Law, culture, and tradition as the enablers of domestic violence in Nigeria

At a time like this where domestic violence is on a high scale, there’s no better time to let our readers know that domestic violence is legal and lawful in some jurisdictions in Nigeria and it is also culturally backed in most traditional societies.

For instance, in the northern part of Nigeria where the law there is the penal code, domestic violence was made lawful by s. 55 of the penal code act, not just in that region in Nigeria, in other regions where Islamic religion is practiced and they follow the Islamic rules, domestic violence is also permitted.

A husband is permitted to flog or beat up his wife for the purpose of correcting or cautioning her. So a man can lawfully beat his wife. It is lawful hence it cannot be tagged as domestic violence but correction.

So the issue with domestic violence is fundamental. Wives are not to be treated as equals or partners to the husband but subordinates who are to be beaten or brutally trained by the husbands.

Also, due to the traditional bride price that is expected to be paid by the husband in the exchange for the wife, then some men feel that they purchased the wife and the wife is their property to be treated however they like. You hear some men making some justification that women are their chattels and never their equal partner. 

For instance, in Igbo land, some women address their husbands as “onye nwem”, meaning “my owner”. This is to say that the wives acknowledge the fact that they are being purchased and owned by their husbands just like every other property.

There is really a great need for the adjustment and amendment of some laws, cultural and religious rudiments of the society for us to ameliorate and put an end to this domestic violence of a thing. Some men are naturally beasts who can beat up and physically assault their wives at the slightest provocation and these cultures and religions permit them to unleash their beast mode on their wives.

I will definitely write much on domestic violence in the coming days because after my last post on it I got a lot of feedback from women who have been suffering in silence; some of these women feel it’s okay for their husbands to beat them as a way of cautioning or correcting them, some of the women are too scared to leave the marriage, some are scared of starting all over, some are considering what people will say. Whatever your reason might be that you are still in that marriage/relationship, remember that it’s better to be alive than to be in that relationship.