State of Emergency SGBV: Prioritizing Survivors

By Kevwe Oghide and Blessing Uwisike

Has the world become more hypersexual? Or have people become more vocal about sexual harassments and abuse?  These questions linger on one’s mind as the number of reported rape cases and abuse continue to increase on news platforms. The Inspector-General of the Nigerian Police, Mohammed Adamu, said in July 2020 that the Police Forice recorded 717 rape cases in 5 months. This alarming increase has triggered a nation-wide revolt, where a number of groups, citizens and Civil Society Organisations like CODE, TechHer, EIE, EVA, StandtoEndRape and other initiatives are raising their voices and calling on the government to declare a State of Emergency on Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV).

Sadly, women and girls are the worst-hit— especially as they already grapple with disproportionately high records of marginalisation all over the world. Violence against women and girls is not only a devastating phenomenon for families and the society, it is a pandemic that affects 1 in 3 women in their lifetime, according to WHO. In Nigeria, 17% of girls and women between the ages of 15 and 49 have been subjected to sexual or physical violence at least once in their lives. 

While we are concerned about the staggering statistics, we are equally reminded that behind these figures are real people with real experiences who are going through untold mental issues in the wake of these atrocities in a country where there is a prevalent negligence of issues that do not fetch more money to those in power. Gender-based violence is also becoming a rising issue in online communities and girls or women who dare to report such incidences have either been shut down or have had to bow to pressure to leave the platforms as a result of threats and shaming. Reporting can be even harder as most victims are defiled by close relatives and family friends.

In an ideal situation, this realisation should induce empathy, but more importantly, drive relevant agencies such as the Police Force, the National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Ministry of Women Affairs and anti-SGBV initiatives to continue to provide succour and protect SGBV survivors. The disruption in these crucial services is compromising the care and support that survivors need, like clinical management, mental health check and psycho-social support. It is also allowing perpetrators to go unpunished.

At the moment, only a handful of Nigerian States have functioning Sexual Assault Referral Centres (SARC) and are implementing laws that specifically protect women and girls from domestic violence.  There are currently 22 SARCs in Nigeria which is significantly low and insufficient for caring for survivors. Many of these referral centres are poorly equipped. This shameful reality portrays how less of a priority SGBV cases are handled in the country.

The Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act (VAPP Act), that clearly outlines laws to expunge violence in Nigeria and in turn, ensure respectable living and decent behaviour among citizens of Nigeria, has still not been domesticated in 20 States, 5 years after its enactment. The act seeks to prohibit all forms of violence, including physical, sexual, psychological, domestic, harmful traditional practices like female genital mutilation; and to provide maximum protection and effective remedies for victims and punishment of offenders. Although 25 States claim to have adopted the Child Right Act, there are prevalent cases of child marriages and child abuse in many communities in the country, especially in Nigeria’s North. The poor implementation of the Act has also fuelled impunity for the perpetrators of SGBV. 

NAPTIP must be strengthened to domesticate the VAPP Act across the country and also increase citizens’ awareness of its laws and implications of violations. Safe spaces for survivors of rape, domestic violence and sexual assault must be highly prioritised. Communities need to be educated on the need to protect victims of SGBV and not shame them or turn a blind eye. Cyber-bullying and slut-shaming of survivors is significantly on the rise, many survivors are afraid to speak up because of the backlash the society deals them—although this is gradually changing as there are support groups springing up, more needs to be done in this regard. Sexual predators and rape apologists must face the wrath of the law.

Oftentimes, a survivor’s first point of contact is the health centre, and the quality of service will either begin the healing process or deepen the scar that these victims already carry. Functional facilities that provide proper care for survivors including counselling must be established. SGBV care-providers, qualified specialists and counsellors must be adequately trained to meet global standards. In the same vein, dedicated centres that address SGBV and help victims seek redress (if they desire) should be fully equipped and readily accessible. 

