AN ANALYSIS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN NIGERIA EXPERIENCE

Abstract
Studies have shown that globally domestic violence accounts for nearly one quarter of all
recorded crimes. Women have been subjected to various forms of violence ranging from
rape, battering, traffi cking and even murder. Although the degree diff ers from society to
society, the occurrence has profound and destructive consequences including psychological, physical, emotional and social disorders. # e fact that domestic violence prevails across
all strata of the Nigerian society is no longer debatable. Despite the spirited eff orts made by
the world bodies such as the United Nations (e.g. Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights) and Nigeria’s constitutions to
eliminate discrimination and violence against women, and promote the idea of freedom,
equality and justice, the Nigerian woman is often violated and without apology. Getting
justice for a woman who is abused at the family level is most times diffi cult and wrongly
treated by the law, leaving the victim dejected, rejected and dehumanized. # is research
provides information about domestic violence in Nigeria and has as its objectives to facilitate the activities of professional counselors such as clergy, educators, sociologists and law
enforcement agents as mediators working on behalf of women’s rights in Nigeria.

Introduction
Violence against women in the home is pervasive. Globally, domestic violence accounts for nearly one quarter of all recorded crimes.2
Surveys indicates that 10–58 percent of women have experienced physical abuse by an

intimate partner in their life times National Demographic Health Survey.3
Preliminary results from a World Health Organization (WHO) multicountry study on women’s health and domestic violence indicate that “in
some parts of the world as many as one-half of women have experienced
domestic violence.4
Although the degree diff ers from community to community and society-to-society, women have been preponderantly at the
receiving end in an approximately 95 percent of known cases.5
Shija reports that here in Nigeria, an average of 300–350 women are
killed every year by their husbands, former partners, boyfriends, or male
relations. Most times the incidences are considered family feuds, which
should be treated within the family. Most police refuse to intervene and
advice the victims to go back home and settle “family matters”.6
Domestic violence aff ects women in Nigeria irrespective of age, class,
educational level and place of residence. Nigerian law and custom categorises a woman as an object who is not quite human. Gender-based violence
is perhaps one of the most terrifying illustrations of inequality between
male and female. Women are more at risk from violence than men in all
sectors of the society. # is is because of the diff erential access to prestige,
power, control of materials resources, freedom to obtain knowledge and
other basic needs of life among the gender. Violence against women is
entrenched in the family, institutionalized by the social structure and
driven by patriarchal arrangement, or class/gender stratifi cation.7 # e family which has been regarded as the ideal basic unit of the society where
there is support, love, understanding and care, has turned out to be and
can be the most oppressive institution for serious violence, hostility and
confl icts. Yet according to Nwankwo, the law still ignores the gravity of the
problem.8
Domestic violence constitutes a violation of women’s human rights. It
contravenes the fundamental rights provisions contained in the constitution: for instance, the right to life and all the basic civil and political freedoms including freedom of association, assembly, expression and worship
and freedom from discrimination.9 # e United Nations sponsored Con

vention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
was adopted by UN General Assembly in1979 and is often called a bill of
human rights for women. It calls on governments that signed the treaty to
remove all forms of discrimination against women to ensure women’s equal
access to political and public life, education, health, and employment and
to protect their reproductive rights. In 1979 Nigeria signed the convention
and in 1985 ratifi ed it without reservations. Other conventions that address
the specifi c rights of women include the convention for the suppression of
the traffi c in persons and the convention on consent to marriage, the minimum age for marriage and the registration of marriages. In spite of these,
one problem with these protections is the long, technical and cumbersome
procedures necessary to enforce these human rights. # e objectives of this
paper is to facilitate the activities of professional counselors such as clergy,
educators, sociologists and law enforcement agents as mediators working
on behalf of women’s rights in Nigeria by identifying the specifi c protections and the problems with their use.
Domestic Violence: Forms and Prevalence

intimidation at work, in educational institutions and elsewhere traffi cking in women and forced prostitution;
c. physical, sexual and psychological violence perpetrated or condoned
by the state, whereas it occurs.11
Wife Battering/Torture

within the family in Nigeria has reached alarming proportions. Reports
of beating, torture, acid attacks and killing of women in the family or
relationships are regular features in the media and documented reports.13

women who were beaten or hurt by their husbands. # e Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) has interviewed many women victims, the National
Orthopedic Hospital, Igbobi, Lagos, as well as Lagos University Teaching
Hospital (LUTH) have reported such cases too.14 Public testimonies before
the Civil Resources Development and Documentation Centre Tribunal in
Enugu and Abuja since 1996 have revealed other harrowing cases of wife
battering in Nigeria.15
According to public testimonies given before the National Tribunal in
Abuja (Nwankwo, 2003) on wife battering and violence against women
with code names of Mrs “O” from Bayelsa state, Mrs “S” from Kaduna
state, Mrs “M” who was beaten by her husband and denied of access to her
3 years old child, Mrs “K” whose daughter “went mental” after the parents
22 years of marriage and Mrs “E” in Lagos whose husband beat her because
she frowned at her husband having an aff air with a neighbour are representatives of instances too many to mention in Nigeria.
McDonnel argues that Nigerians do not talk about domestic violence
“because it seems to be an acceptable part of marriage”. She found that

40 percent of urban women in research conducted in Lagos and Ibadan
claimed that they have been victims of domestic violence.