Connect with us

News

Borno Health Sector coordination: How to build a contemporary risk communication sub sector against mounting emergencies

Published

2 years ago

on

Borno Health Sector coordination: How to build a contemporary risk communication sub sector against mounting emergencies.

By: Bodunrin Kayode

Sometimes the speed at which journalists poke their noses into important matters that concerns the truth when government authorities are involved is welcome. Especially when it involves sensitive sectors of the economy like health and the welfare of the people and it is obvious that the managers are inept or economical with some truths, it usually annoys such powers that be when reporters refuse to mind their businesses. Some senior public servants in government in Nigeria usually do not like being challenged when they do wrongs regardless of their professional learnings. They want to be the last to speak and it should be the final like we had during the likes of a former health minister, name withheld who always wanted to assert his weight in spite of his small stature on the union leaders who refused to be intimidated by him. Speaking after they have vomited their sometimes advertent mistakes in a meeting, is a taboo especially in the medical sector where life is involved directly. A pharmacist who tries to correct the mistakes of a medical doctor is frowned upon as insubordinate. A journalist contributing to make things work in the public health sector team by trying to rectify their excessive misuse of acronyms, makes some of them angry that someone is interfering in their business.They rather prefer the obvious disunity within the medical sector to linger instead of moving as team players as is the case in sanner climes.

But sadly the world does not work that way anymore. Some of those who express these worries hardly want to think outside the books especially when it comes to their turf even when the world has gone far in the realm of “risk communication” for instance in the public health sector. And most times big mistakes are made as a result of wrong communications from the so called experts from the world bodies charged with fixing health. And that has been the bane of the risk communication sector of the Borno Health sector partners coordination meeting before the advent of Dr Lawi Meshelia as incident manager. But thank God that for the first time in the last decade, 14 pillars have been created and professionals in the meeting are meant to think in one accord which is very important for the progress of the “emergency machinery” which Governor Babagana Zulum is interested in. We now have these pillars firmly rooted including the sensitive “surveillance” who are the epidemiological secret service who go around hunting down emergencies and ensuring that the house is fully briefed. The risk communication is also being straightened up to meet emerging emergencies as they come and collaborating with the surveillance and security which I had suggested should be made a pillar in one of our meetings and the head of the police hospital should be given that task. Whenever he is busy, he can always send a representative. There are many areas still marked as dangerous which the risk communication cannot penetrate because they will walk into the insurgents and be killed so they must be escorted by the security.

Before I proceed, we must keep in mind that “risk communication is the real time exchange of information, advice and opinions between experts or officials and people who face a hazard or threat to their survival, health, or economic or social well being.” Having said that, we should be mindful of the purposes and reasons for the risk communication pillar which is very vital in reaching out to the vulnerable people we are supposed to protect in the Borno insurgent war theatre. We cannot stop cholera from moving like a dangerous wizard from one council area to another if the risk communication is as brutally divided as it is now in the state and unprotected.
The WHO and UNICEF must work together as a team under the supervision of the state ministry of health and not the other way round. What we have is two world bodies flexing their muscles in different rooms, churning what they think is best for Borno but which is usually confusion. That is a wrong and it must be reversed as quickly as possible if the risk communication should be uplifted to where it should be. You cannot because you are spending donor funds treat people as if they are beneath you. It’s not right. Whatever meetings they want to hold in their respective agencies should never rubbish the risk communication pillar meeting which should have only one head from the state ministry of health who speaks for all of us during critically challenged periods of emergencies. The cliche of he who pays the piper dictates the tune can’t work in this instance because we are talking of our shared humanity with people dying for the wrong reasons. It’s a boring cliche that has killed this country and brought us to the sickening level we find ourselves now where humanity is thrown to the dogs. It is not permissible for Unicef and WHO to speak on behalf of the state in such meetings. They speak only when asked to contribute. What happens when that fellow is transferred? The head must be a ministry staff and both agencies must answer to him. That is the law and order which the present IM Dr Lawi brought in when he took charge.

