Lord  to other students, especially ladies. 

“The pastor behaving like their father in the Lord and all the young men and women carrying his bag, carrying his Bible and the girls are going to his house to cook, the other one washing his clothes and performing all forms of activities. 

“If you go to pastor’s house to cook and he forcefully slept with you and as a Christian sister, if you come out to shout that he slept with you, nobody will even believe you. So this one will keep quiet and another one will go. So when they called it Cooler Ministry I was surprised.

“So as the girls are running after one another to cook for the pastor, we recognised that if we don’t capture those categories of persons, the chain will continue because the pastor will see himself as so important and it will later become a habit. When it becomes the habit, it will be difficult to control.” 

Odukoya explained that though the youth forum was not an integral part of what the organisation was doing because there was not budget for it.

“We do not have budget for the youth engagement that we are doing today,  but for a start we gathered the youth within because of the issue of transport and other logistics. So what we are doing is within the project we have for religious and traditional rulers because we realised that we have to engage them so that we can get their own perspective on what is going on and how can prevent it.

“We want them to be involved in how to prevent those identified violence against women and girls.  

“We engaged them so that they don’t run into trouble particularly when they go outside Nigeria. Some of them may run into troubles when they go to countries like UK. We have to tell them that there is nothing like consent when it comes to sexual relationship with a minor.”

At the consultative forum, participants interacted freely on  essence of the programme after listening to lectures by facilitators.

The participants identified various enablers of gender-based violence and sexual harassment.

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