The Zaria Sexual Assault Response Centre
In 2019 over 5,000 cases of sexual assault were reported to the Kano State Hisbah Corps alone, these reports were gathered across different Northern states, and 725 of those cases came from Kaduna State. With such alarming numbers, it is clear that Northern Nigeria is plagued with a retrogressive culture that is characterized to foster child marriage, sexual harassment and promoting the culture of silence.
On a Tuesday morning, my team and I visited The Sexual Assault Response Centre (SARC) in Zaria, The Center is one of the few government sexual harassment centers in Kaduna state constructed inside the confined compounds of the Hajiya Gambo Sawaba General Hospital, The Centre was commissioned on the 7th of February 2019 and commenced operations on the 11th of February. It is designed to address issues of sexual harassment for free which has evidently been a challenge in the various surrounding communities. The Center provides services to the 6 different LGAs around the Zaria metropolis and is under the premise of Kaduna state Ministries of Justice, Human Services and Social Development, Health and Education. It is open on the weekdays for 24hours services for anyone who walks in through the door.
The establishment has added value to the community and has aided in the fight against gender based violence by providing treatment, counseling and sometimes justice through the local court for sexual assault. Speaking with some of the patients at the facility, Ms. Maimunat, a 40year old woman who had been molested and harassed by her husband’s brothers and friends for more than 10 years, has just concluded her counseling session. “I surffered in silince for years and didn’t have the courage to speak up or fight until a team from the Sexual Assault Response Centre visited her community”.
For the first time, she was confident enough to share her story and get help. After a session with the team, an investigation was carried out in collaboration with the police to apprehend the perpetrators, charged to court and get them sentenced to jail. While the nightmare of the harassment ended, she had however contracted a sexually transmitted disease which the Centre is also helping her treat and counseling her accordingly. Several similar cases have been recorded in the center since it commenced operation.
According to Hajiya Amina U.F. Ladan, who is In-charge of the Centre, the facility has a handful of volunteers from medical doctors, nurses, accountants and legal practitioners who ensure adequate services are available and provided round the clock.
One of the medical officers at the Centre confirmed how overwhelming the cases they receive are, “It is shocking that over 60% of the 300 cases that we have treated since the commissioning of the Centre in 2019 are male children within the ages of 3 to 24”. The Centre is constantly trying to break the barrier and the misconception that males do not get assaulted, raped or stigmatized for reporting especially in a deep-rooted cultural part of Nigeria like the North.
While the Centre has a huge positive impact on the community, the lack of adequate funding is taking its toll on the functionality of the entire structure, “The service of the Centre is not optimized as there is the need for more equipment and laboratory for testing”-Hajiya Amina U.F. Although the building looks new, from close observation it could be seen that the walls leak and absorb water leading to electrical faults, leaking roof, also, most of the office equipment such as the printers and photocopiers and some computers were no longer working.
Mr. Mohammed Dahiru, one of the Nurse practitioners, mentioned that; “The building is just one year but it is already damaged. I mean look at the walls leaking, some of the office equipment are already in bad condition. We called an engineer to look at some of the office facilities and he attested to the fact that the materials that were been given to us were never brand new” This is a facility that was just commissioned last year, yet is confronted with such challenges that if not tackled will lead to its deteriorating and inability to provide good services to this rather disturbing problem in our society.
Thanks to Open contracting commitment of the Kaduna state government to improve access to information in order to promote transparency and accountability, my team and I were able to find procurement data on the Kaduna State Public Procurement Authority portal, according to the data, the establishment of the center was budgeted for N247,835,850,00 but awarded at N11,952,423,00 which makes you wonder the reason behind such a drastic reduction. The furnishing of the Center alone was budgeted for N70,000.000.00 and awarded for N9, 317,413,75 and yet the office equipment are barely in good working condition.
We went further to investigate the monitoring process during construction, we visited the Kaduna Ministry of Justice who are the primary custodians of the Centre, the Director confirmed receiving a letter of complaint from Hajiya Amina U.F. who is in charge of the Centre and that effort was put in place to see that the project is assessed and if need be, the contractor and consultant that certified the quality of the work are questioned and the needful will be done.
Our monitoring shows that projects are done below standard and are still certified to get complete payment. One wonders whose responsibility it is to ensure the quality of projects? If the procurement law stipulates that each contract is awarded a consultant whose responsibility is to certify that a contract is done according to the specifications given with good quality materials, not only that, but the implementation agency is also mandated to monitor projects and ensure compliance. How then did this project quality skip the expertise of the consultant (quantity surveyor) and the implementation agency?
To answer the question; is the project’s poor standard in terms of quality of the structure due to the contract amount when compared to the budgeted amount? We visited the Kaduna State Public Procurement Agency (KADPPA) and one of the staff confirmed that “it shouldn’t have been the case as the contractor must have seen the budgeted amount and agreed to the job”.
Whatever the case may be, establishing a sexual assault center is strategic as sexual harassment is a disturbing issue in Northern Nigeria. The services and voice that the Centre provides for victims of sexual assault is something that should be prioritized. The communities are glad that such an establishment exists in their locality and is empowering them to speak out and take a stand. If such a Centre is properly managed, it would go a long way to achieving a society where children and adults both male and female can have hope and a voice. It will help encourage citizens to be conscious and take charge of their bodies.
Our monitoring would not have been possible if there was no available data (In an easy format to work with) to track and compare the project on ground, and with the data gotten my team and I will be able to follow up with the relevant stakeholders and implementation agency involved to ensure the facility is up and running and does not deteriorate any further.
Written by Zazzau Monitors a group of young people with the mission to improve service delivery in kaduna state. (This Blog was made possible by a grant from the Open Society Foundation)
