The Executive Director of Planned Parenthood Federation of Nigeria (PPFN), Dr Haruna Okai, has called for effective commitment in addressing Gender Based Violence (GBV), related issues and more investments on Family Planning.

Mr Okai made the call during an interview with journalists at the sidelines of the Systemic Investment Plan (SIP) and Paint Programme tagged, “Paint It Loud” on Friday in Abuja.

The event is part of activities, marking the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence.

He noted that PPFN took the activism seriously, adding that it believes that cultural norms that violate women and girls should stopped.

According to him, it is critical that GBV still exist in the country and every form of collaboration is needed to put an end to it.

He said the activism should continue beyond the 16 days, because the violence happens every second, hours and everyday in most parts of the country.

Mr Okai stated, “We entertain cases of GBV and collaborate with the relevant authorities, and again in some case, we go to the houses of victims for counselling to sort out issues.

“The Federal Government is doing very well. We must applaud the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act, where it address a lot of issues including gender female mutilation which has yet to be adopted by some states.

“We continue to advocate commitment and implementation at the sub national level. This is in the culture, and to address it, we need to build the capacity of counsellor, service providers and even communities.

“We must also cover the reporting gap, this is because, a lot of these violations are not reported; and also, the weak justice system that will give lighter sentence to perpetrators must be address.”

He also suggested that to achieve zero level maternal mortality, GBV and others, there was a need to accelerate the process of addressing them, because, according to him, the current pace is too slow and hence the need for acceleration.

He said there were certain things that needed to be put in place to achieve the identified areas. 

He added, “Education is very important; there is need to provide quality and sexual reproductive health education for our girls. We all know what is happening  in the country now. Also,  the best investment to achieving FP 2030  is investing in Family Planning, because with that, you can plan your life on the numbers of children you want, not to give birth to children that will turn bandits and terrorists.”

Also speaking, the Desk Officer, GBV of PPFN, Sadiya Yakubu, restated the call to governments, civil society organisations, private organisations and stakeholders to continue to raise awareness on GBV.

Ms Yakubu said the event aimed at discussing the way forward in addressing GBV including digital base violence which include online bullying, cyber stalking and other violence on the media space.

The event attracted stakeholders from the media space, civil society organisations,  non-governmental organisations, youths and many others. 

(NAN)