What the VAPP Act Repeal Means to Women, Activists and Survivors

On 9 July 2024, a bill to repeal and reenact the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Act passed its second reading at the National House of Assembly. Nigerian women analyze this Bill through personal and collective histories on what it could mean for the fight against gender-based violence.

In August 2024, 24-year-old Yasmin Bello* left the office of the legal officer-in-command, Zone 10 Sokoto, sniffing into her hijab. It had been three anxious months since a friend put her in direct contact with the Criminal Investigation Department, and now she was leaving with a protection order against her cousin, Ahmed. ‘He began spreading rumours of me sleeping around, then peeping at me through my toilet window,’ she told me, ‘He then proceeded to blackmail me that he has pictures of me bathing and he’d share them online if I don’t sleep with him.’

Under the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Act, Ahmed’s actions are classified as coercion (section 3) and emotional and psychological abuse (section 14). If convicted on both charges, he could spend a maximum of four years in prison and pay a fine of N200,000. Before the case could be heard in court, Yasmin’s father demanded that she withdraw it. The protection order was the best legal outcome she could get.

This order, provided for by section 30 of the VAPP Act, prohibits Ahmed from contacting her in any way or being within ten meters of her. If violated, the officer-in-command assured Yasmin that the matter would transcend her, and the state must prosecute Ahmed under the Act. She said: ‘It is the only form of justice I’ve gotten, despite being a victim of serial sexual violence by grown men in my community.’

The VAPP Act was domesticated in Sokoto State in 2021, six years after former president, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, signed it. A month before Yasmin got her order, a bill to repeal the act and reenact a different version entered its final stage of consideration at the National Assembly. This change was championed by Senator Jibrin Isah of Kogi East Senatorial District, under claims that the current act is ‘inimical to its purpose.’ While the provisions of the bill offer stricter punishments, use less gendered language, and remove references to outdated legislation, it also effectively compounds the problems of survivors and advocates, especially under provisions for the Survivors of Violence Support Fund, by reducing the ability of NGOs to be independently funded...