‘Nigeria’s Constitution Has Many Gender Gaps’
Has the Nigerian Constitution and the society, been biased and insensitive against women? This has been an age-long debate which the jury is still out on. In the academia, the perception may not be different, but the University of Lagos Law Faculty has in
In over 50 years of the existence of the Faculty of Law, University of Lagos, you are only the 2nd female to be elected as the Dean of the Faculty, out of at least 20 Deans. Why is that? Was it a case of gender discrimination? Did you face any challenges in attaining that position?
I will not want to suggest that it is a conscious or calculated case of gender discrimination. I will rather say, it is the inevitable consequence of a long history of institutionalised exclusion of women from formal education, in the first millennium of introduction of modern education. When finally women were allowed broader access to education by the end of the 18th century, they were denied equal access to higher education until the mid-19th century, and certainly not in fields such as law that were perceived as inherently incompatible with female-ness. Let me note that as recently as 1920, women who successfully completed the academic requirements of the same degree programmes in University of Oxford, were not admitted to the Bachelors degree, but were only granted a diploma. With women as late entrants into higher education, women are disproportionately underrepresented. In that kind of situation, the odds that a woman is thrown up as a Dean is probably 1 in every 10 men.
It is from that angle that I readily agree that, the fact that I am only the 2nd female Dean is the result of gender discrimination. For the first ten years of the Faculty’s existence, there was only 1 female lecturer and over the next 25 years, only 4 other women joined the Faculty. The first female lecturer, who was the renowned Professor Jadesola Akande, however, left for another institution, and later became the Vice-Chancellor of Lagos State University. My senior female colleagues have narrated encounters in the course of interactions with colleagues that betrayed entrenched gender-based prejudices, but I can’t recall them narrating an experience of gender-based discrimination in appointments and promotions or other entitlements. Like them, I would say that I have not faced any form of gender discrimination in rising through the ranks in my Faculty and University, and I did not face any gender-based discrimination challenge in the electoral process that led to my emergence as the current Dean. However, I will not say that gender- related factors such as role expectations related to being a wife, a mother, a woman in an African society, etc, have not affected my progress in the career. I will also be the last to suggest that my workplace environment is perfect or even near-perfect. No, there have been many instances when sexism and other forms of gender-bias, pervade the air
"MY SENIOR FEMALE COLLEAGUES, HAVE NARRATED ENCOUNTERS IN THE COURSE OF INTERACTIONS WITH COLLEAGUES, THAT BETRAYED GENDER-BASED PREJUDICES, BUT I CAN’T RECALL ANYONE NARRATING AN EXPERIENCE OF GENDERBASED DISCRIMINATION IN APPOINTMENTS AND PROMOTIONS OR OTHER ENTITLEMENTS"
during interactions with colleagues. Colleagues within and outside the Faculty, have on many occasions also, reflected gender insensitivity and outright ignorance of gender issues in discourses and even in handling matters.
How would you rate the University of Lagos' LL.B Program with that of say the University of Ghana, Legon, especially as quite a few of our students seem to be opting for University in countries like Ghana and the Republic of Benin. Are their standards of education higher than ours? Or is it the problem of cultism on the Nigerian campuses and strikes, that are driving our children to those countries?
At the risk of it being said that one is blowing one’s trumpet, I would say that our LL.B. degree programme, ranks even higher than that of University of Ghana. Different factors account for why people go abroad and I dare say, it is not always for the reason of higher academic standards. I make bold to say that, when it comes to pursuing higher education in Ghana and Republic of Benin, often it is not that reason. Enough of those who go to these places, are people who failed to secure admission under our extremely competitive process. By this, I do not mean that they are not intelligent or brilliant. They may well be, but when it comes to admission applications, University of Lagos is over- subscribed and every year, we are unable to meet the aspirations of many of those who would like to come to our institution. When that happens, those who can afford it, try elsewhere. Trying Ghana and Benin is also the outcome of an admissions process via JAMB, that limits the opportunity for trying for many universities within Nigeria simultaneously.