Within the almost comatose health sector which existed in Borno from 2009 when the war started, health practitioners must be called to account to the people they claim to be dishing out dividends of democracy to even if it is on a humanitarian level which makes it free. And I believe it’s because of this accountability that the sector partners meeting was formed to evaluate and make progress.
It’s about ten years now into the rebuilding of the Borno emergency health sector and some of us who have been around since then can gladly say well done to all the managers who have passed through the system till date injecting their own expertise in one way or the other. The world bodies inclusive and the non governmental organizations.

Attracting more media practitioners into the risk communication

Colleagues, of a truth, the media practitioner is not out to witch hunt anyone but purely to ensure that every one accounts for his stewardship as leaders in the sector. A practitioner’s presence in the risk communication like myself or even Madam Pauline in the polio sub sector is to assist in disseminating the good news when there is need to do so. If Cholera has killed hundreds in the last ten years, we say so. Why? So that the people will take corrections from the way they have been living to what the health authorities have designed for them to stay alive. This is because no Commissioner of Health or trained doctor wants his patients to die out of ignorance. So they need the risk communication which is definitely tied to latest skills in contemporary media practice. And if you lack knowledge of the workings of the media even if you are from the world health organization (WHO) or United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) you will surely fail in most of your plannings as it concerns the people. Media related practice is needed in every profession that is involved in communication. From security to teaching to medicine. You cannot succeed in modern medicine without effective communication or even the media. And when I emphasize media, I am not talking about radio which is believed to be the widely used to hear from government by the northern illiterates in the country. The so called radio which is believed to reach at least 50% of the population is a luxurious instrument now in Borno because at least 40% of that 50 or 60% which could be reached if their surrounding transmitters have not been blown off by boko haram cannot afford to buy a mini radio of N1000. With the floating of the naira, this figure may even be an understatement in the market.
TV is ruled out for the most vulnerable who even if you give a free radio set to listen to cholera or covid jingles will rather sell same to buy his immediate needs. So how do we correct these lapses? Simple.
Ensure that over 60%of your communication is interpersonal by using megaphones and Outside broadcast vans to reach the vulnerables. It is the most reliable means for communication in Borno for now till the war ends.
And for the radio which the old fashioned people still hold on to, more practitioners should be attracted to health.
We should involve the media more proactively by creating of health desks in the media houses. Health desks cannot be just one person. I made this point during a round table at the NUJ in maiduguri recently and someone showed me a health correspondent in a radio station. The fellow obviously does not know the difference between an ideal health desk and just one correspondent. For maiduguri, just one correspondent covering emergencies and the entire health ministry is not right. In fact, that is a huge joke as long as insurgency persists. A minimum of three to five persons should form the fulcrum of a functioning health desk. A senior correspondent or line editor and a bevy of reporters ready to cover the primary, secondary and tertiary centres where things happen daily. One person is just a correspondent not a desk and is grossly inhibited. You do not parade just one person to handle emergencies and non emergencies it’s a sick joke that can fly anywhere without a war but not in Borno or Yobe because of our peculiarities and sometimes high mortality rates from infectious diseases. The creation of health desks in the near future will produce a massive army of professionals ready to handle the risk communication even in the entire BAY states. That is the ideal. And it is very much possible to handle if the Commissioner visits the general managers and advocates for their creation with support from them. Getting a sound professional as information officer in the parent ministry of health will also help because it is he who will be the go between after the courtesy calls which speaks more than a mere memo.

The voice of the journalist as the fourth estate of the realm is equally the voice of the people. So when they call for accountability within the news managers about the health sector for instance to appear before them in the Press Centre, they are simply saying account for your stewardship before the people. They do not mean to disrespect anyone who is a “big man” who may not want to appear before the gentlemen of the media as if they are before their Lordships in a court of law as it were.

