Communication, Economics, Finance, Administration and Governance in a Pandemic 11 | Page Chapter Two Gender-Sensitive Communication in the Fight against Domestic Violence during COVID-19 National Lockdown in Nigeria Kelvin Inobemhe; Nick-Tansi Saint Udeh & Tsegyu Santas, PhD Department of Mass Communication Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Nigeria inobemhekelvin@gmail.com; battytansi@gmail.com; tsegyu@nsuk.edu.ng Godiya P. Atsiya, PhD Department of Political Science Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Nigeria godiya@yahoo.com Introduction Communication is a key element in every human activity; without it, it is impossible to understand one another in a society (Brockhouse, 2019). Since communication is a necessity, then there is need to ensure a well-structured communication process or pattern. Since the world recognises that there is diversity of sexes, it is important to also reflect that in our communication – language, mannerisms, etc. However, it is imperative to note that most human societies have always been known to be patriarchal and clearly showed dominance of men over women in virtually everything (Kutateladze, 2015). Several organisations such as UN Women and many others, have been at the forefront in the fight to create equal opportunities for all humans regardless of the sex or gender. Such advocacy also emphasises the need for gender-sensitive language. In linguistics, gender sensitive language is relatively new, yet important in the quest to strike a balance. During the COVID-19 lockdown in Nigeria, families were asked to stay indoors. Same period also saw a rise in gender-based violence. In other words, there was a sharp increase in violence between the sexes – man to woman (Adepoju, 2020; Umukoro, 2020; Young & Aref-Adib, 2020). Quoting Mlambo-Ngcuka, Adepoju (2020) further refers to gender-based violence witnessed during COVID-19 Pandemic as “shadow Pandemic” (para. 5). Though digital platforms helped amplify the process of reporting cases of violence. However, people (especially women) in Africa and some other developing countries could not access digital services as those in developed countries (Wadland, 2020). Wadland (2020) explains that this further exposed the gender digital divide as “women are on average 26 percent less likely than men to have a smartphone” (para.2). The fight for equality of all has been on for a while now and advocacy groups, including international organisations have been actively involved. The course mostly championed by organisations is Western civilisation can be traced back to the 20th century. It, however, gained popularity in the 1960s – 1970s following the affirmation of equal rights of persons, spreading to almost all societies (Kutateladze, 2015). Kutateladze further contends that organisations did not only raise issues surrounding equal rights or equality–voting, education, political and business advancement alone, but also delved into “issues of sufficient linguistic approach towards each representative of society” (p. 21). This gave rise to concerns and focus on gender-sensitive language and