That said, I would also like to note that we do not focus on the disruptions in academic calendar (which all too often, is all that many critics cite to indicate lower standards in Nigerian universities), but on content; referring to curriculum content and pedagogy, I will say our LL.B. degree programme ranks very high, and is globally competitive. I must state that, our students graduate and go on to top their classes even when they go abroad for postgraduate studies. I would like to note that it must be in recognition of our comparable standards, that some highly reputable law faculties in the UK, provide various opportunities for our students and graduates. For example, the Faculty of Law of Queen
Mary College, London, offers every year, a scholarship (free tuition) to 1 graduate of our LL.B. degree programme with a minimum of a Second Class Upper Division. I believe this scholarship is in its fourth year, which suggests that they must be quite satisfied with the academic standard with which our graduates come to their LL.M. programme. In addition, I must note that, our Faculty is part of the interfaculty LL.M. (in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa) degree programme offered by the Centre for Human Rights of the University of Pretoria. Some students from the programme, spend their 2nd semester of the programme in the Faculty writing their dissertation under the direct supervision of a lecturer in our Faculty. I should note that the Faculty has received students on this programme for more than 5 sessions, and in 2014, I think, the student supervised by one of us and using our facilities, received the award for Best Dissertation. I think such a result could only be from the combination of effort of the teacher, the environment of study, and the quality of the student.
What parents and potential students may have to say and rightly so about us, is the vulnerability of our academic calendar to disruptions, which means that a lot of uncertainty is introduced to how long a student may expect to spend for his or her course of study. But I would say that in the case of University of Lagos, we make serious effort to ensure that the impact of the strikes and closures are minimal on the quality of education we provide. I can speak very well for the Faculty of Law, where I have spent about 27 years now. We do not snip off topics from the curriculum, because of a break. The University would usually ensure that the revised calendar, accounts for the outstanding number of weeks prior to the strike. Many times, people wrongly assert that we condense the outstanding weeks, may be when they are informed that students return to school and are scheduled to start exams soon thereafter. If, for example, a semester is in its 12th week when a strike or protest breaks out, the students have only 3 weeks of lectures left before examinations. If the revised calendar schedules exams for them 1 month after the re- commencement of lectures, many people will think the whole semester has been crammed into that 1 month. No, the 3 weeks of lectures and 1 lecture free week students are entitled to, have been accounted for in such a calendar. Now, this explanation is not to suggest that the disruption of the flow of studies comes with no negative impact for the students and even the lecturers. Surely, it does; but I am only just trying to show that, it is not as arbitrary as many people are wont to believe.
When it comes to curriculum and pedagogy, I agree that there is room for improvement, but we have come a long way from what was the situation when I joined legal academics more than 25 years ago. The legal education which we offer through our Faculty of Law now, is very robust in content and approach. The breadth of courses, the richness of the content, is comparable to what you would have elsewhere. We place pretty high premium on student-directed co-curricular learning, and at the last count, we have more than 13 student platforms which allow our students to place their learning in practical context. These include the student–led initiatives such as the Mooting Society, the Lagos Model United Nations Club, Tax Club, Oil and Gas Bar, Maritime Forum, Wills Clinic, ADR Society, Book Club as well as the 5 student law chambers.
I must also note that, when it comes to standards, we must not forget that we are at the end of the production line. We are forced to work with students, who have not been adequately groomed through the primary and post-primary stages of education. This limits how impactful what we have to offer, can be
What would you say have been your major achievements since you assumed your tenure as Dean? What further programs do you intend to implement to improve your Faculty?
My immediate priority was to improve the state of physical facilities – academic and recreational - in the Faculty to ensure that students are provided an environment equipped with resources conducive to learning. Students are in the Faculty, primarily for academic purposes. Lecturers, in turn, have their careers hinged on the volume and quality of their research output, and I have tried to ensure that facilities such as library resources, uninterrupted access to the power supply, and internet that are imperatives in a research environment, are available to our lecturers.
These improvements, have started to yield impact on the research output of Faculty members. We have also prioritised providing our colleagues with opportunities for academic exchanges, which is crucial to giving visibility to our Faculty, and improving our rankings.
I was also concerned, to ensure we restore academic standards where we had observed some slack. We have striven to consolidate a culture of excellence in teaching and research. Research is being repositioned as priority and we are providing our early career researchers with opportunities for capacity development.
