Thank you to the United Nations in Nigeria and to the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development for the invitation to join you here today. More importantly, as we reach the end of the 16 Days of Activism to End Violence against Women and Girls, thank you for the work that you do every day of the year to foster better and safer lives for all of us.  

Since 1991, we have marked this period, from 25 November – the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, to 10 December, Human Rights Day. We learn from our sisters around the world and apply those lessons to our own communities and countries. 

All around the world, women and girls are coming together. We come together to share stories – sometimes to say, “Me Too” – and to support each other.

We also come together to say: enough. It is time to end the violence. 

Globally, conversations are changing and women are taking the lead. Just look at the #MeToo, #TimesUp, #Niunamenos, #NotOneMore campaigns – the level of anger and recrimination barely scrapes the surface of the endemic and institutionalised dangers that we face and have always faced. 

In Nigeria, we are blessed with brilliant women who, despite significant hurdles, are entrepreneurs, doctors, teachers, politicians, and care-givers. The midwives of the Wellbeing Foundation Africa, of which I am the Founder-President, constantly inspire me with their dedication and impact. We are also, however, not under any illusions about how far we have to go to ensure that we as women, and our daughters, are safe and free to achieve whatever our potential may be. 

Two days ago at the UN Women Conference in Lagos, Edward Kallon, UN Resident Coordinator in Nigeria, announced that Nigeria ranks 11th among the twenty countries in the world with highest prevalence of child marriage. Mr Kallon pointed out that 700 million women alive today were married as children, of whom 17 per cent of them, or 125 million, live in Africa. Inaction will lead to the number of child bridges in Africa doubling by 2050. 

We know that ending child marriage and investing instead in girls is not only a moral obligation, but benefits all of society. A girl who is married is almost always taken out of education and can never reach her full potential. Better educated women are healthier, earn higher incomes, have fewer children, and enable better health care and education for their own children. In turn, education for girls helps lift families, communities, and nations out of poverty. The UN estimates that gender inequality costs sub-Saharan Africa on average $US95 billion a year. 

Girls’ education goes beyond getting girls into school. It is also about ensuring that girls learn and feel safe while in school; are able to attend schools which have the right water, sanitation and hygiene standards to cater to their needs, and are able to contribute to their communities and the world. 

In 2014 I attended the first Girl Summit, hosted by the United Kingdom, which aimed at mobilising domestic and international efforts to end female genital mutilation (FGM) and child, early and forced marriage within a generation. That first Girl Summit was predicated on the fundamental belief that girls and women have the right to live free from violence and discrimination. That same year, as a recent signatory of the Girl Declaration, I hosted a panel in Lagos entitled ‘Our Future: This is the moment to invest in girls. It has always been clear to me that girls’ education must be a priority for all Governments, NGOs and private partners.

The battle does not stop once a girl reaches adulthood, of course. Close to a third of all Nigerian women have experienced physical violence, which encompasses battery, marital rape and murder, at the hands of their partners. But due to social conditioning, 43% of women believe a husband is justified in beating his wife for a number of reasons, including going out without telling him. Thousands of women and girls who survived the brutal rule of Boko Haram have since been further abused by the Nigerian security forces, as exposed by Amnesty International earlier this year. Midwives and nurses who go to help those most in need have been kidnapped – some have been executed. 

As we reach the end of the year, it is inevitably a time for reflection. If any sorry tale from 2018 has epitomised how vulnerable our girls are and the fragility of our social contract, it is the story of Ochanya Elizabeth Ogbanje.  Ochanya had allegedly been abused by her guardian and his son since she was eight years old. She developed Vesicovaginal Fistula (VVF) and attendant complications. Ochanya died at the age of 13 years old. 

Gathering here today, as we seek to bring about the end of such violence, we have to ask ourselves some tough questions. How many Ochanyas do we have in Nigeria, suffering in open sight, yet unseen, unmet and unprotected? What value do we attach to a standard Nigerian life from birth to age let alone the value of a female life? What is Nigeria’s VSL or value of a statistical life?

The answer to finding and helping our Ochanya’s lies in the full commitment to a comprehensive Civil Registrations and Vital Statistics Framework, from which information and actions could flow, from birth to age.

What are the social safety actions that would flow if an appropriate CRVS protocol was in force? 

If Ochanya had been registered at birth, immunised and recorded as such, registered in school, if the persons appointed as her loco parentis had been registered, wouldn’t her disappearance from formal education have been noticed? If we had an active social service framework rather than the instalment beneficiary system, would a trained social worker not have called on the foster family to check on Ochanya? Would they not have noticed sudden maturation of physical mannerisms that is a marked symptom of sexual molestation of a minor?

When we pray for Ochanya, we do so because her suffering was cruel and because it deprived her of her rights: a happy and safe childhood, the right of a warm family life, the right to become an adult at the appropriate time. The right to be a girl. The right to become a woman.

We also pray for Ochanya because we know that there are countless girls like her across Nigeria. Girls who are not allowed to be children, who are treated not even as second-class citizens. 

I will close today by alluding to the work of the Wellbeing Foundation Africa, whose midwives I mentioned earlier. The health for mothers and infants was the key objective of the Foundation at its inception. Its scope rapidly expanded however, as I soon realised that we cannot confine our actions to our supposed speciality; legislative change, gender equality, maternal health, education and health security are so closely interconnected. To make a sustainable impact and truly open up opportunities for women in Africa, we must reach across borders, knowledge-bases and cultures.

That is exactly what the Foundation achieves through its pioneering ‘MamaCare Classes’ led by our qualified midwives. Some of those classes take place in IDP camps, a frontline for women and their infants. Despite dire mortality rates here in Nigeria – where women face around a one in thirteen risk of maternal mortality in their lifetime – we have not lost even one of our over 250,000 MamaCare mothers during childbirth. Our MamaCare midwives have achieved this not only by providing classes to a global standard – and achieving the new WHO benchmark recommendation of at least 8 antenatal visits – but also because they act as even more than lifesavers. They provide safe spaces and safe conversations: no subject is taboo or off-limits. To unlock the potential for women and girls, our first obligation is to ensure that they are safe and healthy. The Foundation campaigns, advocates and teaches, with global partners, across a wide range of issues which are all essential for women, from water, sanitation and hygiene to accessing STEM subjects and personal development. 

It is by breaking down the sense of a taboo, opening up new conversations and investing in women and girls that we will finally end the violence and create a brighter, safer world for us all. 

Thank you again for the kind invitation to join you here today.

God Bless.