By Shina Abubakar Osogbo
Traditional rulers from Osun and Ogun State have expressed commitment to end violence against women and girl-child.
The monarchs expressed the commitment at a strategic meeting convened by the Centre for Women’s Health and Information, CEWHIN, held in Osogbo on Thursday.
The event, which was supported by the Ford Foundation was targeted at the Prevention of Violence Project (PVP), a three-year initiative aimed at strengthening culturally-rooted prevention systems across communities.
Facilitator of the programme, Dr. Benjamin Ayeni, said the project was designed to engage traditional and religious institutions as frontline drivers of social change, explaining that the approach was intentionally participatory and rooted in community realities.
“We believe that change is only sustainable when people who live with the problem participate in shaping the solution,” he stated.
Speaking on behalf of other monarchs during the session, Oba Dr. Olubayo Adesola Windapo, Alara of Ara emphasised the central role of traditional rulers in addressing violence, expressing concern over increasing cases of rape and harmful traditional practices.
“Our part as leaders is very important because these matters always come back to our table, We organise meetings where we remind our people that violence is not only about beating a woman. The words you speak and the refusal to provide money for household feeding are also acts of suffering.
“We have complained many times about female circumcision, yet it still happens. Anothet major concern is youth involvement in drugs and alcohol, a major driver of violent behaviour. When the youths are high, there is nothing they cannot do,” he warned.
Other traditional rulers and Iyalodes present at the meeting noted that delayed punishment for offenders continues to fuel impunity. One of the Iyalodes, Mrs Kafayat Ademola, remarked that lack of timely justice discourages survivors from speaking out.
“When offenders with connections go free, the whole community gets the message that women’s safety does not matter,” she said.
The strategic engagement revealed deep-seated cultural norms that continue to enable physical and sexual abuse. These include cultural acceptance of harmful ‘discipline,’ palace settlements that discourage police intervention, proverbs that normalize wife-beating, and the silence families maintain to avoid shame. Stakeholders also identified barriers such as weak coordination with justice systems, absence of accountability mechanisms within palaces, and survivors’ fear of reporting influential offenders.
Despite these challenges, traditional leaders from both states expressed readiness to lead a cultural reorientation process. They also proposed using festivals, proverbs, community gatherings, storytelling, and market interactions to shift harmful norms. One of the key resolutions was to revisit ancestral protection codes and frame gender safety as a core cultural obligation.
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Source: Osun, Ogun monarchs to collaborate with CEWHIN to tackle GBV
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