There is a need to intensify the engagements of state governments across the country in the advocacy against gender-based violence, in order to deepen and strengthen official efforts to prevent its menace.
This is according to the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, who received Mrs Leymah Gbowee on Tuesday at the State House in Abuja.
“Driving prosecution for sex offenders is best done at the state level, particularly strengthening the states to do so at the National Economic Council,” he was quoted as saying in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande.
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Gbowee is the Liberian activist who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 for non-violent struggle, safety, and women’s rights.
The Vice President emphasised the need for states to exercise political will in order to get the desired results, as well as provide the necessary funding to implement, working together with the private sector.
He noted that the Federal Government had open the Sex Offenders Register, saying “It was something that needed a lot of attention, changing the orientation of men in particular, to understand it’s a campaign that must be championed by men.”
In her remarks, Mrs Gbowee noted the prevalence of rape in and out of conflict zones with impunity across Africa.
She described the successful launch of the sex offenders register in Nigeria as a huge milestone, adding that the country has set the precedence for other African countries to follow.
The meeting held a day after the Liberian gave the keynote address at the launch of the Sex Offenders Register organised by the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP).