As a society that is still largely patriarchal, values like consent, gender equality, and a renewed glance on old harmful traditional practices like female genital mutilation and incest must be discussed in groups and authoritative platforms to further educate the public. Women’s contribution to society’s development should be embraced, and their interests fully represented and protected by all means. 

In October 2017, CODE commenced tracking government and international aid spending in Northern Nigeria, with particular focus on first-mile healthcare delivery and infrastructural provision for universal basic education.

We were on a mission to advance economic governance and promote transparency and accountability at State and Local levels in Nigeria. Our team empowered 84 communities in Yobe, Kano, Plateau, Borno, Kaduna and Adamawa states with information, data and knowledge to engage their elected government representatives on funds earmarked for capital projects in their communities. At the end of the project duration, we had tracked NGN 523,743,810 (USD 1,454,843.92) and impacted 1,276,780 people.

To ensure community ownership of the Follow The Money model, we organised community gatherings in Yobe, Adamawa, Borno, Plateau and Kano States, hosting community leaders, CBOs, religious leaders, SBMCs and PTA members, women leaders, youth leaders, other local groups, and local media organizations from an estimated 40 communities across the 5 states respectively. Over the course of the project cycle, we discovered a large vacuum in information sharing by the government, low compliance to the Freedom of Information Act, non-inclusion of community governance structures in project implementation, discrepancies across project sites and low citizens participation in governance processes.

Download full report here

Advancing-Economic-Governance-Northern-Nigeria

By Charles Uche ESQ

Incorporating and fronting companies is a convenient and effective way of concealing identity, engaging in illicit transactions and evading liabilities. In many countries, a company can be formed without disclosing the identity of the individual who ultimately controls or profits from the business, i.e., the beneficial owner. Criminals and politically exposed persons (PEPs) can assign “nominee” shareholders to be listed on official documents or can list other legal entities (other companies can be shareholders in a company) as the “owners,” thereby creating a chain of companies–often across borders–that can be difficult for investigators and law enforcement to trace and recover.

Connected Development (CODE), has over the year, through its Conflict & Fragility project, in partnership with Oxfam-in-Nigeria advocated for a robust beneficial Ownership transparency through the instrumentality of a robust legislation as an essential means for combating corruption, stemming illicit financial flows, and fighting tax evasion. While many initiatives exist to maintain and disclose beneficial owners of companies in Nigeria, like the Beneficial Ownership Register launched by Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) in December 2019, none of them until the enactment of the 2020 Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) had the statutory backing for enforcement. 

Documents from Panama papers on Dan Etete and Kolawole Aluko can be used as classical case studies in demonstrating how these two individuals,  like many others, capitalised on the non-existent or fragile regulatory framework in Nigeria’s extractive “oil & gas” sector to launder money and evade liabilities which has cost the Nigerian government and people revenue in the billions of dollars. Till date, none of the aforementioned persons has been successfully prosecuted and convicted partly due to concealment of identities and fronting of shell companies in their transactions. Shell companies are legal entities “companies” that are non-operational and lack  assets or  staff.  They are conveniently used by money launderers to keep their identities hidden while they engage in illicit transactions across borders and evade tax.

Dan Etete: Dan Etete, a former Petroleum Minister under Nigerias Dictator Head-of-State, Gen. Sani Abacha had in 1998, incorporated a Shell company named “Malabu Oil & Gas Limited” using a fictitious name “Kweku Amafegha”, with few other persons, while he was the ultimate and beneficial owner of the company  – though his real name did not appear in any official documents. Five days after he incorporated this company, he, as Petroleum Minister, awarded this company an oil block “OPL 245”. He used this shell company to launder money across the Nigerian border and acquire luxurious assets, while escaping liabilities.