We are at a stage where, we need our Alumni to play a greater role in our life as a Faculty. I strongly believe that a Faculty stands on a tripod of its academic staff (researchers), its students, and its alumni. Our alumni lend a lot of reputation to us even now, but our desire, is to see them play a greater role in the development of the Faculty. Our goal, therefore, is to mobilise our alumni for greater involvement and we are in the process of inaugurating our Unilag Law Alumni Group.
However, my ultimate goal is mobilising the resources needed, to put up a new Faculty Building that can adequately meet our needs fifty years after. Our present Faculty building, was built more than 40 years ago, and our expansion has surpassed what the available facilities can be stretched to meet. With a student (undergraduate and postgraduate) population of about 2,000, and in a time where learning is increasingly inclined towards experiential learning, we need more than large lecture rooms, we need adequate moot court rooms that allow students to participate and engage in diverse clinical activities, and international- standard meeting rooms.
Are there any gender gaps in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria? Have they affected the female gender adversely, especially as regards participation in Government and other relevant positions? For instance, it seems that the highest position in the State Government that women seem to get to, is Deputy Governor, which is by appointment. How can Nigeria overcome this?
There are huge gender gaps in our Constitution. Although, the Constitution includes an anti-discrimination clause, which suggests that it is gender-responsive and has the aspiration of elimination of discrimination, the document’s approach which predominantly is liberal, ends up being “hand-offish” (if I may be allowed to create that word). Our reality is that gender-based discrimination, is both traditional and embedded, that the liberal approach cannot serve to correct the ills. In addition to an anti-discriminatory legislation, there is need for constitutional provisions that are directed towards positive steps to leverage women and break down the barriers. We need the constitutional affirmative action provisions (federal character), to be expanded to include women, even as it should, people with disability.
In my view, we must applaud that we have female Deputy Governors at all, and even females in the leadership of the State and Federal legislature. There was a time, when it would not have been possible to contemplate such a reality. The facts of a female Deputy-Governor or a female Speaker, have continued to weaken the myth that women cannot. This is where an affirmative action clause in the Constitution would have served a very useful purpose. By failing to specify some benchmark for affirmative action, the Constitution fails to seize an opportunity to create alternative realities, that will serve well to burst myths and also dismantle stereotypes that reinforce such myths.
The Constitution’s accommodation of the concept of indigeneship, and its silence on how to mediate the conflicting ideologies of how married women lose and acquire indigenship, makes it less of an ally of women in the face of marginalisation. The Nigerian Constitution, even compounds things by the conflicting provisions on citizenship of a married women. Painfully, the Constitution actually gives tacit acknowledgment to child-marriages, and subjects a girl-child’s citizenship status to the decision of her husband. Can you imagine that?
In my view also, the failure of the Constitution to affirm the rights to education and health as enforceable rights, also limits its potential to serve as an instrument for securing human rights and promoting social justice for women and indeed, other vulnerable groups in society. We can learn much in this regard from the Kenyan and Ghanaian Constitutions.
The Gender Equality Bill was thrown out by the Senate. What was the Bill asking for? Do you believe that there were cogent reasons for the Bill's rejection by the Senate?
The Gender Equality Bill, is simply trying to give effect to the human rights of women. It simply asks that women should have human rights spheres that the Constitution already guarantees.
There was not one single cogent reason for the rejection. The strong resistance was only the result of ignorance, fear and egoism. You know, when I listened to some of the things said by some of the male legislators in opposing the Bill, I felt shame and pity. I did, because I could not imagine that anyone on such pedestal, could be at such level of thinking. The statements made, reminded me of things I had read about what fears were expressed, when it was first mooted that women should be allowed access to education and granting women franchise. In the mid-19th century (that's about 150 years ago), fears were expressed that the world would be thrown into chaos, if women were allowed to pursue higher education.
I noted that, most of them were concerned about what I would call “the perceived threats”, to the absolutism in their rulership at home. I note also that a very vocal opponent of the Bill, was a legislator who was alleged to have married a child under 14 years ( there is some uncertainty as her age), and who publicly defended his act on the ground that, it did not offend his religion Essentially, what this shows, is that even when we have tried to liberate women in other contexts, there are men who still think they should hold feudal lordship over their wives, in their homes. So the Bill says, women should have room to participate in decision-making in their homes, and some legislators forswear that this will be over their dead body. Let me say that even in traditional society, women participated in decision-making, even in the home. I could cite instances from both the Bible and Quran, which showed that women had a voice even in the home, so I do not know where our legislators got the impression that this provision is ungodly.