Risk communication within the Borno health sector

Risk communication in Borno particularly can never succeed without the major imputes of journalists within or even outside the Health sector. This pillar equally needs the massive support of the translators in the programs department which may not necessarily be journalists but media practitioners in their own rights. We cannot go to northern Borno and be speaking English with resident internally displaced people (idps) for instance. Such messages must be knocked down into Kanuri not even hausa because these are people who do not understand the hausa language no matter how international you may think it is. These are some of the challenges that have characterized the health sector meetings. The Borno radio television can boast of translators in Shua Arab, Kanuri, kibaku, Bura, and margi languages any day we need them.
The world bodies will be harming the recipients of messages if they sit down in Abuja and draft messages for the risk communication sub sector only in English and Hausa and forgetting that there are about 15 dialects in Gwoza some of who barely understands the hausa language which was virtually forced on them by virtue of recolonization. That could be applicable in the north west of the country surely not north east and central. There are always willing hands in the media ready to help out to produce these sound bites if they make proper enquires. You do not go to Limankara in Gwoza and start speaking hausa if you want them to drop some daring wrong habits which invites killer diseases. You look for someone who understands their dialect and make him do the translation from hausa if you are one of the fixated professionals who assume wrongly that hausa is a general language in the north. It would sink better than hausa which is obviously general in the north west of the country. These are the solutions which would help us from watching people die from meningitis for instance when we could help keep them alive.

The Borno health sector is in a critical buildup situation in which some forms of basic communications must be handled by local people who studied, communication, journalism or even some form of social science or public relations. Risk communication is not something you can handle simply because you did general studies in medical school or in public health colleges. Far from it. Its something you must study to apply same so you save yourself from the pains and embarrassments being faced when it comes to the nitty gritty and you are watching people die from cholera, COVID-19 or diphtheria. That is why the intervention of the ministry of health into the various newsrooms by way of “lobby” for a health desk is very pertinent. No general manager will refuse sponsorship of reporters for refresher courses in the health sector as is applied in the more developed climes. Send them abroad for three months and by the time they come they will forget departments of politics or sports and follow health as if it was their initial calling. That is the only way we can attract more hands on deck to perfect further the myriads of mistakes being made by the risk communication pillar in the Borno health sector. I have tried severally to drag in my colleagues to join me in the sector meetings but they do not see the attraction to come in especially with the stereotypical mentality of some practitioners who do not in the speed of the social media. We have to create the attraction by following the tips I gave above. We are in an emergency and must carry a regimented mentality until all these pass us by.

Finally, now that we all know that a lot of damage has been done to our transmitters in the state rendering the capability of the old fashion radio to get to at least 50%of the population, the plan B option left to the sector is interpersonal communication as I stressed earlier and that is done by using vehicles to all the crannies of the state whenever there is an emergency to ensure that the people get to know what is going on. It’s is obvious that less than ten percent of this 50% of the affected population can afford phones. Let’s say we teach them how to tune to their radio in their phones, how many of them will be able to listen to jingles in their native dialects? When you have at least 70% of the population of the people as stark illiterates as alluded to by Governor Babagana Zulum, how then do you continue to reach out to them in English or hausa?
It is the duty of the risk communication people to size up the environment they want to penetrate and communicate in the language they will get maximum effect and not waste the scarce resources on radio stations that package programs purely for the elites. English language should be made a secondary language of communication in Borno until the war ends and emergencies subside.
Lastly, there are many areas that vehicles may not access in the local councils of Borno State. The director of health in the councils can be drafted into any of the pillars he is wired to handle. As they hold their sub sectoral meetings at council level, he should be able to produce his own army of translators who will be on standby to enter any corner where strange diseases are coming up to kill people. And they should be able to feed Mallam Modu and his team or directly to the EOC manager Dr Simon for onward transmission if they can’t get their pillar heads directly. By my assessment, risk communication volunteers in the entire council areas should not be less than 54 while that of the state should not be less than 20 very fluent in diverse languages and dialects of the people. That is the ideal. The
Commissioner of Health should be able to liaise with his colleague in transport ministry to ease the stress on the resident communicator in each council areas. By resident I mean each council area should have one personnel trained for the job because all the resident media houses in Borno cannot be able to supply enough personnel for the job even if they are just 20. The risk communication people should be given bikes and megaphones to get to those places and shout if need be to change the narrative of any wicked emergency. That is the drill my dear colleagues for excellence at these harsh emergency periods .