Kolawole Aluko: Kola Aluko is a businessman and oil executive. Media reports have described Aluko as a key ally to Alison-Madueke, a relationship both have previously denied. He rose to prominence around 2011 when Nigeria’s government awarded two companies he founded or owned valuable oil blocks on a no-bid basis. One of his companies, Atlantic Energy, was created the day before it inked the deals to acquire multimillion-dollar oil licenses.

In Nigeria, only a member of a Public Company (PLC) was under obligation, under the old 1990 CAMA, to disclose in writing when required, the capacity in which he holds any shares in the company; either as a beneficial owner or as a nominee of an interested person. See Sections 94-98, old CAMA.

The 2020 CAMA in section 119 has extended such obligation (to disclose the particulars of shareholding by notifying the company) to persons with significant control in all companies. Similarly, as provided in section 120 of the new CAMA, a person who is a substantial shareholder in a public company and holding (either by himself or by his nominee/proxy) shares in the company which entitle him to exercise at least five per cent (5%) of the unrestricted voting rights at any general meeting of the company, is required to disclose such holding by notifying the company within a stipulated time.

This new disclosure provisions are poised to enhance transparency and prevent asset shielding as well as combat money laundering, terrorism financing and all forms of illicit financial flows by legal entities having limited liability.

While there is no gainsaying that the above disclosure provisions would enhance transparency and accountability in the Extractive sector in Nigeria, especially in the Petroleum Industry, as many of the oil and gas companies are private limited liability companies (LTD); many of which have ‘rightly’ escaped disclosure obligations with no legal sanction – there is also an urgent need for the enactment of the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) which has as one of its core objectives – “to promote transparency and accountability in the administration of petroleum resources of Nigeria”.

CITIZENS’ APATHY AND THE NEED TO REBUILD TRUST, CODE SEEKS TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Lack of transparency, poor social accountability, information gap, weak social contracts; illiteracy; citizenry apathy and distrust in government, are entrenched governance challenges in Nigeria

Connected Development (CODE) seeks to address these misnomers by amplifying voices of marginalised grassroots communities that are often denied access to basic human needs despite that funds are allocated for the implementation of development projects in these regions.

CODE is bridging the information gap between citizens and the government, tackling financial leakages and bringing governance closer to the people at the grassroots. We do this by empowering citizens with the knowledge, skills and capacity to demand for the provision of quality public services in their communities.

Consequently, essential development projects, previously abandoned or which otherwise would not have been implemented, are being restarted and completed, accelerating social development in these regions, fighting inequality and promoting inclusive development.

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Understanding that citizens apathy was increasing and government continued to fall short of expectations, CODE’s overall 2019 objective was to make a significant difference in increasing citizens and government’s consciousness towards rebuilding trust.

Our 2019 campaigns enabled platforms for informed debate between public institutions and citizens and also advocated for more government agencies to leverage digital communications to foster trust, increase transparency and ensure better accountability.

Over the past seven years, CODE has showcased consistency and doggedness in amplifying the voices of the marginalized. In 2019 specifically, our team deployed innovative strategies and global best practices in empowering citizens, especially the grassroots dwellers to demand for improved services in healthcare, water, education and development infrastructures. On the other hand, we petitioned government to provide these services so that citizens faith in governance can be regained. Our advocacy influenced government policies for the acceleration of socio-economic development.

CODE tracked NGN 1,277,500,000 (USD 3.5 million) budgeted for projects in 69 grassroots communities—calling for improved first-mile health infrastructure and services, demanding that a state of emergency be declared on education because of the alarming increase in the number of out-of-school children and campaigning for communities to access safe clean water, we impacted over 2 million lives.

We further saved the Nigerian people and the government the sum of N477 million by blocking financial leakages in funded rural community projects. Our work gained global recognition when Follow The Money emerged winner of the 2019 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Mobilizer Award and also won the Council of Europe’s Democracy Innovation Award as the initiative advancing the cause of democracy.