There were and there are, still enough homes and families in which women have participated in decision-making, and these homes have been the better for it. The resistance we saw is not hinged on evidence, but on selfish self-preservation which does not even serve menfolk as a group, or even the families they purport to want to protect. Many of our legislators have educated wives, from whom they benefit through joint decision-making, but they come out to pose as “macho men”, who are Lord and Master. It is so painful that many of our men, who rode on the back of oppressed mothers to make it in life, and who witnessed the pain and suffering that these mothers went through as they were cheated, violated and abused, think there is a macho image they have to preserve, and they
"I MUST STATE THAT OUR STUDENTS GRADUATE AND GO ON TO TOP THEIR CLASSES, EVEN WHEN THEY GO ABROAD FOR POSTGRADUATE STUDIES. I WOULD LIKE TO NOTE THAT, IT MUST BE IN RECOGNITION OF OUR COMPARABLE STANDARDS, THAT SOME HIGHLY REPUTABLE LAW FACULTIES IN THE UK, PROVIDE VARIOUS OPPORTUNITIES FOR OUR STUDENTS AND GRADUATES"
"I HAVE ALWAYS TRIED TO USE EVERY OPPORTUNITY I HAVE, TO CLARIFY THAT THE DETERRENCE THEORY OF PUNISHMENT WHICH IS OFTEN CITED TO JUSTIFY SEVERE PUNISHMENT SUCH AS THE DEATH PENALTY, DID NOT STATE THAT SEVERE PUNISHMENT WITHOUT MORE WILL DETER CRIME"
betray these mothers by failing to cease the opportunity to make sure another woman, another mother, another grandmother, another aunt, another daughter, does not have to go through life this way.
I must also state that, I remain surprised that the legislators still think they can refuse to legislate women’s equal rights, when it comes to inheritance and access to property. The Supreme Court has made clear that the provisions in section 42 of the Constitution, clearly guarantee women equality in inheritance and access to property. Their constitutional duty, is to give effect to the judicial interpretation. In any case, regardless of their opposition, women already have equal inheritance rights and access to property in law.
6) As a Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, do you believe that the death penalty serves any useful purpose in Nigeria? Should it be abolished here, as it has been in many other countries, or do you believe that it could be the solution to curbing the rise of kidnapping in Nigeria?
I have always tried to use every opportunity that I have, to clarify that the deterrence theory of punishment which is often cited to justify severe punishments such as death penalty, did not state that severe punishment without more will deter crime.
In deterrence theory, there is the assumption that law enforcement is certain and consistent. People are deterred not only by threat of punishment, but by the likelihood of apprehension and certainty of punishment. The problem of increasing incidence of crime in Nigeria, rests on the facts that likelihood of apprehension is low and punishment is not certain, as an offender easily avoids punishment through corruption and/or systemic failure.
So we introduced death penalty for armed robbery in the 1970s. Even at the peak of use of death penalty by means of execution by a firing squad, armed robbery increased. Why, you might ask? Because arms were readily accessible, and because armed robbers had access to superior firearms over the police. The weakness of the police, means that likelihood of apprehension is low, so when the potential criminal weighs the odds of the death penalty being carried out, it is very low and so he/she chooses to take a risk.
Crime is reduced only when 2 things are seriously worked at simultaneously – first, planning and implementing programmes of crime prevention and second, strengthening the policing and justice system to send the message of the high likelihood of apprehension, and certainty of punishment. Since about 2009 when states started to introduce the death penalty for kidnapping, how many kidnappers have been apprehended, successfully prosecuted and sentenced? In the face of these failures, the law is mocked. Criminals are not deterred when a successful kidnap yields a ransom of millions of naira, and nothing happens in terms of apprehension.
