ALARMING RATE OF RAPE IN NIGERIA: WHO IS TO BLAME?

ALARMING RATE OF RAPE IN NIGERIA: WHO IS TO BLAME?

ALARMING RATE OF RAPE IN NIGERIA: WHO IS TO BLAME?

It is no longer news that there has been an astronomical rate of rape cases in Nigeria. It doesn’t exclude any particular sex. You will agree with me that rape is not a new thing. But the trend needs to be checked before it kills our society. Howbeit, it would soon become a reincarnating monster till eternity. Recently, the media is awashed with the raping and gruesome murder of Vera Uwaila Omozuwa, an undergraduate of the University of Benin inside a church where she was studying and the killing of a teenager, Tina Ezekwe. The social media is blazing hot with many Nigerians vexing their anger on the state of lawlessness Nigeria is currently going through and the government keep deceiving the public.



Even though the Director-General of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Ms. Julie Okah-Donli, disclosed recently that about 40 cases involving domestic and sexual violence, sexual abuse of minors, rape, incest, and sodomy, are presently under investigation, that these cases were recorded during the five weeks lockdown ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari because some persons took advantage of the period to unleash violence on their loved ones who are mostly women.  In fact, She warned that the agency would not hesitate to invoke the relevant laws to deal with anyone found to be disturbing the peace of the nation at this period. Yet,  how effective are this threats? Do rapists even care?

 

Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving having a carnal knowledge, which is initiated by one or more person’s consent. It could be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or against a person who is incapable of valid consent, such as one who is unconscious, incapacitated or below the legal age of consent. The term “Rape” is sometimes used interchangeably with the term sexual assault.

 

According to Warif Nigeria Africa has the highest prevalence rate of child sexual abuse around 34.4 per cent As at 2004, 60 per cent of children involved in child trafficking from Africa to Europe were Nigerians Between 2012 and 2013, about 30 per cent of women in Nigeria experienced one form of domestic violence or another. Findings from a National Survey carried out in 2014 on Violence Against Children in Nigeria confirmed one in four females reported experiencing sexual violence in childhood with approximately 70% reporting more than one incident of sexual violence. In the same study, it was found that 24.8% of females’ ages 18 to 24 years experienced sexual abuse prior to age 18 of which 5.0% sought help, with only 3.5% receiving any services.

 

Internationally, the incidence of rape recorded by the police during 2008 varied between 0.1 in Egypt per 100,000 people and 91.6 per 100,000 people in Lesotho with 4.9 per 100,000 people in Lithuania as the median. According to the American Medical Association (1995), sexual violence and rape, in particular, are considered the most under-reported violent crime. The reason is that the rate of reporting, prosecution and conviction for rape varies considerably in a different jurisdiction but the U.S Bureau of Statistics (1999) estimated that 91% of US rape victims are female while 9% are male.



It is believed that rape by strangers is usually less common than rape by a person’s acquaintances. Though several studies argue that male-male and female-female prison rape are quite common and maybe the least reported forms of rape. It is most terrifying to note that the frequency of rape incidents today all over the world have skyrocketed beyond human imagination, from India to South Africa, Syria and even Nigeria, the incidence of rape is now so common that it could be seen in public places.

 

One begins to wonder how this generation has quickly lost its form of moral and societal values despite the proliferation of religious centres, school and even breakthrough recorded in technology and science. Rape against female gender seems to be rampant today. There are 100 reported cases of toddlers and underage children being raped by some randy men who could not control their randy desires. Funnily enough, some grandmothers of over 70 are also being raped, isn’t that absurd and mouthwatering? Interestingly, most petrifying is the fact that some of the rape victims have been killed by the rapists having being assaulted. Some victims have also killed themselves much later due to the pain and stigma associated with the act.

 

According to the Nation newspaper recently, one of the principal actors in championing a safer society on gender-based violence in Nigeria, Mrs Tinuke Olukoya, an expert and Director of Administration,  Centre for Women’s Health and Information(CEWHIN), noted that sexual and gender-based violence has devastating effects on victims and could result in mental illness. 