Borno Health Sector coordination: How to build a contemporary risk communication sub sector against mounting emergencies

Related Topics:
Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

News

AFS ADVOCATES FOR GENDER PERSPECTIVES IN THE USE OF THE DEATH PENALTY IN NIGERIA

Published

6 hours ago

on

December 6, 2025

By

AFS ADVOCATES FOR GENDER PERSPECTIVES IN THE USE OF THE DEATH PENALTY IN NIGERIA

By: Michael Mike

An international non-governmental organisation, Avocats Sans Frontieres (ASF) France has revealed that no fewer than 82 female Nigerians are currently on death row in various correctional centres across the country even as it advocated for gender perspective in application of death penalty.

The advocacy was made at the two-day workshop organised by ASF to champion the course of the female inmates who are on death row as the World Women’s Rights Organisation celebrates in Abuja the 16 Days Advocacy on Gender Based Violence.

At the workshop themed: “Capacity-building Session on Mainstreaming Gender Perspective in the Use of the Death Penalty” the Country Director, ASF France in Nigeria, Angela Uzoma-Iwuchukwu said the statistics showed that the situation in Nigeria is the highest in sub-Saharan Africa, with those on death row somehow neglected and forgotted.

Uzoma-Iwuchukwu further said: “We strongly believe that these women, who have often been neglected, forgotten, because they are behind bars and on death row need a voice, we have decided to raise their voices and their peculiar circumstances.

“And this is because there are gender issues around the application of the capital punishment. It is often projected as being neutral, but the death penalty is not neutral.

“There are gender biases all across the criminal justice system, starting from the point of arrest, conviction and even incarceration of women who are facing the death penalty,” she said.

She added that “a lot of these women are victims of domestic violence who often when they react and it leads to maybe homicide cases, the criminal justice system fails to recognise them as victims as they go through the justice system.”

She went on to say, what we see in practice in Nigeria is that women are subjected to further brutality and gender biases within the set-up.

She said: “And we argue that these women are in fact convicted and tried for more than their crimes.

“They are tried for more than the crimes that they have committed. They are tried for being women who dared to commit crimes.

“And this is the gender bias, some of the gender bias that we see. There are several other issues that pertain to women and we see that they are not in any way taken into account.

“Now a lot of these women, we see issues around poverty, cross-cutting issues around poverty and how this affects women.”

In the same vein, the Founder and Chief Facilitator, Edeika Trauma Care Centre and Equity Advocates, Mrs. Ene Ede, emphatically kicked against Death Penalty in all forms. She believed life is sacred.

She said: “Anything that has to do with taking life is of utmost important to God, to humanity, to nature and to our country because, it is about deflection of human resources, it is about grieving, it is about injustice because most of the time you find element of injustice embedded in this life sentencing. So it is very problematic. If we look at it with another eye, the better for us. It is not something we should be in hurry to do.

“Therefore, it will be better to abolish death penalty in Nigeria. That is not to say we want to encourage criminality, even with the law in place there is escalation of criminality. We need to look at the justice system again with human eye, with empathy, with patriotism, because it is citizens and human beings they are dealing with and not animals”

Ene said life is too delicate to be toy with, adding that we should look at the area of the law that makes us vulnerable, that the level of its vulnerabilities is too high.

AFS ADVOCATES FOR GENDER PERSPECTIVES IN THE USE OF THE DEATH PENALTY IN NIGERIA

Continue Reading

News

Inaugural MOFI Award to Promote Excellence in Corporate Governance- Takang

Published

7 hours ago

on

December 6, 2025

By

Inaugural MOFI Award to Promote Excellence in Corporate Governance- Takang

By: Michael Mike

The maiden edition of the MOFI Excellence Awards to promote excellence in corporate governance and performance across Federal Government-owned and Linked Enterprises is scheduled for 2026.

The Managing Director of the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI), Dr Amstrong Takang, who announced this at the formal unveiling in Abuja on Wednesday, said the awards would deepen the culture of good corporate governance, transparency, and accountability in the public sector of the nation’s economy.

