The Cotonou Times recently had a conversation with a Nigerian female scholar who is a psychologist and an expert in areas of research management and training. Our guest who has been a defender of women’s rights for twenty years gave us the honor to respond to our questions.
The Cotonou Times: Can you please introduce yourself?
Dr Ìyábọ̀ Bassir: My name is Ìyábọ̀ Bassir. I am a Doctor Of Psychology, an University Teacher, Graduate Of the University Of Ibadan, and a Member Of Zonta International,a leading Organization on the rights, empowerment and betterment of the life of women and children.
The Cotonou Times: How do you defend human rights?
Dr Ìyábọ̀ Bassir: You know women’s rights are humans right. That is to say women have the same rights as all other people especially men. I know this is entrenched in our laws,I think there is hardly any country where equality of women is not entrenched in the law,because every human being is equal under the law. However, the experiences that we are witnessing now show that women don’t actually have equality of opportunity and hence they don’t have equal rights. So we campaign that women’s rights as entrenched in our law become what we obtain in our society as well.
The Cotonou Times: How do you think that the issue of women’s rights is relevant in a country like Nigeria?
Dr Ìyábọ̀ Bassir:Nigeria has a huge population and therefore huge human potential,huge human capacity potential and of that population slightly more than 50% are women. So if Nigeria is to achieve its potential in terms of development, obviously we have to harness a potential of women as well. So I think it will always be relevant for that purpose for that reason we need to have as much coming from all parts of our society as possible.
The Cotonou Times: Motherly integrity which is inviolability of human body is considered a woman’s right. Yet, female genital mutilation remains wide spread in Nigeria. According to statistics published on the UNICEF website, the practice exists. State prevalence ranges from 62% in Imo to less than 1% in Adamawa and Gombe. The prevalence of female genital mutilation is the highest in the Southeast,that is a 35% and in the southwest 30%,and lowest in the northeast 6%. How do you explain that the community view the practice as a good tradition?
Dr Ìyábọ̀ Bassir: Unfortunately, the issues around it are rooted in myths and in traditions. All around the world now the rights of women are under discussion and unfortunately there has been a sort of reactionary tendency such as the rolling back of rights towards abortion and family planning. Mutilating the human body, no matter whatever you say, whatever you think is the reason for it the foundation for it can never be right because every part of the body has its own function whether we know it now or we will know it later, science advances. We just need to know that every part of the body has its own function. So cutting things of is not beneficial to anybody but I say that the issue of genital mutilation which is a traditional practice is rooted in mythology because to say that one particular part of the body generates promiscuity, how do you prove that? It’s not scientifically sound to say that. I think because of that we have to say it’s a myth, it’s just a myth people just believe it, but actually there’s no foundation for that belief.
The Cotonou Times: Many view women’s rights activists as agents trying to impose Western values on the African continent. How do you react to that?
Dr Ìyábọ̀ Bassir: Yes, it’s a somehow an abusive belief, but I think that like many views on the rights of women, it is founded in ignorance. If we look at the history of Africa, African women have been prominent, they have been active. In such the relegation of women to a subsidiary role in our society is a function of colonialism, it’s part of the heritage of colonialism. We all know that if we look at the history as Professor Bolanle Àwẹ́ rightly said, history shows that African women we are equal partners with the men in the development of the society before colonialism, before the western way of looking at women came to be. So for someone to think that being a woman activist is something brought from the West is a strange thing, but what I will say is that, the explanation is that we have our oral traditions. We don’t write things down, so we are now using what is written by those people to justify what we have been doing as part of our own tradition. So it’s not that the West is bringing the fight for human rights to us. No, that has been with us all along. We’ve had women warriors, women kings and queens, rulers in Africa even before the white man came. It’s just that we didn’t write our history like they write it.
The Cotonou Times: You have been a licensed psychologist for over thirty years,can you please specify the issues that you’re generally asked to examine?
Dr Ìyábọ̀ Bassir: As a psychologist I belong to the division of teachers and researchers,so people do not necessarily come to me to ask me about particular issues. I choose issues that are of interest to me to do my research and of course I teach the basics of psychology to students. I am not in the forefront , like Psychotherapy ,explain issues like anger. People don’t come to me for such explanations.
The Cotonou Times: In the western countries, whenever divorce proceedings and child custody battle occur, the matter is often referred to psychologists. What is the situation in Nigeria?
Dr Ìyábọ̀ Bassir: Social workers are more involved than psychologists. For the simple reason there are not many psychologists in Nigeria.
The Cotonou Times: Are psychologists in Nigeria compelled to work for the government, educational institutions or is it possible for them to have a private practice and advice private individuals?
Dr Ìyábọ̀ Bassir: Yes, it’s entirely possible. It’s regulated by law, the practice the registration is regulated by law, but you are entitled to practice according to your profession, and according to your qualifications. And I know some people have setup clinics to run psychotherapy clinics for patients where necessary, although most psychologists will naturally work either in hospitals or in educational institutions.
The Cotonou Times: Based on your field of experience as how acute is the phenomenon of domestic violence in Nigeria compared to other African countries that you know and to what’s happening in the western world?
Dr Ìyábọ̀ Bassir: There was a spate, I think in 2020, particularly in domestic violence. Domestic violence has always been an issue worldwide, sadly women are not safe in their homes, they are not safe in the streets, and they are not safe in their working places. That is the reality and that is the reason why we have 16 days of activism worldwide annually for the campaign to eliminate violence against women. However, a lot of progress has been made up to 2020.The year 2020 was a particular landmark year because of COVID-19, and all the efforts made to contain domestic violence, and gender based violence was eroded. I think it was due to the restriction of the movement of people, to the frustration and proximity, unnecessary proximity of people to one another, and then the restrictions of economic activities led to a lot of violence, a spate of violence worldwide not just in Africa, not just in Nigeria. I don’t think Nigeria is a special case, but the case in 2020 was that serious that the manifesto which was the coalition of women rights activists in Nigeria declared an emergency on rape, it was that bad in that year. Subsequently there has been a slight improvement; we hope that that improvement will continue.
The Cotonou Times:Based on this explanation, which solution can a psychologist offer to couples who are experiencing this problem in their household?
Dr Ìyábọ̀ Bassir: Well psychologists have the capability to teach people how to manage interpersonal conflicts to improve communications to work out things that they miss of each party, to educate people about the need, to offer something to gain some kind of resolution which is not violent, to divert energies to more beneficial means of action and I think that is you know as time goes by people will turn more to psychologist to help them to resolve those interpersonal conflicts that lead to violence, especially within the home and family.
The Cotonou Times: Do you have any last word for our readers?
Dr Ìyábọ̀ Bassir: Women’s rights are just human rights. Women becoming equal doesn’t mean that they take anything away from men, it doesn’t. Equality just means we are all the same, and it’s helpful to everybody because if you’re a man you must be a son, you must be a father, you must be a brother, a husband so why would not want you to be equal?
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