CODE further petitioned anti-graft agencies to investigate oil industries that abuse human rights, partake in illicit financial flows and exploit the fragility of oil producing communities in Nigeria. Our team further engaged policy makers, stakeholders and beneficiaries, on effecting policies that promote gender inclusion in Community Development Councils.

Key reoccurring challenges that our team continue to face are; threats for exposing misappropriation of funds, poor access to data to enable tracking of government funds, security issues in North-East of Nigeria, and limited funds in reaching more grassroots communities.

We, however remain dogged in promoting a sustainable FTM model to ensure that true democracy is achieved—where citizens are empowered in every sense and their collective voices are heard. In hindsight, it can be said that CODE experienced yet another year of growth and influence.

With incredible support from the CODE team, our State champions, our partners and donors, we will continue to innovate better ways to hold government accountable and advocate best policies in favour of marginalised communities. With each effort, we get closer to our goal of empowering Africa, one community at a time.

Follow The Money Tracks N569 Million UBE Spending in Kaduna State, Enhances State Policy for Participatory Basic Education

Follow The Money, has completed the tracking of the implementation of N569 million Naira Universal Basic Education fund in Kaduna State over the course of three years.

The campaign which was supported by the John D and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation under its ON-Nigeria project, monitored the construction and rehabilitation of 23 basic school projects in Kudan, Kajuru, Zangon Kataf and Jema’a Local Government Areas (LGA) of the State. The project was triggered by the growing concern of the increasing number of out-of-school children in the country.

At a meeting with the Chairman of the State’s Universal Basic Education Board, Follow The Money Founder, Hamzat Lawal, commended the State for its open government policy and for allocating 27% of its budget to developing education. He noted that as a way of increasing citizens’ interest in government, the FTM team drafted a policy for participatory basic education spending in the state which mainstreams SBMCs in Kad-SUBEB’s UBE work planning and implementation.

The Executive Chairman, KadSUBEB, Mr Tijjani Abdullahi, revealed that the State Universal Basic Education Board (Kad-SUBEB) will develop a framework that allows the School Based Management Committees (SBMCs) to make inputs into the Kad-SUBEB’s annual plans and grant them access to the list of school projects that are to be implemented for monitoring effective service delivery.

He added that although about 500,000 children returned to school pre-COVID19, there is the need to build more Classrooms for the students, as measures to enforce social distancing in the classroom, during the pandemic.

Recall CODE had met with the Deputy Governor of Kaduna State, Dr Hadiza Balarabe, last year to present a needs assessment report conducted on 609 schools for evidence-based UBE action planning in the State. The report showed that a considerable increase in the enrolment of children in schools was as a result of the School Feeding Programme, however, 92 percent of the schools do not have access to ICT materials or computers in accordance with basic education curriculum.

The initiative urged the State to provide ICT materials and computers to schools, provide potable drinking water for the majority of schools that lack these facilities, and ultimately ensure that adequate WASH facilities are in school to encourage girl-child educational enrolment. Dr Balarabe had assured that the State is committed to strengthening its workforce and welcome the support CODE to make it happen.

Follow The Money further empowered the School Monitoring Teams (SMTs) to effectively provide oversight on basic education spending in the state. Through this, the project impacted over 200,000 rural lives, and significantly reduced the number of out-of-school children in the focal LGAs.

The project titled Tracking UBE Spending in Kaduna State, sought to identify and highlight key issues of lack across schools in the LGAs especially in the areas of water, sanitation and hygiene, infrastructure and learning aids, ratio of teachers to pupils and the safety of the learning spaces for the children. 

Following his advocacy for policy and programmatic solutions in the education sector, Follow The Money Campaigner and CODE’s Chief Executive, Hamzat Lawal, has been listed as a Malala Fund Education Champion with 57 others from around the world to accelerate progress towards girls’ secondary education.

Hamzat Lawal was named alongside other notable Nigerian campaigners: Olabukunola Williams, Executive Director, Education as a Vaccine (EVA) and Benjamin John, Programs Manager, Restoration of Hope Initiative (ROHI).