Takang said the awards initiative, which follows the MOFI Corporate Governance Scorecard launched early this year as a part of its ongoing reform agenda, would recognise outstanding performance as well as redefine governance as a strategic asset driving transparency, accountability, and long-term value creation in government-owned entities.

He noted that MOFI Corporate Governance Scorecard revolves around key pillars that reflect global best practices adapted to Nigeria’s context, including effectiveness and independence of boards; robust control and risk management environment; strategic alignment and performance management; quality and timeliness of financial reporting and disclosure; and emerging issues of environmental, social and governance (ESG) as well as innovation, stakeholder engagement and sustainability.

He stated that MOFI believes that no strong economy would emerge without strong institutions, adding that strengthening the backbone of public institutions, by incentivising them to adopt best practices, would strengthen the entire nation’s economic outlook.

He disclosed that in the run-up to the awards next year, the process would involve the submission of documentation and data by portfolio companies required for their performance scorecard assessments and review of established criteria by an independent consultant and other experts.

He said once the technical review is completed, the consolidated findings through an evidence-based process would be presented to an Awards Panel tasked with the responsibility of providing independent oversight, by reviewing score distributions, and confirming entities that meet the threshold for recognition in each category.

Takang said: “What the Excellence Awards is building is the combination of a national Corporate Governance Scorecard for SOEs (state-owned enterprises) and an independently adjudicated excellence awards programme to serve as a model for other jurisdictions and as a reference point for investors and partners looking for credible signals of reform.”

To select the entities qualified for the awards, an independent panel, made up of individual experts and representatives of institutions renowned for promoting good governance, was inaugurated on Wednesday.

Members include representatives of the Financial Reporting Council, the Society for Corporate Governance Nigeria, the Chartered Institute of Directors, Nigeria Exchange Group and the Chartered Risk Management Institute.

Inaugurating the panel, the Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, charged its members to make the awards a model of transparency and impact, to help deepen the culture of good corporate governance, transparency and accountability.
The integrity of the awards, the Minister pointed out, was dependent on the integrity of members of the panel responsible for judging and selecting prospective honourees.

He said MOFI Awards, which is open to all government-owned portfolios companies under MOFI management, would ultimately become the standard for corporate governance, transparency, accountability and integrity in the country over time.

“Your roles are pivotal in overseeing a transparent and rigorous process by ensuring the highest standard of institutional performance. We want to see that companies are not only run efficiently, but run according to the rule of law, sanctity of contracts, and regulations, and that they are timely with their financial reporting. There must be an open and independent process that must be merit-based,” he said.

He said the MOFI Excellence Awards was conceived to promote corporate governance excellence, high institutional performance, and strategic alignment across MOFI’s portfolio of public enterprises to spotlight on those boards and management teams that exemplify transparency, accountability, and strong performance.

He revealed the intention of the government would be to recognise agencies and their leaders who demonstrate high standards of transparency, accountability, and performance in managing public assets.

Edun said: “By doing so, we send a clear message that good governance and results will be rewarded, and that every entity under MOFI should strive towards the highest ideals of service and stewardship.”

He described the initiative as part of MOFI’s core mandate as the asset manager for the Federal Government charged with the responsibility of ensuring that government investments and state-owned enterprises were managed prudently and professionally.

In his response after the inauguration, the Chairman of the panel, who is also the Chairman/CEO of the J. K. Randle Group, a chartered audit, finance, tax, and accounting advisory firm, Bashorun J. K. Randle, expressed appreciation to the government for the confidence reposed in its members to serve.

Randle, who is also the former Chief Executive and Chairman of KPMG Nigeria and former Chairman of KPMG Africa, said the panel would do a good job to justify the confidence.

He said the composition of the panel with persons and entities with diverse perspectives and reputations for integrity would ensure that its evaluations would be independent, credible, and beyond reproach.

The MOFI Excellence Awards, the Chairman explained, would recognise and celebrate state-owned enterprises that demonstrate outstanding corporate governance, prudent risk management, sound ESG practices, and overall operational excellence.

He added that entities that have shown significant improvement over time, by incentivising everyone to attain those standards, while highlighting gaps and providing support to strengthen them, would also be recognised and rewarded.