ALARMING RATE OF RAPE IN NIGERIA: WHO IS TO BLAME?
Johannesburg. The Slut Walk initiative serves to protest against the perception that the way a woman dresses can justify rape and sexual violence. (Gallo)

“Rape cases continue to proliferate and we need to do something about it. One in five women in the world is a victim of rape or attempted rape. Each year, roughly two million girls between the ages of five and 15 are trafficked, sold or coerced into prostitution”. She added that women are more vulnerable to sexual crimes than men, noting that sexual violence reflects and reinforces existing gender inequalities.

While urging young people to speak up when abused, she said: “The data on sexual and gender-based violence and its reflecting figures on a nation like Nigeria are most appalling. In the country, sexual violence is increasing at an alarming rate, but with the right help, it can be managed.”



SOCIAL MEDIA IMPACTS

It is not a crime to embrace technology because it makes a lot of complex activities very easier. In terms of business, social interaction, cross-cultural rapport, a Civil and Human Rights causes to mention but a few. Yet it has also fueled some problems because of negative usage by users. Let me bring you back to memory lane. On July 12th, 2012, Cynthia Osokogwu, a Postgraduate student of Nassarawa State University and a clothing retailer was brutally murdered in Lagos by friends she met on Facebook. The rapist lured her to a hotel in FESTAC town, drugged and raped before she was murdered.

 

Also, the incident when five undergraduates believed to be students of Abia State University conspired and raped a young woman is detestable. Despite the pleadings of the young girl, the young men still took turns to satisfy their randy desire on her. The video of that bad act shook the nation as it hits more than 2 million views on YouTube and Facebook within 24hours culminating in serious investigation forthwith but which nothing substantial comes out of it till date.

 

You will also recall that on the 16th of December, 2012 in Munrika, neighbourhood town located in the Southern part of New Delhi, India. A 23-year-old female physiotherapy intern who was travelling by a male friend in a private bus was beaten and gang-raped by all the seven men on board including the driver. She died from her injuries 13 days later while undergoing emergency treatment in Singapore.

 

Hardly will a day passed without hearing a headline about rape on our National dailies, television and radio news. Both young and old ones are no longer safe. What is wrong with our laws and government? The young children are more vulnerable than the active female youth’s population from assault in schools by male teachers, cleric tutors to acquaintances at home, neighbourhood, and peers.



There are numerous cases of rape and gang rape in Nigeria (the infamous Absu gang rape being the most widely reported to date thanks to the proliferation of social media), yet many go unreported. The few that get reported to the authorities are either not pursued by the police or the victim is advised to keep silent lest she disgraces her family.

 

Nigeria is still very much a patriarchal society; a society where rules and norms are dictated and governed by men. Women are assigned roles, spaces and our bodies determined by men: the father, the spouse, the male relatives. Any woman who wishes to go against the grain is punished severely. This punishment can take different forms but the most devastating, most intimate and most violent against the female person is rape. Why?

EFFECTS OF RAPE ON VICTIMS AND SOCIETY

Rape could be so injurious in many ways especially serious stigmatization of the victims by families and communities. It engenders depression and suicide because of the strict code of silence among victims for the fear of societal mockery and public condemnation.

 

It strengthens the spread of HIV transmission. A report by Sinclair et al showed that building self-defence skills of girls in Kenya significantly reduced the incidence of rape over 10 months at a time when the endemic was at the peak.



It also leads to physical injuries and bruises on victims as a result of likely battling for body contact.

 

Rape leads to sexual dysfunction because of damages to a certain part of the sexual organs of victims. This is made possible by being either gang-raped or individually assaulted. Also, rape could result into emotional stress and disorder on victims, it could make a vast majority of victims very difficult to love again, and such fellows might form a narrow perception about the opposite sex as wicked and unfairly concluded that it is not possible to love unconditionally again.

 

WHO IS TO BLAME

When it comes to levelling allegation of this magnitude against a certain element, it must be thoroughly analyzed because it is a sensitive issue. Even though I stand to be corrected, yet I will blame the societal norms, weak legislation, and low reportage of cases by the law enforcement agencies and families.

The reason is that on the aspect of our legislation, in the view of Olatunji (2012), rape can only be committed by a man to a woman and it involves only penal and vagina sex. The law does not acknowledge male rape victims nor does it recognize anal sex as part of rape which is unfair. People everywhere in the world have the tendency to commit crime if they are left unchecked but what makes the differences is the effectiveness of laws.

