The worsening conditions of women, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, require attention in numerous parts of the world. In this post, Nnebundo Obi contextualizes the challenges of these global phenomena in Nigeria’s Niger Delta. The problems emerging from the intersection between gendered identities, the humanitarian crisis of violence, and COVID, result from environmental destruction, gendered capitalist production, corruption, poor governance, and patriarchy. These problems underscore the plight of women in the region.
By Nnebundo Anna Obi, Calvin University
Introduction: Domestic Violence Against Women In Nigeria’s Niger Delta Region During the Covid-19 Pandemic
(image below is of several Nigerian women performing a traditional dance in Port Harcourt)
There are increased levels of domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic across the globe (UN Women Shadow Pandemic Report). According to the UNDP, in several countries including Singapore, France, and Cyprus, ‘there is a documented 33%, 30%, and 25% rise in intimate partner violence (IPV) in Singapore, France, and Cyprus.” During the pandemic, “48% of women in Nigeria were subjected to a form of violence against women (VAW)” (p. 7). Similarly, according to the African Portal, in the Niger Delta, “42 % of Nigerians, mostly men, lost their oil sector jobs due to Covid-19 between April and May.” The resulting loss of jobs, coupled with the stress of isolation, food insecurity, and limited access to other resources, led to higher rates of violence against women and children.
Violence in the home has also extended to violence in public spaces. Many women are afraid of going to the police out of fear that they will be dismissed or potentially harmed by the police. Women in various parts of Nigeria have been subjected to extortion, physical and/or sexual violence by police officers. According to data from Nigeria’s National Human Rights Commission, “between January 2020 and March 2021, the Commission received over 130,000 complaints on SGBV alone.” In studies conducted before the pandemic, the prevalence of IPV across various states ranged “from 42% in the North, 29% in the Southwest, 78.8% Southeast, to 41% in the South.” The prevalence of news stories of victims and survivors of abuse has increased during the pandemic. These newspaper articles are often about women from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds, whose reports and accusations are usually dismissed by the police and the judicial system. Their only recourse is to secure the assistance of an NGO to provide them with legal representation. In a recent case of rape involving a police officer, the victim was apprehended during lockdown by an officer because she was not wearing a mask. Under the guise of taking her to the police station, he drove her to a guest house where he raped her before releasing her the next day. Similarly, in a report from the Cross Rivers State last year, “A 21-year-old girl was reportedly raped by a vigilante group in Port Harcourt.” Compared to larger, urban states, the Niger Delta region lacks a large government and nationwide social services network, making it challenging for women to access resources or help to report and prevent abuse.
The pandemic also resulted in the national closure of schools, most of which are not equipped to conduct e-learning classes. This in turn has a negative impact on education outcomes, academic performance, and student engagement. According to Al-Ali, “the pandemic threatens to create long-term gaps in terms of girls’ education as well as women’s participation in formal paid labor, which in turn risks strengthening traditional patriarchal gender norms and the division of labor within the household and the economy.”
The Backstory: Environmental Degradation and Humanitarian Challenges In the Niger Delta Region
Since the discovery of oil in the Niger Delta region in the late 1950s, the region has seen civil unrest. In 1966, there was a failed attempt to secede from Nigeria, and since the 1990s, violence periodically erupts in the region. According to the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), the poverty headcount “for most of the Niger Delta States range from 19.2% to 33.1%… all the states have lower poverty headcounts than the national average of 53.3%, the proportions of the poor are high.” Poverty, civil unrest, and environmental pollution has resulted in an ongoing humanitarian crisis that has made the people of the region, particularly women, vulnerable to poverty, structural, and interpersonal violence. Due to the dominant presence of oil companies interfering in the affairs of the region for decades, the Niger Delta has been forced to be dependent on the oil industry for its survival. The men generally find seasonal employment related to the oil industry, leaving the women to eke out a small living through farming and hunting on contaminated fields and water sources. Women are traditionally excluded from the limited number of jobs because the oil companies and local elites control the patronage systems and the oil payouts. Alternatively, women seek out financial opportunities in the informal sector to support their families.