“We want to send a clear message across the public sector that transparency, accountability and performance will be noticed and rewarded. We also want to foster a healthy sense of competition and peer learning among our portfolio companies,” he said.

In another development, the Managing Director and CEO of the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI), Dr. Armstrong Takang, has dismissed the notion that the government should not be involved in the business of driving economic growth in the country.

He described this view as a fallacy, asserting that governments at all levels play a critical role in the development of any nation.

Takang highlighted that countries like China have proven that government intervention in the economy, alongside private sector participation, can lead to success. He emphasized that this is the kind of capitalism Nigeria should aim for.

He cited Singapore Airlines, which has been owned by a government agency similar to MOFI, as an example of a successful state-owned enterprise. The airline has remained a leader in global aviation for decades, showcasing the potential of government involvement in business.

“The government has a pivotal role to play because of its sovereign status and its ability to access resources that the private sector can’t,” Takang explained. “There are certain amounts of capital the government can mobilize where private companies simply don’t have access.”
 
He added that: “It’s a fallacy to suggest that only the private sector can grow businesses. At MOFI, we believe the government can leverage its sovereign status to drive business and create opportunities for the private sector, especially where they lack the necessary capital. The private sector still needs the government. And we believe state-owned enterprises have a significant role to play in the economy.”

Takang also discussed the MOFI Excellence Awards, which aim to foster a culture of governance, excellence, and performance in state-owned enterprises. The awards will serve as a tool to evaluate corporate governance, track contributions to GDP, job creation, and other economic sectors, and encourage these enterprises to prioritize impact and accountability.
 
“We want state-owned enterprises to perform at their best, and that’s why we introduced the MOFI Excellence Awards,” Takang said, adding. “The goal is to provide a framework for assessing these organizations and ensuring they contribute positively to the economy.”

He noted that some of MOFI’s portfolio businesses have already begun prioritizing dividend payments, signaling a shift toward better performance and accountability. 
 
“By institutionalizing these awards, we are creating a culture of excellence in corporate governance,” he added.

Inaugural MOFI Award to Promote Excellence in Corporate Governance- Takang

Continue Reading

News

ActionAid: 45% women in Nigeria experience cyberstalking

Published

22 hours ago

on

December 5, 2025

By

ActionAid: 45% women in Nigeria experience cyberstalking

By: Michael Mike

ActionAid Nigeria has decried that 45 percent of women in Nigeria have experienced cyberstalking.

It further lamented that also 10.6 percent is said to have faced doxing, which is revealing a person’s private information online to expose them to harm.

UN Women, alongside members of the Development Partners Group on Gender (DPGG) including ActionAid Nigeria, Plan International Nigeria, GIZ, TETRATECH SPRING, and CARE International in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, convened a landmark National Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue on Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TF-GBV) in Abuja.

Held as a flagship event of the 2025 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, the dialogue brought together a broad coalition of government institutions, development partners, technology companies, law enforcement agencies, civil society organisations, digital rights groups, and survivor advocates to address the rapidly growing threat of violence against women and girls in online and digital spaces.

Technology-facilitated GBV ranging from cyber-harassment, non-consensual image sharing, online stalking, digital blackmail, hate speech, and exploitation—continues to escalate in Nigeria, yet reporting pathways remain unclear, institutional mandates overlapping, and coordination across sectors insufficient to match the complexity of digital harms.

The Civil Society Organisation, ActionAid Nigeria also revealed that women and girls especially activists, journalists, politicians, and influencers are major victims of high levels of technology-facilitated gender based violence.

Niri Goyit, Women activist and Programme Manager for Women’s Rights, ActionAid Nigeria, reeled out the data on Friday in Abuja at a National Multi-Stakeholders Dialogue on Technology-Facilitated Gender Based Violence, which was part of the #16daysofactivism 2025.

Goyit in her technical presentation: an overview of TF-GBV trends in Nigeria, listed patriarchal norms, low digital literacy, weak enforcement of online harassment laws, platform moderation gaps, and rapid spread of smartphones/apps as some of the drivers of T-FGBV in the country.

