The Lagos State Government, through the Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency, has held a meeting with religious leaders in the State aimed at driving systemic changes, normative and cultural shifts while promoting healthy relationships as the State strives to enhance coordinated response to domestic and sexual violence in Lagos and Nigeria at large.
Speaking at the One-Day Meeting, the Executive Secretary of DSVA, Titilola Vivour-Adeniyi said she hoped the roundtable would result in deliverables critical for landing the introduction and adoption of a curriculum on Domestic Violence Prevention, tagged “The Lagos State Mandatory Preparatory Pre-Marital Counselling in Religious Institutions”.
She lamented the alarming rate of domestic violence among civil-married couples in Lagos state, stressing that the unwholesome development has become worrisome.
According to her, the DSVA 2022 report revealed that at least 60% of survivors of domestic violence who had contracted their marriages under the Matrimonial Causes Act knew about the abusive tendency of their intending spouses, yet proceeded with the union with little or no knowledge of available supports or coping mechanisms for the glaring red flags.
“The data also revealed that financial dependency, third-party interference, lack of communication, lack of sexual satisfaction, unrealistic expectation and infidelity, were identified as triggers contributing to domestic violence and intimate partner violence. Furthermore, about 70% of survivors that reported to DSVA disclosed that they had previously reported to their Pastors or Imams before coming to report to the DSVA”, she added.
Vivour-Adeniyi stressed that with the growing concern, the Agency recognised the pivotal roles religious institutions play in the establishment of marriages and the sustainability of families and finds it expedient to engage religious leaders to discuss the strategic position of religious institutions in pre-marital counselling for intending couples from a preventive perspective before taking the giant leap into marriage.
Leveraging the importance of faith-based organisations in the solemnisation of holy matrimonies, which statistics have shown to be the preferred form of solemnisation, the Executive Secretary said the engagement of religious leaders and stakeholders would enable an in-depth deliberation on the salient increase in domestic violence cases in the State.
She averred that, in order to introduce this project, it has been deemed expedient to organise this roundtable discussion with Religious Leaders and Stakeholders drawn from Religious Institutions within the Ikeja Division of Lagos State.
Her words, “With training like this, there would be an improved capacity of Religious Leaders to provide relevant information to intending couples during pre-marriage counselling”.
“An improved knowledge of Religious Leaders to be able to guide intending couples in effective communication skills, coping mechanisms, which is critical for marriage and an enhanced knowledge of faith-based organisations on referrals to responder agencies upon receipt of complaints”, Vivour-Adeniyi.
Also at the meeting, the Director of Religious Matters, Mr. Olawale Adams, who represented the Permanent Secretary of Home Affairs, Mrs. Ololade Aina, informed the religious institutions’ representatives in attendance that solving the menace of SGBV requires a holistic approach.
Therefore, he called for a change in engrained societal stereotypes, stressing the need to protect women’s fragility while promoting peace, love, self-respect and civility.
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