In 2020, there were still widespread discussions about the war by dissatisfied youths and other actors in the region. This falls into a long history of armed struggle between the youth, local leaders, and women against multinational corporations and the Nigerian government. Since the establishment of the “Presidential Amnesty Programme” in 2009, designed to quell violent uprisings in the Niger Delta region, militants have been given “a state pardon, educational training, and a monthly stipend in exchange for the surrender of weapons,” This initiative has not had the intended effects, and instead, bouts of civil unrest remain in the region. The Niger Delta has seen limited improvements in areas of development, poverty rates, and peace despite the funding it has received. This is partly due to widespread corruption and power struggles between various sides involved in this conflict.
Women as Providers and Procurers: Equal Roles/Unequal Rights
Women in the Niger Delta region hold the dual roles of provider and caregiver due partly to gendered labour norms and the legacy of environmental degradation. In the Niger Delta, according to the African Portal, “women comprise 60 to 80 percent of the agricultural labour force and account for 90 percent of family food supply.” Due to the limited availability of non-oil-related employment, women are constrained in the type of jobs they can do. They work in the informal sector without a stable source of income. The oil companies dole out payments almost exclusively to male local leaders who often exclude women from receiving any of the money. Inevitably, the women’s yields are limited because of the poor state of the land they subsist on. Consequently, the women’s and men’s health are affected by the toxins they are exposed to, perpetuating the cycle of poverty, precarious employment, and chronic illness. According to Oluwaniyi, the men, women, and children suffer poor health outcomes due to “effluents discharged into freshwater sources contain high amounts of toxic materials such as mercury, which are is stored in fish…inhabitants who feed on aquatic animals take in a higher level of the cancerous chemicals and suffer the consequences.”
With the onset of the pandemic, the loss of jobs impacted most sectors including the oil sector. According to a report by the Nigerian National Bureau of Statistics, “42 percent of Nigerians, mostly men, lost their jobs due to Covid-19 between April and May.” The World Bank recently conducted a study on the economic effects of Covid-19 on the Nigerian economy. According to their projections, “the national poverty rate is … forecast to jump from 40.1% in 2019 to 45.2% in 2022, implying that 100.9 million Nigerians will be living in poverty by 2022.” This will have a more negative impact on parts of the country that are rural, underfunded, poorly governed, and volatile.
The loss of employment within the Niger Delta oil sector has placed more demands on women to provide additional caregiving as well as money/food for their children and others in their care. More incidents of mental health problems have surfaced among women, some even going as far as committing suicide as a result of being unable to provide for their families. The case of a single mother, Folashade Bello, is one of the publicized cases that occurred during the pandemic. She “allegedly committed suicide in Port Harcourt after her cry-for-help post on Facebook was ignored.”
Food insecurity and hunger is another prevalent issue. Mrs. Christiana Inyang, a trader from the neighboring Cross Rivers State, explains how the pandemic has affected her. She states “Since this COVID-19, I don’t have anything; we have been thrown out of our house at NPA, Port Harcourt. We have been walking from door to door, asking for help and no one helped us. Even the state government palliative, we did not receive.” The national government has pledged to address development issues across the nation by passing new laws, but this has little to no effect. Money allocated to certain development initiatives intended to address poverty and other humanitarian concerns is often mismanaged and misallocated.
