ST Tamandu Marine Patrol Walks Against Violence Against Women
By Our Correspondent
There are many ways to mark a commitment to service. ST Tamandu Marine Patrol chose to march. As part of its ongoing Service to Humanity programme, members of the Lagos chapter of De Norsemen Kclub International took to the streets around the National Stadium, Surulere, to make their position on one of Nigeria’s most persistent social crises impossible to ignore: violence against women.
The delegation, led by Sailing Skipper Jubril Babatunde, converged at the National Stadium before setting off on foot through the surrounding streets. The banner they carried said what needed to be said: “De Norsemen Kclub International: DNKI Says No to Violence Against Women.” Beneath the headline, the motto that defines the organisation’s entire civic identity: ‘Service to Humanity.’ On this occasion, service took the form of showing up in a public space and saying out loud what kind of men they choose to be.
The walk did not happen by accident. ST Tamandu Marine Patrol coordinated with the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, LASTMA, in advance, ensuring that the movement of the group through public roads was managed safely and without disruption to the surrounding traffic flow. Officers from the agency supported the procession, facilitating safe passage through some of the city’s busiest corridors. The partnership was a practical one, but it carried its own message: responsible public advocacy includes planning for its effect on the community around it. The patrol was not simply making noise. It was making a point, carefully, on purpose.
Violence against women in Nigeria is not a fringe concern. It is a documented public health crisis. Reports from the National Bureau of Statistics, civil society organisations, and frontline medical institutions consistently place gender-based violence among the leading causes of injury, psychological harm, and preventable death among Nigerian women and girls. It happens in homes, in workplaces, in communities, and in institutions. It is chronically under-reported. It is routinely under-prosecuted. And it is normalised in ways that make it harder, not easier, to address at scale. A brotherhood choosing to walk against it, publicly, with a banner, in traffic, as a formal act of service, is choosing to occupy ground that many organisations decline to enter.
Sailing Skipper Jubril Babatunde, addressing the group before the walk commenced, was unambiguous about the intent. “We say we serve humanity. Humanity includes the women in our families, our communities, and our streets,” he said. “When we walk today, we are not just fulfilling a programme. We are saying out loud what kind of organisation we are, and what kind of men we choose to be.” He added that the walk was also a call directed outward, to neighbours, passersby, to anyone who saw the banner and paused long enough to read it. “If one person sees this and thinks differently about what they do in their home, then we have done something real.”
The choice of the National Stadium as the starting point was not incidental. It is one of Lagos’ most recognisable landmarks, a public space that belongs to the city in the fullest sense of the word. Walking from there, through open roads managed in coordination with a government agency, the patrol made the activity as visible as possible. That visibility was the point. Public advocacy that no one sees is advocacy that does not travel. What travels is an image, a banner, a group of men in formation, walking.
ST Tamandu Marine Patrol is the Lagos chapter of De Norsemen Kclub International, a non-profit brotherhood incorporated under RC 7458 and committed to community development, volunteer service, advocacy, and leadership. The walk against violence against women is part of a broader calendar of civic engagement that the patrol has pursued across Lagos, spanning school outreach, institutional recognition, and public advocacy on social issues that affect the communities its members call home.
They did not issue a statement. They did not post a graphic. They coordinated with the traffic agency, raised a banner, and walked through the streets of Lagos, in full view of the city, under the motto they have always carried: Service to Humanity.
For more information about ST Tamandu Marine Patrol and its community programmes, visit www.santatamandu.org
Hope peace and service to humanity