Report: 21% of Nigerian Women Have Suffered Physical, Sexual Violence

• NAPTIP, EU, International IDEA launch Media Corps to confront silence, impunity

Michael Olugbode in Abuja

One in every five Nigerian women aged 15 to 49 has experienced physical or sexual violence, a disturbing finding that has heightened calls for sustained media scrutiny of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) across the country.

The figure emerged as National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), in partnership with the European Union (EU) and International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA), launched a dedicated Media Corps to strengthen journalism as a tool for exposing SGBV, challenging institutional failures, and breaking the culture of silence surrounding abuse.

The initiative was unveiled in Abuja under the EU-supported End Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Programme, with journalists receiving specialised training to investigate and report cases of sexual and gender-based violence more effectively, ethically, and sensitively.

The 21 per cent figure gives the initiative a stark national context: SGBV is not a marginal problem affecting a handful of victims, but a widespread threat with consequences for women, families, and communities.

The media corps is consequently designed to move coverage beyond the episodic reporting of individual rape, assault or abuse cases to sustained journalism that investigates patterns, identifies perpetrators and enablers, interrogates institutional responses, and keeps pressure on authorities to deliver protection and justice.

Stakeholders at the launch stressed that the fight against SGBV could not be left to law enforcement agencies and the courts alone.

They stated that the media had a critical role in exposing abuses that remained hidden, amplifying survivors’ experiences, challenging victim-blaming and harmful social norms, and ensuring that cases do not disappear from public attention once the initial news cycle ends.

The new corps will equip journalists with knowledge of the legal, psychological, and social dimensions of SGBV, while strengthening their ability to report cases without sensationalism or practices that could further traumatise survivors.

This is particularly important in a country where fear, stigma, victim-blaming, and concerns about access to justice can discourage victims from reporting abuse.

Recent research similarly points to the continuing scale and complexity of violence against women in Nigeria, including intimate-partner violence and sexual abuse among young women and adolescents.

For NAPTIP, whose mandate includes combating trafficking and related forms of exploitation, the partnership provides an opportunity to deepen public understanding of the links between trafficking, sexual exploitation, and other forms of gender-based violence.

The initiative is also expected to strengthen collaboration between journalists, government agencies, civil society organisations, and other institutions working on prevention, protection, prosecution, and survivor support.

But stakeholders emphasised that specialised reporting must be accompanied by a strong commitment to ethical journalism.

The ultimate ambition, stakeholders said, was to transform SGBV reporting from a series of isolated breaking-news stories into sustained accountability journalism.

With one in five Nigerian women reportedly affected by physical or sexual violence, the stakes are enormous.

The real test of the media corps will, therefore, not be the number of journalists trained, but whether its members can uncover hidden cases, expose systemic failures, force institutions to respond and keep SGBV firmly on Nigeria’s national agenda.

In a society where silence can protect perpetrators, the new media corps is being positioned as a force to ensure that violence against women does not remain hidden—and that victims do not become forgotten statistics.