The International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) have been providing resources to help women and children who are subjected to violence and other human rights violations. FIDA offers free legal representation of any Nigerian woman or child. Their “primary role is to protect, promote and preserve the rights of women and children in Nigeria.” In a recent interview, the director of the NHRC discussed how his organization in partnership with the National Emergency Call Center is planning to create a fully integrated reporting system that would enable victims to call for help or make a report. Other NGOs like the Women’s Aid Collective (WACOL) and the Foundation for Partnerships Initiatives in the Niger Delta operate in southeastern and southern Nigeria. Since its inception in 1997, WACOL has steadily expanded its institutional capacity to support organized and strategic programs and campaigns. The services that WACOL provides are not merely limited to providing legal services for DV survivors but also providing financial assistance, medical care, personal development, and shelter. Their clinic, the TAMAR SARC also provides legal assistance, in addition to medical care for victims of sexual assault. To bolster their efforts, WACOL has also run clinics and programs for police officers, lawyers, and judges to learn more about human rights, legal training sessions among other classes. WACOL has also been heavily involved in campaigning for the passage of several laws addressing gender violence. Due to their successful advocacy in 2015, the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act (VAPP) was “passed by the National Assembly…signed into law.” Most recently in 2019, WACOL successfully campaigned in the state of Enugu for the passage of the VAPP law at the state level. WACOL and other organizations are still campaigning to get the VAPP law implemented in all states.
The Foundation for Partnerships Initiatives (PIND) in the Niger Delta works primarily in the region as well as all the states surrounding it. Their mission since their establishment in 2010 has been to “promote peace and equitable economic growth in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region” (PIND). PIND actively creates and facilitates programmes designed to revive the local economy as well as promote conflict prevention and management. During the pandemic in 2020, PIND “over 2600 service providers facilitated by PIND coordinated a joint market response to the pandemic threat” (PIND). Additionally, according to PIND’s data, between 2010-2020, it created “over 55,000 new full-time jobs facilitated in PIND’s supported sectors. NGN 43.1 billion (Niara) investments leveraged into the agriculture & enterprises sector for innovations and business growth” (PIND). In addition to creating community-based response services, PIND also has job training programs, data for early warning and early response, and other programs to help support their development work in the region. In 2020, according to the Nation, PIND and RIVTAF Nigeria Limited signed an MoU to support the Niger Delta Youth Employment Pathways (NDYEP) project to “equip 3000 unemployed, out-of-school and vulnerable youths in the Niger Delta with market-relevant skills to secure sustainable jobs.” Most recently in 2019, a home-grown coalition of more than 500 Nigerian NGOs and private citizens called “Womanifesto” met to discuss, debate, and create a collective list of demands to address the political and social inequalities that women face in Nigeria. Though there is limited financial aid from the government to tackle this issue and a general lack of support legally/infrastructurally, NGOs here still persevere in their efforts to connect and propose policies and initiatives to government officials, departments, and other interest groups. They remain resilient, resourceful and tap into their international connections with organizations such as the Ford Foundation, Open Society, UNDP, UN Women, and many more funders. While this relationship has not always historically been one of equals, more effort is being made to change this dynamic.
Conclusion
The pandemic has worsened the humanitarian crisis in the Niger Delta, worsening the rates of GBV, poverty, and human rights violations in the region. First and foremost, there is a need for more inclusion of women in the decision and peacemaking process. More financial resources and development opportunities must be made available to women and their communities. Secondly, the issue of misallocation of funds and governance must be addressed as it jeopardizes the political wellbeing and stability of the region. In a recent interview, the director of NHRC underscored the importance of “focusing our attention on stakeholders such as religious leaders, cultural, and traditional gatekeepers as well as civil society organizations.” This includes empowering citizens, and civil society organizations the instruments the people being put in a position to hold their local leaders responsible for ensuring that the needs of the people are listened to and provided for by the government. Thirdly, there needs to be a shift in the relationship between multinational companies and the national government. The national government should enact more restrictions and stiffer penalties for companies that pollute the region. The companies must be held accountable for their actions and must pay for the cleanup of the land as well as pay for damages. Finally, more deliberate state planning and infrastructural development is needed to sustain the ongoing development in the Niger Delta region and its ability to create more opportunities for all its people.