by Amos Sunday
Nibris and Katla have been living as a couple for several years in the Tudun Wange area of Kaltungo, Gombe State, Northeastern Nigeria. In their early years of marriage, their love and happiness seemed boundless, especially for Nibris. However, their once love-filled marriage turned bitter and violent when Katla took another wife.
Before meeting Katla, Nibris was a divorcee with two children. Nonetheless, Katla married her and embraced her children as his own. However, Nibris was unable to conceive in her new home, which frustrated and angered Katla, who had longed to hear the laughter of his own children. Consequently, Katla took another wife, transforming from a loving husband into a violent presence in Nibris’s life.
Since her husband took another wife, Nibris has been living in a state of trauma, unable to have even her most basic needs met by him. She explained, “Katla has never seen or treated me as a wife or someone important since he married his second wife. He no longer provides food for me and my children.” Nibris went on to recount, “He beats me for the slightest mistake I make,” a pattern of abuse that continued until the night of October 22nd, 2023, leaving her hospitalized. She also mentioned, “He once sold his cow, bought a wrapper and foodstuffs for his second wife, but bought nothing for me.”
A report by Premium Times in October 2022 stated that 17 million Nigerian women had experienced gender-based violence. According to statistics from the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), one in three Nigerian women has experienced physical or sexual violence. The Northeastern states of Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba, and Yobe, have witnessed an alarming increase in gender-based violence, fueled by the activities of insurgency. In 2013, the Nigeria Demographic and Health Surveys (NDHS) reported that “1 in 3 Nigerian women have experienced physical violence by age 15.”
In Gombe, an alliance of 22 civil society organisations under the umbrella of VAPP Alliance has decried the rising rate of gender-based violence and the lack of stringent penalties to prosecute such cases.
According to the Coordinator, Dudu Manuga, no fewer than 83 cases were reported in May, based on statistics gathered from the Gombe State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development. Gombe State reported a total of 288 GBV cases between June and November 2021, representing only a fraction of the actual number of cases, as many go unreported, as is the case with Nibris.
Katla, who abuses Nibris for any reason, including the recent incident that landed her in the hospital, has been reported to the police. Nibris’s story challenges the harmful norm of women shouldering all responsibilities in their marital homes, a belief that pervades Tula land and beyond.
Harmful social norms continue to sustain violence against women and girls, such as the emphasis on women’s sexual purity, prioritising family honour over women’s safety, and men’s perceived authority to discipline women and children. On the other hand, poverty is a significant contributing factor to intimate partner violence in Nigeria.
By
Amos Sunday,
Department of Mass Communication,
University of Maiduguri,
Borno State.
