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There are various studies on domestic violence against women in Nigeria. In his study on African women sentenced by tradition, Chikezie (2012) observed that:

There is no blanket approach fighting violence against women. What works in one country may not lead to desired results in another. Each nation must devise its own strategy. But universal truth applicable to all countries, cultures, and communities is that violence against women is never acceptable, never excusable and never tolerable. (p. 15).

He concluded that violence against women and girls is a major obstacle to the achievement of the objectives of gender equality, development and peace. violence against women both violates and impairs or nullifies the enjoyment by women of their human rights and fundamental freedoms. Gender based violence such as domestic violence, sexual abuse and exploitations, international trafficking in women and children, forced prostitution and sexual harassment, as well as violence against women resulting from cultural prejudice, racism, and racial discrimination, xenophobia, pornographic cleansing, armed conflict, foreign occupation, religious extremism and terrorism are in compatible with the dignity and worth of human person and must be combated and eliminated. (Chikezie, 2012). In a similar studies,

Angelou, (1989) cited by Udo, (1999) in a forward to “I Dream a World’. Revealed the understanding and aspirations of all black women thus:

They knew the burden of feminine sensitivities suffocated by masculine responsibilities. They wrestled with the inescapable horror of bearing pregnancies which could only result in issuing more chattels into the rapacious maw of slavery. They knew the grief of enforced separations of mates who were not theirs to claims, for the men themselves did not have legal possession of their own bodies. (p.40).

It is interesting to note from the above, women’s sensitivity to their children is a rail hand; a band in which the men are included. One wonders therefore whether the Nigerian feminine gender does not detect the frailty. It seems to the researcher that a change is better fostered not by muscle power tussle but by effective female power of persuasion.

Similarly, Lenore Walker (cited by Gama, 1991), who has conducted research on the battered woman, proposed that the theory of learned helplessness describes why women remain in abusive relationship. Her theory is that the battered woman’s response to her abuse comes out of a sense of helplessness or a sense that has no control over the abuse, even though in reality s he may have control. Her belief or her expectation that she has no control is the crucial factor in the learned helplessness response to abuse. According to walker, (cited by Garma, 1991), “Once we believe we cannot control what happens to us, it is difficult to believe we can ever influence it, even if later we experience a favourable outcome” (p.130). from Walker’s research above, the researcher observes that a sense of helplessness is learned when the woman comes to believe that no matter what she does to try to avoid the battering or to control the batter’s anger, the battering still occur. The women may attempt to initiate

problem-solving techniques to assuage the batterer’s anger, but to no avail. With each failure, subtle changes occur in the woman’s psyche until all motivation to avoid the battering seems to disappear, and the woman becomes more passive in her response to the batterers’ anger. Case studies of domestic violence carried out by Gender and Development Action (GADA) show that the abuser often believes that there is a justifiable reason for his or her action. This belief in “righteous anger” is usually strong in cases of domestic violence, especially wife battering. And the bad news is that many law enforcement agents tend to share the view that women invite physical violations by what they do or fail to do as daughters, wives and mothers whose behaviour must at all times mirror societal values. In other words, there is always the tendency to blame the victim, as it is the case in many other aspects of discrimination or suppression of women. Corroborating the above, Amnesty International (2005) report on Nigeria (cited by, Abayomi, A., Kolawole, and Olabode, 2013) indicates that:

On a daily basis, women are beaten and ill-treated for supposed transgressions, raped and even murdered by members of their family. In some cases, vicious acid attacks leave them with horrific disfigurements. Such violence is too frequently excused and tolerated in communities and not denounced.

Husbands, partners and fathers are responsible for most of the violence against women. (pp. 53-60).

In Nigerian society, violence against women and girls cannot be ignored though it is being ignored. One out of three of all women and girls aged 15-24 have been a victim of violence. Women both married and unmarried have been subjected to vicious attacks from men. Rape, sexual insult and assault, brutalization and victimization, domestic violence on girls and women have in recent time been on the

increase in Nigeria, with victims embarrassed to report such incidences to the right agencies for justice. Buttressing the amnesty report, the Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Africa Program, Stephane Mikala, (cited by Abayomi, A., Kolawole, and Olabode, 2013) once said:

On a daily basis, Nigerian women are beaten, raped and even murdered by members of their families for supposed transgressions, which can range from not having meals ready on time to visiting family members without their husband’s permission. Husbands, partners and fathers are responsible for most of the violence (pp.53-60).

Records have shown that between 50 percent and two thirds of Nigerian women are subjected to domestic violence in their homes. In Nigeria, sixty-five percent or more educated women are in this horrible situation as compared to their low income counterparts, (55 percent). Unfortunately, a staggering 97.2 percent of the abused women do not report the crime to the authorizes (Olorounbi, 2012). A similar research carried out in 2013 to assess domestic violence among women in Ogun State, although theis was not under our scope of study however, it showed that women experienced incidence of violence with property. According to Villarreal (2000), access to productive resources such as land, credit, technical know-how, knowledge, technology transfer is strongly determined along gender lines, with men frequently having more access to all these than women but with the death of the man, the wife may be left without the access she has gained through her husband’s clan; and her livelihood can be immediately threatened. According to Himanshu and Panda (2007), it is estimated that one in every five women faces some form of violence during her lifetime and, in some cases leading to serious injury or death. Violence against women and the girl-child at home and at work place has taken alarming trend and

different dimensions. It is equally a major threat to social and economic development (UN, 2000). It is also the most widespread and socially tolerated way in which women and girls are denied their basic right DFID (2007). The preliminary report of the special reporter on violence against women UNIFEM (1994) argues that women’s vulnerability to violence is determined by their sexuality, resulting for example in rape, or female genital mutilation (FGM). This arises from their relationships to some men and form membership of groups where violence against women is a means of humiliation directed at specific groups (e.g. mass rape in conflict situations). Violence against women is reinforced by doctrines of privacy and the sanctity of the family, and by legal codes which link individual family or community honour to women’s sexuality. However, the greatest cause of violence against women is government tolerance and inaction. Its most significant consequences is fear, which inhibits women’s social and political participation (UNDP, 1997 as cited by Watch and Reeves (2000) violence against women and girls occur on a vast scale, with sexual violence playing a prominent role. Sexual violence often appears in literature but its definition is broad and the terms is used to describe rape by acquaintance, or strangers, by authority figures (including husband), incest, child sexual abuse, pornography, sexual harassment and homicide Gordon and Crehan (1998). Sexual violence describes the deliberate use of sex as a weapon to demonstrate power over, and to inflict pain and humiliation upon another human being. Therefore, sexual violence does not only include direct physical contact between perpetrator and victim, it may also include threat, humiliation, and intimidation Gordon and Crehan (1998).

The loss of homes, income, families, and social support deprives women and girls the capacity to generate income as a result of which they may be forced into transactional sex in order to maintain certain level of livelihood/comfort (or those of their husband

or children), escape to safety, or gain access to shelter or services (including the distribution of food).

Again, World Health Organization (WHO, 2014) multi-country study on women’s health and domestic violence against women, report findings revealed the prevalence of intimate partner violence and its association with women’s physical, mental, sexual and reproductive health. Data are included on non-partner violence, sexual abuse during childhood and forced first sexual experience. Information is also provided on women’s responses to: whom do women turn to and whom do they tell about the violence in their lives? Do they leave or fight back? Which services do they use and what response do they get? Data from the report show that violence against women is widespread and demands a public health response.