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Sarah Everard’s death prompts men to join groups trying to halt male violence

The murders of Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa could mark a turning point in men taking responsibility for male violence against women and girls, experts have said.

Groups led by men that work to end violence against females have experienced a surge in interest from other men, but organisers say if the momentum is not harnessed the opportunity will be lost.

Beyond Equality had 150 men come forward in the two weeks after Everard’s death, asking to volunteer at the charity. Previously the average was two men a week. The surge in interest has been sustained: more than 80 schools booked workshops with the group in the past week, compared with an average of three inquiries a week previously.

“It’s a sign of how badly our work is needed that it takes not just the death of two women at the hands of men – because women are killed by men all the time – but the wall-to-wall coverage that these two murders received, for men to contact us in these numbers,” said Dr Daniel Guinness, the managing director of Beyond Equality.

But whatever the motivation, Guinness said increasing numbers of men were realising that protecting women is not just about being a good person themselves. “All men are responsible for the violence,” said Guinness.

“I have never met a man who hasn’t condoned a dialogue by joking along or staying silent where misogynistic or sexist comments were made. But by not challenging those attitudes, you’re giving your tacit approval to the misogynist making the comments, which leads to the normalisation of those attitudes, which ultimately leads to the abuse of women,” he said. “It’s a continuum.”

Michael Conroy, the founder of the community group Men at Work, agreed. “I might be a good guy who would never hurt a woman but this isn’t about me: this is about men, plural,” he said.

Conroy, who also said his company had received much more work since the murders of Everard and Nessa, pointed to Philip Allott, North Yorkshire’s police commissioner, who said Everard “never should have submitted” to arrest by her killer. “All men are in this up to their necks in one way or other, so it’s up to all men to work actively to dismantle it,” he said.

Davy Thompson, the campaign manager for the charity White Ribbon Scotland, said. “Many men realise they shouldn’t walk behind a woman late at night because it scares her,” he said. “But it’s not enough to just change your route: men need to change the atmosphere where simply being a man in a woman’s vicinity at night is a source of fear for her.

“That starts with men squeezing the social spaces in which sexist men feel their misogyny is condoned until those men are left with no spaces in which they feel their attitudes are normal,” he said.

The organisation What Can I Do? was set up by the musician Mark Hegarty in the wake of the murders. “I’m just a normal bloke who had thought this issue didn’t affect me. But then I started talking to the women around me and I realised that male violence affected every single one of them,” said Hegarty, who co-founded the group with Rachel Williams, a survivor of domestic violence.

“This is a really pivotal moment,” said Dr Stephen Burrell, a trustee for White Ribbon UK, which was contacted by the Wunderman Thompson consultancy after Everard’s murder to advise on a nationwide advertising campaign to encourage all men to take responsibility for male violence towards women.

But this “sea change” could ebb away if not harnessed, he warned. “For real, meaningful change, we need to see much more action from governments and other organisations as well, including the police, schools, universities and workplaces.”

The group Engage will hold what it says is the first male-led, international pro-feminist online conference in November. While the event was arranged before the murders, organisers have said male interest in it has increased dramatically since.

But Chris Green, the founder of Engage, said that while the increased interest was good, it was not enough. “We’re still a long, long way from engaging men in a mass way,” he said.

Green is worried by what he said were powerful forces working to reverse any progress made by anti-violence groups, including the “massive juggernaut” of online pornography and the ongoing failure of four UK parliaments and three UK prime Ministers to ratify the Istanbul convention, an international treaty protecting women’s rights that is already law in 21 European countries.

Darshan Sanghrajka, the co-founder of the Being ManKind project, said he feared the increase in online misogyny would undo any advances made. “Over the last couple of years, the internet has become increasingly toxic,” he said, pointing to Facebook’s own researchers who found that 64% of all extremist “group joins” were due to its recommendation tools.

“Algorithms quickly suck you into an echo chamber where groups are increasingly extreme,” he said. “You end up in an alternate reality where your feelings of being slighted by women can easily get manipulated into a determination to revenge yourself against them.”

However, James McCann, a co-founder of the Feminist Man Project, said men had no choice but to plough on. “It can be easy to feel overwhelmed but we fight for change because we must. We have to aspire to a better quality of life for everybody, always.”

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Nigerians will soon enjoy improved Electricity supply — Power Minister

The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has assured that Nigerians will soon start enjoying improved power supply across the country.

This was even as he stated that the totality of the re-enacted electricity act has changed the entire landscape of the power sector.

The Minister disclosed this at the 3rd edition of the Power Correspondents Association of Nigeria annual workshop in Abuja on Thursday.

According to him, the 2023 Electricity Act has liberalised electricity generation, transmission, and distribution while also empowering states, organisations, and even individuals to generate, transmit, and distribute electricity.

He noted that the key part of the 2023 Electricity Act is the development of the Integrated National Electricity Policy and Strategic Implementation Plan.

“We are working with the National Council on Power (NCP) to develop and send the implementation strategy to the FederalE Executive Council (FEC) for approval,” he said.

Also, he said, “Part of the strategy in our road map is the emphasis on the bottom-up approach, unlike the top-down approach of the past.

“The implication, with the bottom-up approach, is that we will prioritise metering, distribution, and transmission infrastructure. In the short term, we will focus on customers down to distribution and transmission infrastructure. This is to ensure that a significant portion of what is generated currently gets to end users.

“We will also pay attention to the generation segment, particularly in areas of distributed (embedded) power from renewable energy sources, while at the same time advancing base load power through thermal and hydroelectric plants in the medium to long term.”