But how does the option of resort to crime come about at all. Merton’s anomie theory, may help us understand what we are experiencing. In a society where a lot of premium is placed on attainment of riches, and this becomes the pursuit of almost all in the society, it can be said that this is the shared cultural goal of that society. Now, where the means of accessing the wealth or riches is not well distributed, and some are denied legitimate access by denial of opportunities, they resort to deviant adaptations such as innovation, rebellion, ritualism and retreatism.
Kidnapping, like armed robbery and trafficking, are deviant adaptations in a situation of anomie. Not having access to legitimate means of reaching the cultural goal, they innovate il- legitimate (deviant) means. Government owes the duty to reduce or mitigate the factors that strain individuals towards deviant adaptations. The fight against corruption is critical, if we seriously want to address the problem of crimes such as kidnapping, armed robbery and drug trafficking in Nigeria. Wealth illegally obtained through corruption, reinforces a cultural goal that is not legitimately attainable by the majority of people, hence the decision to adapt, by innovating means that are illegitimate to accrue wealth.
What should Government do to decongest the Prisons which are grossly overcrowded all over the country?
I would say government should do 2 things simultaneously and urgently. First, is build more prisons or expand capacity in existing prisons and second, is address the causes of congestion which are related to unlawful arrests and arbitrary detentions/remands.
The causes of prison congestion are many and these must be clearly identified and isolated, for us to articulate an adequate response. The statistics indicate that Nigerian prisons are severely overcrowded, but what compounds the problem, is that more than 70% of prison inmates are awaiting trial persons, that is un-convicted or yet-to-be-convicted offenders. Now among these un-convicted offenders, a significantly high majority are individuals whose trials are not, in fact, proceeding in court, who have been granted bail, but the bail conditions are too stringent for them to fulfil. The new legislative framework that has replaced the old Criminal Procedure legislation, that is the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015, and the various State versions which share much with the Federal Act, are designed to address some of these problems. For example, it prescribes the obligation on the Court to review its own remand orders within some specified time latitude, to ensure that where it is not satisfied that a case is being diligently prosecuted as to justify continued remand, it can revoke the remand order, after some steps have been taken. If the ACJA and ACJLs are diligently enforced, the problem of prison overcrowding will be addressed to a significant extent.
However, beyond enacting and enforcing the legislation, the government cannot run away from the imperative of expanding prison capacity, by building more prisons and providing infrastructure and other resources to make the prisons habitable and meet international standards. While no- one is advocating the expansion of prison capacity, just to the end of having space to lock-up some more people, the nature of crime is that its incidence level is not static. Although imprecise, it is well possible to estimate crime rates, by reference to increases in population and various other developments. Simply put, incidence of crime is on the increase. Crime correlates with development for many reasons, so that increased incidence of crime is to be expected as a society grows in number and experiences various forms of development. The number of criminals arraigned daily before criminal courts throughout the country, and who the exigencies of their case might compel remand, is on the increase and we must plan for this, no matter how unpalatable the thought may be.
What are your views on restructuring Nigeria? Is there a need for it? How would you advice Government to go about restructuring?
There is definitely a need for restructuring, although we must always remind ourselves that the clamour for restructuring is an outcome of failed governance. There, however, seems to be too much placed on the notion that, restructuring will necessarily bring good governance. I say, not necessarily. Nigerians have been ruled and oppressed by a class of Nigerians, who include people from all the geographical zones around which we want to build the restructured Nigeria. This suggests that bad leadership is not the attribute of one ethnicity, as some of the present clamour suggests and that merely getting rid of the other will rid us of bad leadership.
I am a federalist to the core, and I think we must decentralise government to the States, as contemplated when the idea of Nigeria as a federal state was first accepted. Military rule, is what introduced the kind of over-centralisation that we know today, and what restructuring will do, is take us back to where we first began. Now that is not radical change by any means.
I, however, think the present 36 States, should remain as they are, as I think that there will be too much rumpus if any change to that is proposed. Let's not over-rock the boat. True, there has been some politicising in the states creation exercises we have had, but I also know that the states creation were themselves responses to outcries of over concentration of power in some centres. The Federal Government, has to take its hands off many aspects of life, especially those that touch on commerce, trade and other aspects of the economy, such as exploitation of natural resources, tax. We need constitutional reform that supports more devolution of power to States, and reduces the concentration of power at a centre that is more difficult to control, because of its distance. This is what we can have with less rancour. The States are more or less united, in the demand for devolution of more powers.
