Wife of Nigerian President, Aisha Buhari was missing at Africa’s First Ladies meeting at the United Nations General Assembly in New York where they campaign against early marriage and sexual violence against women and girls.
According to a report by Nigeria Stability and Reconciliation Programme, Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is the most pervasive human rights violation. An estimated 35 percent of women and girls globally and 45.6 percent of women and girls in Africa have experienced physical and/ or sexual violence with little evidence available regarding the prevalence of psychological or emotional violence.
In Nigeria, surveys undertaken in 2012 and 2013 indicated that around 30% of women had experienced some form of physical, sexual or emotional domestic violence during their lifetime.
Also, about 44 percent of girls in Nigeria are married before their 18th birthday and 18% are married before the age of 15.
To this end, the African First Ladies, including Jeanette Kagame (Rwanda), Clar Weah (Liberia), Antoinette Sassou Nguesso (Democratic Republic of Congo) and Auxilla Mnangagwa (Zimbabwe), continued their passionate appeal for the world to support their “Hands Off Our Girls! Campaign.
However, many have raised questions about why the Wife of Nigeria’s President, who also runs an NGO, the Future Assured Programme for the better and physical wellbeing of women and Children would be absent at the event.
Although the Wife of the President has been active on Social Media, she was last seen at a public function two months ago.
According to a report by Daily Trust, the first lady, who left the country early August to Saudi Arabia to perform hajj (Muslim pilgrimage), had not returned to the country.