He further noted that the administration would explore the country’s regional energy potential.

“We will focus on solar energy in the North, mini hydropower plants in the Middle Belt and the Southwest, hybridised with solar, while our coastal states will be identified for wind energy utilisation.

Taking all the above into consideration, especially with the liberalisation of the sector, Nigerians will soon start to experience the objective that led to the Act, which is improved power supply across the country,” he said

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Court Remands 14-year-old Suspected Killer of FUTMinna Lecturer

A Chief Magistrate Court sitting in Minna, Niger State capital, has remanded a 14-year-old prime suspect, Joy Afekafe, over murder of Mrs. Funmilola Sherifat Adefolalu, an associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Federal University of Technology (FUT), Minna.

The Nigerian Police, Niger State Command, arraigned the 14-year-old Afekafe on three count charges which include criminal conspiracy, culpable homicide and armed robbery.

The offences are in contrary to sections 97, 221 and 298 of the penal code law

The prosecution told Chief Magistrate Fati Hassan Umar that two other suspects in the crime: Wallex and Smart are still at large.

The prosecutor, DSP Ahmed Saidu told the court that the trio had invaded the residence of the deceased on the 28th of October 2023 ”where you took a knife in the kitchen and stabbed her all over her body.

”You also used a wooden stool and hit her on her head after which you carted away $3000, one laptop computer, one mobile phone, two power banks and a car battery.”

The prosecution added that as a result, “the victim was taken to the IBB Specialist hospital where she was confirmed dead by medical doctors”.

When the charge was read to Afekafe, she pleaded not guilty to the crime.

The prosecution pleaded with the court to remand the accused in the Correctional Centre to enable the Police forward the case file to the Director of Public Prosecution in the state Ministry of Justice for legal advice, adding that it is only the High Court that has jurisdiction to try the case.

Chief Magistrate Fati Hassan Umar directed that Afekafe be remanded at the Children Correctional Centre before adjourning the case to 11th of December, 2023 for further mention

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Missing N43bn Revenue: Reps Threaten To Issue Arrest Warrant on NAMA, MD

The House of Representatives on Wednesday threatened to issue a warrant of arrest against the Managing Director of Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Mohammed Odunowo, next Monday, over missing N43 billion revenue accruing from sales of both local and international air tickets between 2021 and 2022.

Chairman, House Committee on Finance, Hon. Abiodun James Faleke, issued the threat notice during the resumed hearing in Abuja, frowned at the level of disrespect for the Parliament.

Worried by the NAMA helmsman’s refusal to honour the two invitations sent to him by the Committee, Faleke said: “When we did the calculation, I recall that we recorded about N43 billion deficit. And of course, NCAA said they do not agree with the number provided by FAAN. The data whatever, that it couldn’t have been up to that

And FAAN said that this was not generated by them but generated by NAMA. And there’s a record – the ADR 16 that generates that. So, we asked them to come back with NAMA and with specific data from that ADR 16.

“And today, we have NCAA before us. Unfortunately NAMA is not here. I don’t know why, this is the second time, the next time we are going to issue a warrant of arrest on NAMA. If he fails to appear before us on Monday, we will issue warrant of arrest on NAMA boss,” he ruled.

After grilling the NCAA delegation, the Committee asked the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Accountant General of the Federation to provide details of all the accounts being operated by Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA).

While frowning at the Agency’s failure to provide the data from the ADR 16, the lawmakers emphasised the need for NCAA to provide relevant documents showing detailed reports of total passengers carried by all the airlines on monthly basis, how passengers carried to various destinations, ticket fees charged per airline and 5 percent of the charges.

The lawmakers also demanded for bank accounts of the five agencies that are involved in sharing of the 5 percent of the total revenue generated from air tickets was remitted to and the distribution pattern of that total sum as well as evidence of the distribution.

Worried by the inconsistency of the NCAA delegation’s explanation on the billable and non-billable airline operations, scheduled and non-scheduled aircraft operations as well as the chartered flights, the lawmakers underscored the need for relevant data to justify their claims.

While scrutinizing the NCAA’s presentation, Hon. Faleke frowned at the discrepancy between the total of 15,518,978 domestic passengers were recorded while 3,791,985 international passengers were recorded in 2018, as well as the number of billable departed passengers.

Worried by the lackadaisical attitude of NCAA towards due diligence, Hon. Faleke said: “The next time you appear here, we will not hesitate to take action that will affect your seat.”

He alleged that officials of the regulatory agency “are hiding the money, that’s why you refused to provide the data.

“You people have always reported negative balance. I’ve done so much research on all of you. We said we are looking for N43 billion, so bring the data but you refused.

“If you’re not ready to give us the documents, we will compel you to do it. And if you refuse you will not be in that office and somebody will produce it,” he vowed.

While responding, the NCAA delegation led by Captain Ibrahim Dambazau and Abubakar Dachi as well as the Director of Operations, said the ADR 16 is the only authentic document recommended globally for documents of aircrafts.

He added that operations of operators will be assigned with code and time of schedule for the aircraft.

According to the NCAA, the private chartered aircraft do not sell tickets hence those passengers are not charged.

In the bid to track the missing fund, Hon. Faleke harped on the need for all the beneficiaries of the 5 percent including, NAMA, NCAA, NCAT, NSIB, NiMET to give account of their stewardship.

To this end, the Committee resolved that all the stakeholders should appear on the 14th December with all the records requested for.