The Federal Government, should negotiate for time for that to be implemented, and its implementation evaluated after a period of, say 7 years. A union of more than 57 years is not easily dissolved. The de- unionising, if it must be, has to be carefully undertaken. Lessons can be learnt from the clauses in the EU Treaties, which make exit of the union, something that must be negotiated over a minimum of 3 years, as we can see from the case of Brexit. In the Brexit situation, we see as much a divided country and challenge to government stability.
There is an increasing wave of sexual harassment in Nigerian tertiary institutions, and complaints by students of being sexually harassed by lecturers, doesn’t appear to be receiving the desired attention. As one who has been in the University system for many years and a mentor to many students, what panacea would you proffer to this worrisome societal problem?
I am happy you asking me this question at this time because I can happily provide an answer, that does not shame me. I am happy to note that the University of Lagos has been in the process of developing a Comprehensive policy to address the problem of sexual harassment, and it also addresses challenges posed by romantic relationship between students and staff. I am aware that the process is far gone, and the policy should be place and in force in a very short while. This draft policy, which has gone through many stages of consultative reviews and revision, defines sexual harassment of students by any employee of the University as a misconduct, for which sanctions including termination of employment, follows. The draft policy also addresses sexual harassment between staff and even by staff or student or a visitor to the university.
First, I believe that the fact that the policy is being developed, is indicative that we are a long way from a time when sexual harassment was even denied to be a problem, and when it was acknowledged at all, it was more in jest. I must note that, I have no reason to believe that this policy is being developed because of any external pressure, say a government directive or a requirement of an international collaboration. Hence, I believe that this is a genuine response by the University, to what it itself, acknowledges to be the social problem
Second, from what I know of the content of the policy, I believe that it will clarify the boundaries of acceptable and unacceptable conduct or interactions. It will also set out the procedure for dealing with complaints and when adopted, it will definitely will bolster student confidence to report and provide a framework for University action.
The proposed SH policy of the University of Lagos, is not the first. I am aware that there are some other Nigerian Universities, that have adopted similar policies e.g. UI and Covenant University. I am also aware that the UI policy, has been applied in one case and resulted in the dismissal of a lecturer, although the lecturer’s dismissal was ruled as wrongful by the court. What the case, which was reported by the media, clearly shows, is that in implementing and enforcing a Sexual Harassment Policy, we cannot afford to be emotional and presumptuous.
You have run the Legal Research and Development Centre or over two decades; such is rare in Nigeria. How have you been
able sustain such an audacious initiative, given the challenges of funding and what has been its impact so far?
Yes, I ran LRRDC for about 20 years. Although we have not folded up, we are not in business in the way that we used to be. Right now, we are more of a research consultancy, than we are of an NGO implementing interventions in the community. It was truly an audacious initiative. LRRDC was established at a very difficult time in the life of Nigeria. Government was hostile to the idea of human rights and was intolerant of human rights organisations. Indeed, the name Legal Research and Resource Development was carefully chosen.
Again at the risk of it being said that I am blowing my own trumpet, LRRDC was a leading human rights organisation in Nigeria established in 1990. It was founded by Mrs. Olatokunbo Ige, who is currently with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN-OHCHR). I served on its Board from inception, and took over as Executive Director in 1995. LRRDC complemented the work of other human rights NGOs such as CLO, CRP, CDHR and NADL. It focused more on providing human rights education to build a society with understanding of human rights, to foster respect for human rights and build individual and institutional capacity for promotion and protection of human rights. Aside the pictorial pamphlets produced in English, Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa and pidgin languages on various law and human rights topics, which were widely distributed in and outside Nigeria, the Centre also introduced and implemented school based interventions, such as the Street Law Club and the Good Governance Club, all of which aimed at creating awareness and fostering knowledge of human rights and democratic governance. LRRDC also, was the first Nigerian NGO, to introduce a legal aid clinic and paralegal services scheme, towards enhancing Today, human rights education has even become formalised.
Your Inaugural Lecture delivered as a Professor of Law at the University of Lagos in 2014 titled ‘In Search Of Transformative Justice: The Proselytism Of Legal Feminism’ came across to some as a battle cry for women to take up arms and assert their feminist rights. Can you shed some more light on the import of that lecture?
