The European Union (EU) Ambassador to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Mr Ketil Karlson, has expressed EU’s commitment to the eradication of gender-based violence in Nigeria through activism against the menace.
Karlson disclosed this on Saturday at a “15-minute Flash Mob” organised by the EU as part of activities to mark the 2018 “16 days of activism against gender-based violence’’ in Abuja.
He said that there was need to talk to the youths and women on the need to end all forms of gender-based violence globally, adding that the event was to ensure that the right message was passed across.
According to him, what EU is doing here today is to create ways together with its Nigerian partners and with the entire international community to really get the message across that gender-based violence needs to stop.
“The message we are sending today is that of course we have to say this now but we have to remember it for the rest of the year and for the many years to come.
“This is because our daughters, our wives, our mothers don’t really deserve to experience the violence.
“So, this is the message that we are sending as EU today, together with these fantastic dancers and we are doing it with the countries that we are having spontaneous event with.
“We are having events on the internet because we want to reach out to millions of people and to make sure that this important message really gets across.
“A lot of Nigerian celebrities have joined us because they really believed in this important course and then we will do the culmination on December 10 being the world Human Rights Day.
“There is no better day to tell the world and the women in particular that they deserve our support to end all forms of gender-based violence,’’ he said.
Also, the Denmark Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Jasper Kamp, said that the event was extremely important in order to make people aware of the issue with gender-based violence in Nigeria and all over the world.
Kamp said that Denmark government was committed to fight against gender-based violence across the world, adding that the activism was aimed at engaging millions of people through social and conventional media.
He called on individuals and the society to support the movement by reporting any act of violence against women to the appropriate authorities like the police and other relevant agencies.
“We are here to support that as Denmark, as EU and in Nigeria, we have a 16-day long campaign called 16 days of activism against gender-based violence.
“`The idea is within these 16 days we could get focus on the social media, media and in the society as a whole but we need to get more than that because it is 365 days in a year.
`This is the only way we can make it reduced or make go away one day but is the society’s and individual responsibility because it starts with the individual.
“My suggestion to everybody is that if you see it, report it because if you don’t report it because you see it as a family issue, it would not go away,’’ he said.
Similarly, the French Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Jerome Pasquier, said it was extremely important that gender-based violence was eradicated in the world.
According to him, we have to put an end to this sort of violence against women and girls.
“What is important is that as many people as possible should participate in this campaign because the earlier we put an end to it the better for it,’’ he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the 15 minutes’ Flash Mob featured a dancing group at the game shop of the Jabi Lake Mall.
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