A looming scarcity of husbands in the Southeast, particularly in Anambra State, has been forewarned by the Anambra Truth, Justice, and Peace Commission.
The commission’s recently released executive summary, shared with the News Agency of Nigeria, highlights the dire consequences of restiveness and violence, affecting the region’s demographic sustainability.
The report underlines the structural problem arising from restiveness and killings, leading to difficulties for women in finding suitable mating partners.
It states that women are among the most affected victims, enduring atrocities such as killings, rape, loss of husbands and sons, and denial of livelihoods.
The report points out that the ongoing violence, prevalent since 1999, has disproportionately affected the population of young males in the region.
This reduction in the number of eligible men raises concerns about the potential difficulty women may face in finding suitable marriage partners, potentially leaving them unmarried and reproductively unfulfilled.
“It will further swell the number of unmarried women in the region, particularly among those who reside in the homeland and have limited interaction outside the boundaries of home,” the report notes.
The consequences extend to economic impoverishment, mass widowhood, and enforced childlessness, creating destitution or dependencies among women. Polygamy remains prevalent in rural communities, and women’s access to land is often tied to their relationship with the men in their lives.
The report recalls specific cases, including the tragic killing of Amaka Igwe, a lawyer, and her husband in Onitsha, as well as Harira Jubril and her four daughters near Umunze in Orumba South Local Government Area.
In addition to the emotional toll, economic consequences are severe, affecting women’s livelihoods and access to land. The report highlights the potential loss of access to land for married women without sons and the challenges of remarriage for women with children.
The impact on education is also significant, with a unique regional problem of diminishing boy-child school enrollment and retention in Anambra.
The report emphasizes that insecurity has negated previous progress on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the state, as young boys abandon education due to fears of violence or abduction.
A human rights lawyer and former Chairman of Nigeria Human Rights Commission, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu chaired the 14-man ATJPC, which submitted its final report to Governor Chukwuma Soludo on Wednesday.