Secondly, a victim of rape needs to establish that penetration occurred, corroboration of the crime needs to be established and proof must be provided that consent was not given. This limitation with establishing consent is making proving many of valid rape cases difficult. Overall, the low prospect of receiving prompt legal judgment for rape stifles enthusiasm in seeking legal recourse. 



What deters people in all parts of the world is that they know that there will be punishment and consequences for action but in Nigeria people believe they can always get away by bribing the police so much that potential victims are worried about going to court because in the end, either justice will not be served or it is delayed that it doesn’t make any sense and at the end of the day, the victim may become an objects of mockery.

 

The Nigerian police are not helping the matter because of unwillingness to make an official report on several occasions. Although, less than one in five (18.1%) of 10,000 girls who have been raped in Nigeria report the offence to the police because of shame and loss of confidence in the security outfit.

 

Our society abetted the continuation of this crime because the majority of victims’ relatives on most occasion prefer to silent the matter by using ‘’gentleman approach” which is not meant to be. The reason is that they don’t like community and public scorn mockery and stigmatization for the victim and the sake of their family integrity.  As a development officer, we have dealt with most rape cases in my organisation and most times it does not go beyond the police station because either perpetrators are so powerful or the police is compromised or the victims families are intimidated. Isn’t that not annoying?

 

Ebenezer Omajalile, who leads the Advocates for Children and Vulnerable Persons Network, attributes the rising number of rape cases to value orientation about the girl child. “ The enabling environment for the girl child is not there, there is so much loss of value in society right now. The value system protecting girls is dead right now if not for activists and civil society organisations who try to sensitive people.”



On the part of parents, the majority of them have neglected their responsibility because of their career. They hardly pay attention to the physiological and psychological state of their children. Some parents leave their wards in the hands of “area sisters or inmate tenants” in the neighborhood during the weeks and at times, on weekends. They are exposing these innocent children to many dangers of sexual molestation. We have to teach the male child to respect the female child, the earlier the better. There has to also be stiffer penalties, all states should domesticated the Convention on the Right of the Child Act.

 

A society that blames the woman for her partner’s infidelity and deviance is already validating a needless attempt to nail in the bud many traces of the status quo. We do indeed have a rape culture in Nigeria. When we think it is okay for a husband to forcefully have sex with his wife, we are obliquely perpetrating a rape culture by telling the woman that she is nothing but a pleasure object for her husband.

 

We are saying she has no right to consensual sex, her body is his to use when and how he pleases. Conversely, when he cheats and we blame the wife, we are inadvertently telling her she made her husband vulnerable by denying him sex, thus creating room for him to be tempted. By absolving the man from blame, we are telling the woman that not only must she be an object of pleasure for her husband at all time; she must also satisfy his needs.

 

When we look the other way when the “oga” (boss) sexually violates the maid/nanny/distant cousin from the village, we are an accomplice in the act of rape. When we blame the rape victims, we are complicit in an act of rape. When we refuse to punish the victims, blame the devil, watch Nollywood movies where a rape victim is killed/dishonoured/disowned by her husband, family or society at large, we are permitting and encouraging rape culture.



In my line of work as a development officer in the last three few years, I noticed that quite a large number of families prefer to settle the case of rape amicably without involving the government officials. Why? because this society sees it as a normal occurrence. is that normal? A few months ago, I was covering a rape case in one of the southwestern states of Nigeria where a teenager was sexually abused by a 49-year-old man in the neighbourhood. Upon investigation, we uncovered other members of the syndicate. it took the effort of our partners and other concerned Heads in my organization before these bad people were tried and imprisoned because the threats from traditional rulers were much to bury the case. imagine that!

 

Most importantly and less nuanced in our perpetuation of rape culture due to the spread of fundamentalist religions in Nigeria is when we insist that women must remain virgins till marriage. This is because, in this scenario of virgin-till-marriage, a woman is seen only through the lens of procreation and pleasure object for her husband. Value is placed on the purity of the woman instead of on the woman herself. The woman is seen as an object to be collected, desired by the menfolk and only through her virginal purity is her worth validated which is wrong.



