See Why 34% of Nigerian Women Believe Wife Beating Is Justifiable

According to the result of the findings in a newly released Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) by the National Bureau of Statistics, 33.7% of Nigerian women believe that a man is justified in beating his wife for at least one of the following five reasons:

She goes out without telling him;

She neglects the kids;

She argues with him;

She refuses sex with him; or

She burns the food.

Among men, the percentage of those who believe a man is justified in beating his wife for any of those reasons is 21.5%.

10 takeaways from the survey:

For the kid’s sake: More women (20.9%) justify beating wives on the grounds of neglect of the children than for any other reason. It is closely followed by refusal to have sex (20.3%), while burning of food is the least justifiable reason at 11.8%.

For sex sake: For men, the most justifiable reason for beating wives is if they refuse sex with the husbands (11.4%). This is followed by going out without telling him (10%), with burning of food also counting as the least justifiable reason for wife battery at 6.9%.

Worst offenders: More women in the North Centralregion (40.3%) justify beating of wives than any other region in the country. More men in the South East(31.1%) justify the act than any other region.

Least offender: Unsurprisingly for both women and men, the South West region has the least acceptance for beating of wives. The percentage is 14% for men and 23.7% for women in the region.

The South East conundrum: As stated above, more men from the South East justify beating of wives than any other region. However, only 26% of South East women justify the act for any reason (the second least after the South West.)

Any hope for the future?: Among men, 24.8% of those between the ages of 15 and 19 justified wife battery – that is more than any other age group. However, among women, those between 15 and 19 justified the action the least of all age groups (30.3%).

Worst three believers in beating wives by states: For women – Benue (50.9%), Jigawa (50.7%) and Yobe (48.9%). For men – Borno (55.6%), Enugu (46.1%) and Abia (45.3%).

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Least three believers by states: For women – Lagos (4.7%), Anambra (8.7%) and Kwara (15.3%). For men – Bauchi (2.6%), FCT (2.7%) and Sokoto (2.8%).

Economic status: For both men and women, those in the richest quintile were less likely to justify beating of wives. 16.2% of the richest men and 20.7% of richest women justified the act.

However for men, the highest justification for wife battery came from those in the middle quintile (25.4%); while for women, the highest justification was among the poorest quintile (42.5%).

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