This announcement was made by the Chief Programmes Officer at Malala Fund, Maliha Khan, on the Malala website. According to Khan, as COVID-19 threatens to force millions more girls out of school, Champion-led programmes and advocacy work is now even more important. 

Reacting to the announcement, Lawal said “it is an honour to be listed to contribute to the fight for a right to education, especially for the girl child in Africa. The increasing number of out-of-school children especially in Nigeria’s North, continues to be an issue of great concern. Statistics show that for every 100 boys of primary age out of school, 121 girls are denied the right to education, worsening gender-based discrimination and putting girls at a disadvantage. Issues of water, sanitation and hygiene, and in many cases, insecurity affecting the delivery of education in conflict affected areas, are also factors driving children – particularly girls – away from the classroom.

Lawal will use CODE’s Follow The Money model to train and launch citizen-led teams to identify barriers to girls’ education in Adamawa state, northeast Nigeria. The team will advocate for and track the State’s spending on education and encourage government officials to invest in gender-responsive school infrastructure in creating conducive learning and safe space for girls to reach their full potential in life. 

Education has remained one of Follow The Money’s focal thematic areas, through which the initiative has facilitated the provision of several school amenities and infrastructure across grassroots communities in Nigeria (through several social accountability mechanisms). It also led civil society campaigns for the amendment of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) Act. Hamzat Lawal has also championed and co-organized other key campaigns for girl-child education in Northern Nigerian stressing that even during crisis, Education cannot wait for girls. 

Event Focus:

The picture of basic public service for the average person in Nigeria is bleak.

Every year, the Nigerian government budgets millions of naira on constituency projects, yet there is little to show for the improvement of public service delivery. A large portion of the budget (which funds sectors like healthcare, education, youth employment, etc) is believed to be syphoned by corrupt government officials, creating a huge trust gap and leading to citizens apathy. How taxpayer’s naira is actually being spent is a large mystery. The average citizen has very little visibility into where taxpayer money is going.

This situation has prompted a new look at the role of trust, as well as its relationship with governance and ways of restoring and rebuilding trust in different contexts.

Trust is the mechanism that makes society thrive. Nigeria’s institutions are suffering from a sharp decline in public trust. In times of disconnect and distrust between citizens and governments, the importance of trust is only increasing. But can we truly reach it? How can governments interact better with their constituents?

The event sparked deeper conversations about the culture of mistrust in the Nigerian system built over decades and began a conversation on charting a way forward to rebuilding trust in government institutions.

Speakers:

• Deputy Governor of Kaduna State, Dr. Hadiza Balarabe
• Senior Program Officer, MacArthur Foundation, Dr. Amina Salihu
• Board Member, Ministry of Finance, Dr. Joe Abba
• Investigative Journalist, Mr Fisayo Soyombo
• CODE’s Chief Executive, Mallam Hamzat Lawal.

The Webinar was moderated by Kevwe Oghide, CODE’s Communications Lead (CODE).

Quotes from Speakers:

Dr Hadiza Balarabe: (the role of Government)

The issue of trust in public institutions is not peculiar to Nigeria alone as many countries around the world are also under pressure to meet rising citizens expectations. She however stated that the Kaduna Government has rebuilt trust by providing functioning primary healthcare centres, laying-off incompetent teachers and revamping the education system in the State. She noted that signing up with the Open Government Partnership has also fostered the state’s culture of transparency and accountability.

Dr Balarabe noted that trust has been rebuilt because young people are at the fore-front of industrialisation in Kaduna State and they have been delivering enormously for the State. Adding that because of the level of trust built, Kaduna has attracted over $500,000 in investment. Kaduna also publishes her annual audit report yearly, organises town hall meetings to get feedback from the people.

The impression that citizens have of government officials keeping public funds for themselves is quite unfortunate. In Kaduna, we are trying to dispel this misconception by reforming the public sector, and entrencingh merit in our recruitment process of public officials.

