A social media blog during the week reported that Nigeria’s Minister of Women Affairs, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye advised women in the country to shut up and forgive their abusive husbands. Claims and counter claims over the veracity of the report have flooded social media.
According to the report, Kennedy-Ohanenye, while speaking during a Conference of Commissioners of State Ministries of Women Affairs in Nigeria, told women to avoid trading words to prevent physical assault from their spouses.
The latest controversy comes months after the minister’s apology over her comments on the sex scandal involving a professor at the University of Calabar. Several women groups called for the resignation of the minister over her comments, which were deemed as taking sides with sexual predators.
Claim: Uju Kennedy asks women to shut up and forgive abusive husbands?
Verification
CDD War Room did a fact-checked on the claim to establish its veracity. We found various reports from the conference ascribed to the claim.
Reports from various media houses quoted the minister as saying, “I am equally begging my women not to look for trouble, not even at home. Maintain peace in your home because if a home is peaceful, the woman has 80 percent to contribute to that. If you need peace, you can equally achieve it.
“Keep your mouth shut. Talking back does not yield fruit, rather it leads to death and destruction, it leads to bringing up bad children for society. Keep your mouth shut, it does not make you a fool but a wise person. When the man is shouting and saying all sorts of things, act like a fool and keep your mouth shut.
“After a while, watch him. If he is a good man, he will come back to apologize. If he is not a good one, ignore him. Have what you want to do in your mind, but when you show who you are and fight back, most times, it leads to hitting; you could be injured.
“The same man that injures you will come back to say I am sorry. What will you do? Will you kill him? Even if we come out to fight for you and you lose one eye, are we going to replace the eye? So prevention is better than cure.”
CDD War Room found that the Minister in her speech asked women to keep their “mouth shut” when in an argument with their husbands to prevent violence.
Verdict: ALL WE KNOW
CDD War Room found that the minister asked women to keep ‘shut’ during arguments with their spouses. Although she did not explicitly call for forgiveness for abusive spouses, she however said: “The same man that injures you will come back to say I am sorry. What will you do? Will you kill him? Even if we come out to fight for you and you lose one eye, are we going to replace the eye? So prevention is better than cure.”
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