The wife of the President Mrs Aisha Buhari, has urged stakeholders to make concerted efforts towards eradicating all forms of abuses in Nigeria.
Mrs Buhari made the call on Saturday while delivering her speech at the National Workshop on War against Abuse organized by her NGO, the Future Assured programme in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Abuja.
The wife of the President said that the workshop was organized to sensitise the general public on issues related to all forms of abuse in Nigeria.
She also said, the workshop was intended to proffer workable solutions to address the adverse effect of series of abuse on women and in Nigeria.
Mrs Buhari said that human rights abuses such as physical, sexual and emotional abuse are alien to the laws of Nigeria.
She expressed dismay over the recurrence of the cases of child abuse especially child marriage, human trafficking, domestic violence against women and children as well as the elderly remain major source of concern in Nigeria.
Mrs Buhari added that, despite the various legislation against the menace, the situation reamained at its alarming rate.
The wife of the President also expressed her concern on the kind of abuse muted on children especially the infant where she cited on example of a six-months old baby Khadijah who was sexually abused in Kano.
” Even though, judgement had been passed in the case, the incidence is still fresh in our minds.
” In delivering the judgement, the acting chief judge grants all the reliefs and awarded a sum of ten thousand naira as compensation being social damages for the expenses so far made by the baby’s family on her health since the occurrence of the unfortunate incidence ” she said.
Mrs Buhari said that there was need to review such judgements with stiffer penalty to serve as a deterrent to perpetrators of such act.
According to her, that would adequately address the violation of the fundamental human rights of such victims.
” Base on my experience working with relevant organization, it is reasonable to assume that most cases of abuse occur as a result of inadequate information and lack of self confidence among the general population” she said.
The wife of the President also advocate for the need to educate, raise awareness on prevention and report incidences of abuse to law enforcement agencies.
She also called on the victims of abuse to always speakout, saying that, that will go along way to protect another victims somewhere.