A VOICE FOR THE GIRL CHILD

October 11, 2014; oh that fateful day that will forever be ensconced in the depths of my memory.
October 11th of every year marks the commemoration of the International Day of the Girl Child. This day focus attention on the unique challenges girls face around the world and how to promote girls’ empowerment and the fulfillment of their human rights.
In the morning of 10th October 2014, I went to work brimming with enthusiasm to execute the activities that had been diligently planned to mark this year's International Day of the Girl Child. At around 8pm, after a full day’s office toil, I set-out with a colleague to hang banners bearing messages advocating for the provision of safe schools for girls by our government.

The plan was to hang the banners at 10 strategic locations in Abuja, where the messages would be clearly revealed to the thousands of people commuting to work the next morning. This was almost achieved but for an unfortunate run-in. A run-in that forever changed me. 


We worked tirelessly against the overwhelming urge to sleep; drained of perspiration and forced to adopt nocturnal abilities we never knew we had. We succeeded in hanging 7 of the 10 banners and proceeded gleefully to hang the remaining ones before retiring longingly to our beds for a much deserved night’s rest. Unfortunately, just after midnight, as we were hanging the 8^th banner, we were accosted by plain-clothed gunmen who we later discovered were officers of Abuja Environmental Protection Agency.

We were whisked into their patrol vehicle without explanation; our office vehicle was commandeered and our remaining banners seized. We had no clue as to why we were arrested. Panic stricken, we struggled to make sense of what just happened, we asked the officer by the door but were vehemently shut down. Still trying to reconcile what had just transpired, I was jolted out of my thoughts by the voices of young girls who looked battered and bruised, seating right behind us.
It then dawned on my colleague and I what was going on. Over and over, the patrol vehicles would stop and pick more girls who were promptly labelled sex workers (to put it mildly). Unsuspecting private vehicles were stopped, any female passenger in such vehicles were abused, humiliated, profiled as a prostitute and forcefully thrown into the patrol car. Girls who attempted to resist were beaten and lifted into the car. Their male counterparts were left unquestioned. After holding us for over 2 hours, we were released but the girls were not. I have no idea what happened to those girls.

The tragic irony of the situation did not escape me; here we were, just past midnight on the International Day of the Girl Child, witnessing first-hand the abuse of women and girls from the hands of the very people who were supposed to protect them.
The disdainful and venomous manner in which these girls were treated is just a reflection of the valuation and plight of women in today’s society. Violence and crimes against women and girls go unpunished daily. 

Our government has failed woefully to protect women and girls; schools are unsafe and unresponsive to the needs of the girl child, social structures are not gender friendly, and the room for female participation in public spaces continues to shrink daily. Girls and women are subdued and defined by unreasonable religious and cultural laws. Our society has gradually stripped the girl child of individuality, of the power of the self. She is only but a property whose attributes are dictated by the society.

October 11, 2014, in retrospect, was indeed a fateful day. I will remember it not as the night that I was detained by the police, but the night I became a full-fledged champion of women's suffrage; to forever advocate for fair and equal treatment for girls and women in our society.
I hope that my story inspires you to lend a voice for the protection of the rights of the girl child as well.

Written by: KennyOleru, ActionAid Nigeria