Gender-Based Violence: GKJF Initiates Initiative To Hound Cyber Bullying Of Nigerian Ladies
By Ogbu KOSY
A media nonprofit based in Cross River State, Godshield Kanjal Journalism Foundation (GKJF) has launched an initiative to track cyber bullying of Nigerian single women by the 'alpha male' movement.
The initiative, odename GBV Tracker, is aimed at tackling the trend of bullying of women on the internet by some group of fictitious social media account operators under the aegis of 'alpha males'.
The founder of the foundation, Godshield Kanjal, who disclosed this to Journalists in Calabar at the weekend, frowned at the alarming rate of violence against women by these group of faceless men.
The foundation says it will train a large number of GBV Tracker volunteers who will track and monitor these social media accounts, reports them or call on the public to sign petitions against such accounts for its complete ban.
"Some of the accounts advices men never to consider women who are 33-year-old for marriage. They advice the men to only have sexual intercourse with these women and dump them. This is bad and condemnable.
"This is the highest form of cyber gender-based violence. Once you log into Facebook, you will see different pages of men age-shaming single women and single mothers.
"One of the Facebook accounts in the forefront of this ugly trend is a pseduo name known as Allakaduna Nzeogwu.
"Allakaduna has raised an army of men who are his ardent supporters and followers, who bashes and mock single aging ladies everyday.
"They assume single women in this age bracket are running out of their biological clock, which is untrue.
"Why put pressure on these innocent single women?
"I know a large number of single women who may fall in this age bracket, these women have been thrown into severe depression and they are going through low self-esteem because of the bullying by these men.
"Who sets the standard that a woman must marry when she is younger than 30?" He said.
The foundation held that it will collaborate with gender advocates and other women-focused organisations to achieve the aim of the initiative.
