If Christian fathers make the fight against sexual and gender-based violence a major priority, the society will complete a mileage in eradicating the social vice.
This is according to the Anambra State Commissioner for Special Duties, Hon. Barrister Beverly Ikpeazu-Nkemdiche in her goodwill message to fathers of the Catholic church as they celebrate Fathers’ Sunday yesterday.
Hon. Ikpeazu-Nkemdiche stated that relegating the topic of sexual and gender-based violence to a discourse only discussed in women fora will continue to hamper any progress that is being made in eradicating the social menace.
She noted that in a patriarchal society like Nigeria’s, victims of most cases of sexual and gender-based violence are women and most perpetrators are men, as such, if men lead the charge by discussing about the problem in their fora, providing counselling services for their fellow men and intervening where necessary, the war against violence targeted at women will be mostly won.
The Special Duties Commissioner, therefore, asked the Catholic fathers to use this period of their celebration to lead the advocacy and influence policies against every form of physical, social, cultural, emotional and economic violence targeted at women starting from their families, the church, the community and to the entire society.
Congratulating them on the occasion of their Fathers’ Sunday, Barrister Ikpeazu-Nkemdiche charged the Catholic Fathers to continue to emulate their patron, St Joseph the Worker, who stood by and protected his family even when it was most difficult and inconvenient for him to do so.
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