I doubt that anyone can really say the lecture was a battle cry, to take up any arms. You may say that of some of my other publications, but definitely not of that. In that lecture, my mission was to use the platform to clarify to the public what feminism, indeed legal feminism, is all about. I explained the aspiration of feminism which, in summary, is the pursuit of transformative justice. I want not about a battle cry, but rather I was on a “soul-winning mission”. Note that a key word in the title of the lecture is proselytism. Proselytism simply means evangelisation. I thought that feminism and indeed, legal feminism, had been too misunderstood.
Too many people think that feminism is about hating men, or displacing men. That is not correct. True, there are some women who are men- haters, as there are men who are women haters. All of us know how much some men hate women that they are serial killers of women, the type they hate.
Feminism is of different strands, straddling the wide berth between liberal feminists and the radical feminists, the cultural feminists and the Marxist feminist, etc. What all share in common, is a desire to assist society to interrogate its (mis) conceptions about men and women in society, and identify the positive and negative role. I then tried to demonstrate how legal feminism has been progressively deployed to bring about transformative justice since the 18th century. The feedback I have consistently received on the lecture, is that it was most enlightening and for many, it was the first time they were helped to gain a correct insight into what feminism is all about.
Plagiarism has been the bane of publishing in Nigeria. You have authored many books and there are findings that law publications are special targets of pirates. What has been your experience?
There is a difference between plagiarism and piracy. Both are really bad, and both undermine academic excellence. Plagiarism entails stealing someone’s original work, and passing it off as your original work. It is an integrity issue. That happens when a student, a researcher, a writer, a lecturer passes off someone else’s work as his or her own original work. For instance, a lecturer takes a student’s or another person’s submitted project work, and publishes it as his or her own. It is stealing. It is also fraud.
Piracy, in turn, is simply reproducing a person’s book or other form of publication and selling them. Piracy usually deprives the publisher, the opportunity of return on investments made in publishing. For example, a book is reprinted, often at an extremely poor quality level, so that it is relatively cheaper to acquire so that no-one or few buy the original copies.
For me, plagiarism and piracy are worse, when we as teachers are the victims of our students. Can you imagine that you avail your students some materials in the course of teaching them and the next thing, one of them goes on to produce this in one form of publication or another, and sells to others, especially other students in subsequent years. It just discourages you from providing materials, especially where this is original work that is not yet published. It's also irritating, because this discourages the students in the latter years, from being serious about attending classes because they think, they have the materials they need.
I haven't been a victim of piracy, but I have been plagiarised by my students many times over, but in most of these times, I think they have done so, because most of them are not as aware of what constitutes plagiarism, and I have seized the opportunity to correct them. I have also been a victim of plagiarism by a colleague, but I would not want to talk about the incident.
Plagiarism is quite difficult to detect in our climes, because we do not have most of our academic materials in depositories that are accessible to the anti-plagiarism softwares. We are, however, taking the challenge seriously in the Faculty of Law.
Domestic violence and incest, are now so common in urbane families and the authorities do not appear to have any solution to these problems. As a criminologist, what strategies can we adopt to tackle these hydra-headed problems?
I am not sure if domestic violence and incest, are now more common or they are more reported. It may well be that they are, but as we do not have reliable statistics from the past or present that can be compared, I do not want to dwell on that. Suffice it to say, I am glad that we are talking more openly about this, and acknowledge that these are social problems that we must tackle. I think the understanding that we gain from various learning theories of crime, can help us forge some way forward here.
With domestic violence, the rationalisations are learnt. The rationalisations are embedded in our cultural norms, which justify or excuse domestic violence. Such rationalisations are: He made me angry, so I was justified to use violence to communicate my anger. This is the definition of respect for a man, or Criminologists will tell you that criminals often have to rationalise Defective socialisation, means that too many people do not have skills for living harmoniously in social relations. Some people cannot tolerate opposition to their perspectives, especially from anyone they consider inferior.