“We will continue to restore confidence and rebuild this trust in our people by committing to being reliable, responsive, transparent and having better regulations.

Dr Amina Salihu (on the role of Civil Society)

Trust is earned as a result of being accountable, responsive and capable and civil society organisations are strategic pathfinders who need to enable citizens to recognise their right to access basic needs and improved public services and how they can use their voice and actions to drive change.

On the role of citizens; Citizens have a role to play by not being cynical when actual progress is being made, paying attention to politics, participating, rejigging our federalism and changing the electoral system. “We need to give a lot more chances to women and expand the space to change how Government is structured.

Dr Joe Abah (on the role of citizens and other issues):

The decline in trust is traceable to a number of things and reasons, and issues like the current corruption allegations in NDDC awarding billions to themselves in so called COVID- palliatives will continue to dispel public trust.

He opined that leaders must take initiative, rise to the occasion of responsibility and show examples for people to start believing in the system, stressing that there is the need for public officials to openly declare their assets.

Government constantly going against its laws and policies is a breach of trust. For example; the recovered funds from Abacha loots were shared without a clear identification database where citizens can see how it was being shared.. What’s worse is that it was shared in cash which goes against the government’s rules on cashless banking.

On the role of the citizens in building trust,; “You can only rebuild trust by trusting, it is important for citizens to hold the government accountable and monitor them. Even if you don’t trust the government, we need to continue to engage and also put in mechanisms to make it difficult for people to breach trust”.  

Mr Fisayo Soyombo: On the role of the media

Although the media has a huge responsibility to play, the Government has the bulk of the job. He added  that people who want trust have to earn it.

Most of the things that we consume as news are actually PR. This shows that journalists are being manipulated especially because they are not well paid. Government must be responsible for providing better governance, the media must ensure that public institutions are not deceiving citizens by engaging more investigative reporting. While stressing the need for more investigative reporting, he called on the public to support good journalism especially with funding. “If we want a media that is more alive, people have to support good journalism.” He also encouraged journalists to be objective in their reports.

He noted that we need a value-reorientation in this country.

Hamzat Lawal, Chief Executive, Connected Development:

In 2019, what we learnt engaging government MDAs post elections informed our overall objective at Connected Development (CODE), which was to begin a campaign that was intended to increase trust among citizens and government. CODE’s strategy was to create platforms for informed debate between public institutions and citizens and also advocate for more government agencies to leverage digital communications to foster trust, increase transparency and ensure better accountability. This has led us to organise this conference that seeks to increase conversations and raise citizens and government’s consciousness towards rebuilding trust.

Kevwe Oghide, Moderator’s Conclusion based on Deliberation:

Building Stronger institutions ultimately increases trust and When trust is higher, behaviours become more constructive; people are more willing to cooperate and support government’s initiatives.

 We therefore need to consider how development goals can be achieved when systems work and faith in institutions increases. There is a role for everyone in rebuilding trust and we hope that this conversation can snowball into bigger discussions in smaller or larger groups so people can consciously think about trust – in their interactions with the society and their role in building it, trust is key.

 It may not be a total cure; transparent and accountable governance offers a glimmer of hope against the flood of public mistrust. Constant communication has the possibility of opening public institutions to greater public understanding and appreciation.

2019 Annual Report: Rebuilding Trust in Institutions

In 2019, what we learnt engaging with government Ministries, Departments and Agencies a year before informed our objective for 2019, which was to begin a campaign that was intended to increase trust among citizens and government. CODE’s strategy was to create platforms for informed debate between public institutions and citizens and also advocate for more government agencies to leverage digital communications to foster trust, increase transparency and ensure better accountability.

We hope that we can contribute our quota to increasing citizens and government’s consciousness towards rebuilding trust.

– Hamzat Lawal, Chief Executive, CODE

Click here to read full report.

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