She noted that: “In Nigeria, 45% of women have experienced cyberstalking, especially women in public roles, and 10.6% have faced doxing.”

She stated further that: “Nigeria’s internet adoption has grown faster than the safeguards needed to protect users. Survivors as young as fourteen now seek help. Women in public life face coordinated attacks and gendered misinformation.”

She noted that local data shows that many women have experienced cyberstalking or doxing while thousands of sextortion linked accounts were removed by platforms.

She added that: “In Nigeria, digital spaces mirror offline gender power structures Women and girls—especially activists, journalists, politicians, and influencers—face high levels of threats, coordinated harassment, image-based abuse, and doxing.”

She also stated that: “Women and girls across all ages are affected, but some groups face heightened vulnerability: dolescent girls (12–17) and young women (18–35) due to early, frequent social media use and limited control over privacy.

Other vulnerable groups are Women in public roles — journalists, activists, politicians, influencers.

The aim, according to the activist is to silence or discredit them.

On the impact of TF-GBV on victims, Goyit said it includes withdraw or self-censor, reducing women’s civic participation and economic opportunities.

“TFGBV affects survivors in several ways. Emotionally it causes fear, anxiety and trauma. Socially many withdraw from relationships or communities due to shame. Economically some lose jobs or avoid opportunities. Online threats also escalate into physical danger especially when private information is exposed,” she explained further.

She blamed systemic challenges for low implementation of the laws against TF-GBV, saying “Several challenges stand in the way. Laws have not kept pace with digital realities. Many officers do not have the skills to handle digital evidence. Society often dismisses online abuse as jokes. Platforms act slowly and case management systems are weak. These issues combined create major obstacles for survivors.”

Noting the challenges, the ActionAid officer urged for collaboration among all stakeholders.

She stressed that “No single institution can handle TFGBV alone. Government agencies must provide clear pathways for reporting and investigation. Law enforcement needs support from digital experts. SARCs must connect with cybercrime units. Civil society offers survivor centred approaches while technology companies must improve takedowns and cooperation. When all actors work together survivors are protected more effectively.”

She however said: “Nigeria does not need entirely new laws that will take years to pass. The country can update the laws it already has to match today’s digital realities. Real progress will come from collaboration, clarity and survivor centred systems. When institutions adapt and work together Nigeria can build a safer digital environment for all.”

In his goodwill Message, the Country Director, ActionAid Nigeria, Mr. Andrew Mamedu reiterated the commitment of AAN to ending all forms of GBV including TF-GBV.

He also called on all the stakeholders to join in preventing the menace.

Mamedu who was represented by Goyit said: “At ActionAid Nigeria, our commitment to ending all forms of GBV including TF-GBV—remains firm.

“We work in communities to challenge harmful norms, support survivors, strengthen access to justice, engage men and boys, and build the capacity of women-led organisations.

“We recognise both the opportunities and risks of digital platforms, and we remain committed to ensuring that technology empowers rather than harms women and girls.”

He therefore urged all partners—government, civil society, private sector, media, development partners, and community leaders—to renew their shared commitment to preventing and responding to all forms of GBV.

Special Adviser to the President on Women’s Health, Dr. Adanna Steinaker, representing the Minister of Women Affairs, Mrs. Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim noted that:

“As technology evolves, so must our responses. Technology should be a tool for empowerment, not a weapon of abuse. As a nation, we are committed to building systems that protect women and girls in every space—including the digital world. This dialogue moves us closer to a Nigeria where online safety, accountability, and justice are guaranteed for all.”

”Technology-facilitated violence is one of the fastest-growing threats to gender equality. On behalf of UN Women, I reaffirm our commitment to working with the Government of Nigeria and all partners to ensure that women and girls can participate in digital spaces without fear. This dialogue is a critical step toward a coordinated national response that protects rights, amplifies accountability, and builds a safer future for all.” UN Women Acting Deputy Country Representative – Ms. Patience Ekeoba who spoke on behalf of the Country Representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS.

ActionAid: 45% women in Nigeria experience cyberstalking

Continue Reading

Trending

Verified by MonsterInsights