There is the learning theory which states that you pick your conduct norms and values from the subculture that you are disproportionately exposed ((what is called differential association). There is also the learning theory of imitation. In sum these theories are saying that using violence is learnt. You grow up watching your father use violence on your mother, your mother use physical or verbal violence on the domestic servant, the military or police officer publicly use physical violence on someone who wrongs them. They use the violence and successfully subdue the other, and you learn that this is a way of getting what you want.
We must use our educational process –formal and informal, to address the high tolerance for violence in our cultural systems and promote a culture of respect for others. Beyond transmission of conduct norms, government and civil society organisations, need to offer platforms and opportunities for those who need help to reform. If, for example, someone today knows she/he has anger issues, where can they go for therapy? There is no doubt that the messages we pass about conduct norms through our educational system, must be reinforced by consistent law enforcement. States must adopt a zero tolerance policy for DV, within which they specify interventions such as mandatory reporting for certain institutions, mandatory prosecution, etc. Now, mandatory prosecution, does not mean that everything will end in imprisonment as punishment. For example, I am aware that in Canada, a person who is charged to court for partner assault is required to go for 15 weeks mandatory Group Therapy. Breach of this court order will result in court sanction. The institutions that provide such counselling support, are non- governmental organisations who receive funding from government to provide such services for citizens.
Some of the points I have just made, will be relevant for addressing incest, but I need to add that, we need to document and undertake some in-depth analyses that can give us more detailed information, such as the pattern and trend of incest. We need to know more about the rationalisations or other aetiolgical explanations, so that we can understand its nature as it is currently manifesting and then address it. While much of incest is exploitative, some are not e.g. sex between siblings of more proximate ages. With respect to the latter, some have alluded to the fact that we are living in a highly sexualised environment that conduces to learning explanations. In such an environment, if people are exposed to incorrect knowledge, they are more vulnerable to being abused or even being abusers. Suffice it to say that, we cannot solve a social problem, simply by acknowledging that the problem exists. Rather, we need thorough diagnosis of the problem, which entails looking beyond how the problem presents.
Despite the continuous advocacy, child marriage appears to defy all solutions as the trend doesn’t appear to have abated, especially in the North. What further steps can be taken to stem this tide?
Clearly, there isn’t genuine political will on the part of many of those who make up our government at the State and Federal levels, to eradicating child marriage, and they do not mince words about it. In fact, they are publicly pitched against such eradication. I recall that the former Governor of Zamfara who, incidentally is now a Senator, dared anyone to say he had done anything wrong, when he took a child bride citing religious law in his support, and claiming that he would willingly breach the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria where, in his view, it conflicted with his religious belief (note that I choose to say religious belief rather than religious law because I’m told there is jurisprudence that indicates that the religious law, which he lays claim to, does not in fact, support child marriage. Hence, there is little or no effort to enforce the many laws prohibiting child marriage. Let me say also that, it would appear in Nigeria that government’s strategy is to allow the passage of some laws so that it can claim that appropriate laws are in place and get credit for being committed to the needed reform when in fact, it is not.
That said, I would say that two critical factors contribute to child marriage – poverty and cultural/religious beliefs. Address poverty and give qualitative education that broadens the mind. The gate keepers of religion, are better able to manipulate/control people who are poorer and less educated. Poor families are more likely to give their girl-child away, to get some resources in the name of bride-price or at least reduce the number of mouths to feed. Address poverty, provide access to education which does not add more costs to the families, provide education which offers a real prospect of yielding a decent employment, and fewer people will give off their children in marriage. Qualitative liberal education empowers individuals, by opening their minds and makes them less susceptible to manipulation. Provide counter-narratives to the stereotypes on which religious gate-keepers thrive, by showcasing that it is the children of the poor who are married off early and not the so-called political and religious leaders.
"I RECALL THAT THE FORMER GOVERNOR OF ZAMFARA STATE, WHO, INCIDENTALLY IS NOW A SENATOR, DARED ANYONE TO SAY THAT HE HAD DONE ANYTHING WRONG, WHEN HE TOOK A CHILD BRIDE, CITING RELIGIOUS LAW IN HIS SUPPORT, AND CLAIMING THAT HE WOULD WILLINGLY BREACH THE CONSTITUTION OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA WHERE, IN HIS VIEW, IT CONFLICTED WITH HIS RELIGIOUS BELIEF"