SHORTLIST OF REPORTED RAPE IN NIGERIAN MEDIA

SOURCES                                 MONTHLY-YR                 ARTICLE TOPIC

Independent tv & radio           July 2013                      Increase in rape cases in Nigeria

Gist Ville                                October 2013                 18 yr old girl commits suicide a  Gang-raped in Bayelsa

Punch                                 Feb 2014                       Tackling the rape epidemic in Nigeria

Hmm Naija.com                 Feb 2014  12 yr old rape victim: I am glad he had An accident after raping me     

Vanguard                            Mar 2014            Obesere rape saga case transferred to SCID

Nigeria Tribune                  April 2014          Over 80 rape cases recorded in Edo state In 7 months

Premium times                  April 2014           Checking the high incidence of rape in Nigeria

Channels TV                     April 2014             Ondo police record 45 rape cases in 2013

Scan News                       April 2014             ICC moves against rape in Nigeria

The Paradigm               May 2014   Two Chibok girls raped and left to die in Sambisa forest by Boko Haram

Daily Post                     April 2014           Gunmen invade Benue State University, Rape 20 female students

News 24 Nigeria         June 2014 UN:-      Nigerian school girls face rape  Danger

Naija Standard Newspaper  July 2014        Policeman 32, rapes JSS 1 virgin girl

Source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

IN CONCLUSION

It is worth to note that everyone has a crucial role to play in the eradication of the menace from our society from homes to religious gatherings, schools to events as well as Civil Societies to preach the gospel of anti-rape with all form of vehemence, especially, as it is going beyond imagination from the government to private quarter. Rape should be given serious attention before we lose our female population to a group of persons who have lost all forms of dignity. The fight against rape should be total and there should be no sacred cows.

 

What am I saying after all? The modesty culture we preach is a rape culture because of our insistence on female purity and modesty. Why is it the sole responsibility of the female to remain chaste? Why isn’t the male tasked with chastity? By focusing on the female, we reduce the woman to mere flesh and place control over the female body and sexuality in male hands. When she is sexually violated who do we infer to as “dishonoured”? The victim? Or her family, which means her father or male relatives because as we know in Nigeria, it is the father/brother/other male relatives that are the symbol of a family? Therefore when a family is dishonoured, we say, the father/brother/kinsmen are dishonoured. What about the woman/lady ? is that not selfishness?



We need to do away with this system that espouses the idea of woman as a possession and develop instead a society that sees the woman as a human with rights, consent and abilities. A society where ethical sexuality is promoted and supported. Instead of telling the woman, she is at fault for getting raped, we should teach our sons the importance of consent, that no means no and a woman can withdraw this consent at any time.

 

Why rape has continued to be a reoccurring decimal in Nigeria is because of the laxity in the law enforcement of laws. We have all sorts of laws to deter people from committing rape and other crimes but those same criminals are aware of the weaknesses of law enforcement in Nigeria so they take advantage of it.

Instead of telling the victim of rape not to speak up so as not the shame her family, we should create a society were victims are helped to overcome the trauma of the assault. Instead of telling the young girl she ‘asked’ for it because of the way she dressed, we should punish severely and publicly shame rapists. It is not a crime so far it is done rightly not through jungle justice.

 

Our lawmakers must make stiffer laws whilst the judiciary must dispatch speedy justice to prosecute and punish offenders. Parents must stand firmly by fighting this menace. They should stop sacrificing the well being of their children to the career because that is their future! Time has changed and the world has become a sick place to live. There are many paedophiles and bloody rapists out there. Parents should embrace a PANTS strategy to reduce this ugly trend, at least to a considerable level.

 

P-Private parts are private. Nobody is permitted to touch it

A-Always remember that your body is yours and yours only.

N-No means no. Never yield to pressure

T-There are no secrets from mummy and daddy. If there is an attempt on you, please report it immediately.

S-Say something, so we can do something about it.



Parents should print out PANTS rule, paste it on a wall in the house, let the kids recite it always until it becomes registered in their hearts. Together we can stop the monster from growing out of hands-on daily basis. Let us protect our children.

 

WE CAN END THIS UGLY TREND!  LETS REMAIN UNITED TO FIGHT IT                                                   

 

Alaba Oluwadamilare Samuel   [Administrator] Freelance Content Writer] [Communicator [Social media manager] Photographer

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08160931997

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