A Season Of Rape In Nigeria

A SEASON OF RAPE IN NIGERIA

KIngsley Momoh - Lagos

Gory would not do well in describing the scene the father of Barakat Bello of Oloro town Akinyele local government Ibadan, Oyo state was made to see as he saw his daughter a

first-year student of college of animal health and technology dead behind his house.

The story has it that Barakat was raped before she was eventually murdered by her assailants. This story follows that of Uwaila in Benin-City where a 100-level student was raped and left to die in a church.

Twitter has been flooded with rape and counter rape accusations; denials with some ladies coming out to allege to have been raped months, weeks and some years back.

Some of the alleged rapists are popular music artistes, actors, producers, lecturers etc. It has been a beehive of rape stories.

I noticed that of course, we still have views that run differently from the popular views. Some of these views say that indecent dressing is one of the biggest promoters of rape that women should apply decency to their dress style. Some say that women are mostly the instigators of rape with the way they stylishly lead men on by receiving money and gifts without yielding to a proper relationship or succumbing to sexual advances. While others say that some of the accusations are just bogus claims by aggrieved partners in a love turn sour situations. Or unwarranted moves to taint the images of some persons.

Well, before you murder such people, who come up with such defence for rape; you have to accept that it simply tells you the true situation of the society we are in.

Rape has found a place in the list of rare achievements of men in Nigeria. Women and girls which include children are raped at the slightest opportunity or created opportunity by their assailants. At ‘innocent parties’, religious gatherings, homes, markets, offices, road sides, movie locations, sports training grounds, gyms, schools, offices, kitchens, libraries, public rest rooms, hotel rooms, homes everywhere!

Rape is a game or recreational activity by many. They bet to rape; they promise girls to rape them; they threaten girls to rape them; they also rape to ‘prove a point’.

As pointless as these reasons are; they are the reality on ground. In Nigeria for example, it is evident that women who have been raped rarely make any report and they try to heal alone; which from empirical studies is nearly an impossible task. They are ashamed to make reports because they may not be able to creditably substantiate their claims or already project the judgmental responses they would get from people. Such response includes:

 ‘Why did you go to his house’

‘What were you doing there?’

‘Is that the school you were sent to?’

‘Why did you receive gifts from him’

“I have always warned you about you style of dressing”

And I am certain you can add more.

Are you aware that some rape for juju purposes? Ha ha; that’s another angle. Apart from the pro and social rapists, there are some who have been told to perform some terrible acts like raping children, old women, destitutes, their mothers, sisters, neighbours and all sorts for purposes like…wait for it; long life (Oluwa o!), wealth, success, promotions, odeshi (juju for bullet/knife proof skin) etc.

Thus, as you can see; rape has been with us for a long time and it will definitely stay around for a while if all we do is seasonal protests, activism and NOISE. Some people are making money from talking without any action; making money from being women and children activism all without any credible pursuit of making the productive pursuit to make the very naked lacuna of CLEAR-CUT POLICY CHANGE BY THE GOVERNMENT AND THE PEOPLE.

Government institutions must come out to speak and credible take actions that will facilitate a speedy trial of rape suspects. The religious leaders should also make it part of their usual teachings. Schools should inculcate it into their curriculum and sexual orientation and awareness shouldn’t be a whisper affair any longer.

Parents have to up their parenting skills with this in mind. Furthermore, girls and ladies may also consider learning one or two self defence techniques combined with skills of how to effectively use tasers and pepper spray. Introducing your children to martial arts would be a good idea too as they would have sharper reflexes, self-confidence among other skills.

The police should create a special unit for sexual assault and incidences of similar magnitude and victims should be given opportunity to at first instance chose to anonymously make their reports without the worry of being shamed or asked all the usual rhetoric. And if there is already such a unit (which I doubt) it should be publicized much more than ever in the media so that everybody would be aware. Nigerians are aware of SARS more than any other unit; so it is possible to also make another unit as popular. There should be more awareness over the media and social media about rape. We shouldn’t wait for the next victim before steps are taken.

In many climes in Nigeria, women of marriageable age that are not married are shamed as irresponsible and of bad character. It would interest you to know that some of them are suffering from the effect of rape. They can longer put themselves together to accept another man in their lives. Some of them are scared to sleep at night. Some keep waking up in horror daily. You can imagine how many lives have been permanently distorted as a result of this urge when it is not tamed by some human beings. Some of the victims who got married without healing are also not free from the negativity of the aftermath of rape. Some have negatively affected their marriage with the issue. Some are afraid of having intercourse with their husbands; some are even afraid of pushing during child birth when they see a male health worker in the delivery room, some are ‘unnecessarily’ aggressive towards their spouses or other men and some CAN BE VIOLENT for no obvious reason!

The list of rape victim also has men…who are also not immune to similar effects. However, the female gender has suffered the more backed by the cultural backing of most African cultures. The cultures that doesn’t allow women to speak.

It is a season of rape.
Say no to rape.

https://www.gugurufm.com/2020/06/a-season-of-rape-in-nigeria.html