Why aren't we talking more about an undergrad who was killed by his baby mama?

The name of the young man is Morrison Akinbule. According to a neighbour, Morrison and his baby mama Chidinma had come back from an outing and started arguing.

The argument led to a fight which unfortunately led to the death of Morrison. Chidinma was later arrested by the police and detained.

This sad story was picked up by both traditional and new media. The strange thing about this case of domestic violence is that not much has been said about it on social media. There has been no collective moments of rage, no rants, Twitter threads or hashtags about the death of this young man.

And this is particularly disturbing. Gender violence is something that should get people riled up when it happens. Within the last few years, Twitter NG has actually done a lot to bring awareness to domestic violence. People like Sugabelly have been brave enough to share their story.

In May 2017, the story of rocked Twitter NG. The beautiful Mokoena was killed and burnt by her ex-boyfriend. Rightfully so, people started tweeting about the ugly incident and how innocent women have lost their lives because they dated monsters.

Now, with the story of Morrison Akinbule, there seems to be silence about the issue. Though women are majorly the victims of domestic violence, men are also victims.

According to a study by Dienye and Gbeneol in 2009 at the General Outpatient Department of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, 5 men out 48 patients were victims of domestic violence.

In one of the cases "A 36-year-old mechanical engineer working on an oil drilling platform presented with a 2-day history of the wound on the right leg.

The injury was said to have been sustained during a fight with his wife who in annoyance poured hot water from a kettle on his leg. There had been previous episodes of disagreements with her in which she had physically abused him.

He reported this present episode to the police and was asked to obtain a medical report from a physician. He refused divulging the cause of the disagreements.

Physical examination revealed scratches on the neck, bruises on the head, and superficial burns on the right calf which was painted with gentian violet. A diagnosis of husband abuse was made. He was treated. He was also given the medical report for the police."

This example above was gotten from a report titled "Domestic Violence against Men: Balancing the Gender Issues in Nigeria" written by Anthony Abayomi Adebayo.

Male victims of domestic violence do exist but they don't gain much attention like female victims. This is because most men who are victims do not come out about what they have been through.

When we hear stories of men who have been abused or killed by their partners, we tend to whisper about it unlike when a woman is a victim.

A young Nigerian at the prime of his youth was allegedly killed his baby mama. If the tables were turned, it would have been a trending topic. This is not to lay blame. Our minds have been wired to see women as the only victims of domestic violence and not men.

There are men suffering in silence who need people to speak out for them too. If the narrative around domestic violence only focuses on men, there are going to be more cases of Morrison Akinbule.