By Thomas Peretu
I just want to sleep. A coma would be nice. Or amnesia. Anything, just to get rid of this, these thoughts, whispers in my mind. Did he rape me in the head, too?
Laurie Hasle Anderson.
Laurie Anderson, a rape victim recounts her ordeal in the aftermath of the gory incident. She was fortunate to survive the trauma and the sad effects of the sexual orgy. Laurie was pushed to the brink of depression and suicide as her words portray her inner mind.
If Laurie was that fortunate to survive, countless others like Uwa of Benin did not. They were sacrificed by their predators at the altar of rape. Their lives were cut short inadvertently and so were their dreams..
The psychological, physical and mental pains suffered by victims of rape is better imagined than experienced, experts tell us. Though, the physical consequences may abate and fizzle out in the course of time, the mental denouement stays with the victim for life. Years after they are still dogged by the sequela; nursing the emotional wounds. It is that bad.
Gradually, our beloved nation has taken on the reputation of being the rape capital of the world. An unenviable position when squared in the prism of other first class laurels we seem to have garnered over the years.
And my lords in high places are very comfortable with our achievements. We have taken the path of villifying the victims rather than punishing the villain. In some cases, we even part the them in the back back for a job well done.
Otherwise is there any rational reason for the spike in rape cases.They say we are the poverty capital of the world. They say we are heads above heels in corruption. The Asian tigers are even learning the art from us.
They say we are a nation of brigands and bandits. Agreed. They say we are the capital of yahoo business. In fact the FBI will tell you more.
May be the devil and his leutenants have taken refuge here. You know we are very hospitable people. We like to welcome our guests with open hands even when we know they are men of shady characters. But is that not true? After all the Chinese have surreptiously crept into our economy and they’re doing very well here?
Once, it was South Africa that leads the world in rape cases. Over 500,000 women were raped every year according to UNESCO records.. Then the train crossed the Atlantic to India. There, gang rape cases also gained currency at a point in time.
And now we have added a new feather to our crown. Rape as a guest is not in a hurry to be separated with us. Perhaps the fault is with the gods of the land and not with man. Perhaps? How else does one explain the cold shoulders with which we receive the tales? Until recently when civil society groups went took to the streets announcing the arrival of the pandemic.
Before now we were hush hush about rape. But is it not true? Why are you looking at me as though i am exaggerating the truth? The reality now stires us in the face like a foul odour.
This is the news of the moment. All the news channels are in hell for leather race to break the news of another rape story. Our intelligence is being assaulted nightly by the news of one rape or the other. If Maria is not a victim, Maimuna is. This the trend nationwide.
Besides corona pandemic pulling the valve of our breathe, rape is has also taken more than s fair share of our sttention. Yesterday we remain docile refusing to take action. But the calamity is getting closer home.
In every four girls one has been raped before the age of 18. For boys, in every ten boys, one has been a victim or rape before age 18. That is the wicked statistics before us.
And we are handicapped. Perhaps, we take delight in watching the girl-child being molested by all and sundry including fathers and father figues.
Trust has become a scarce commodity. Uncles and cousins are involved. Teachers and lecturers are in the race. Admission officers in our tertiary institutions are equalled stained in the hunting game.
Aunties and nannies are also in arms against the girl-child. Emplyers and employees are equally guilty. The law enforcement agents especially the Police have had their fingers soiled in the act. Who else is not guilty.
We are in the foyer of a new era; here the female anatomy irrepective of age is the subject of obsession by depraved maleficent beings whose zips are constantly lowered for the wrong reasons. Forgive me if I sound a bit uncharitable. I am been frank and forthright.
Any uncausionable man with unmetered genitals who throws caution to the wind should be tamed. Men or boys with base instinct are predators. Such persons should be kept behind bars.
These small minded persons dangle their genitals around like the lethal weapons of brutality,coersion, annihilation and oppression. These are the enemies of society.
How. did we arrive at this “Jabberwocky” junction? How? How did we lose our humanity to these barbarian tyrants prowling our streets dwarfing our potentials; at the same time they consign our precious values to the dunghill of history? Values embibed at the Sunday school. All thrown out of the window in the order of cyber age. As my friend, Tari Febabo would say, all is fair in a war situation.
Suddenly, we find ourselves marooned in a jungle where the perverse, predators, brigands, paedophiles and the their cousins box us into a corner in the ring. They tout their accursed genitals as weapons of mass destruction abbreviating as Dan Agbese would say the lives of the girl-child.
We are clearly in trouble. Any society that fails to protect the future of its girl-child is guilty of human rights abuse. And that country should be sanctioned.
Helplessly, we turn our gaze elsewhere in the hope that angel Gabriel armed with his kamikaze as he is wont to do, will some day deliver us from the grip of this gentle men of the underworld.
We can not subordinate the protection of the girl-child to any other exigency. They are precious beings that our support and assistance.
Sometimes, I want to believe this is a dream. Sadly, it is not. This is real and this is not a Nollywod parody. It is the reality of modern day Nigeria. Notoriety is the name of the game.
Or how else do you explain the fact that a child or a girl is being raped every ten minutes at an unknown awning in a dark alley. Even aged women are not exempted from this callous act perpetrated by young men under the influence of dammable substances.
Who says, the girl-child is not an “endangered specie?” The mother of a future president of this great count, the mother of a future Governor, the mother as it were of a future Senator is now a toy in the hands of this cannibals amongst us.
Rape today in our nation has acquired the dimension of a pandemic. As a matter of fact, it is presently jostling for supremacy over and above the real covid 19, a corona virus deleting names of persons on a daily from the roll call of the living.
I am not here by any means concerned about what constitute rape and the legal framework put in place to deal with culprits, I would rather leave that to the experts in law and the social sciences. I shall be more preoccupied by rape as a phenomenon and it’s effect to the victims and the concomitant effect on the society.
Only a few days ago, our psyche was assaulted by the rape story of a three months old Rakiyah Aliyu by a deranged young man. The baby was carefully stolen from the mother while she was asleep in the night. After the rape exercise, the predator dumped the baby some where near a mosque in a sleepy village in Nassarawa State.
According to the medical doctor who is treating the embattled baby, Rakiyah has suffered horendous injuries in her private part. So far three surgeries have been carried out, remaing one more which will be conducted at the University of Jos Teaching Hospital, Jos.
The good news is that the culprit was apprehended a month after by men of the Civil Defence Corp in another town. I am sure you heard me right–Civil Defence, not Nigeria Police Corps.
As though that was not bad enough, another University of Benin undergraduate was raped. Guess where? Inside the premises of church, a pentecostal church for that matter. Uwa, the 23 year old student had gone to read as we say in NDU to do TDB when the assailant walked up to her; ripped her open, raped her and killed her under the cover of the night.
This is the situation we have found ourselves. Let us stand together and fight this scourge. It is time to tame the rapist. Give a helping hand to a rape victim. Don’t blame the girls, punish the culprits.
Don’t hide the rapist. Give them up to the Police. Say no to behind the door settlements. After all how much can you pay to restore the dignity of a woman battered and abused by a rapist.
All of us are the casualties, apologies to JP Clark. Therefore stand against rape. Let’s build a better society where the rapist will not be given a hiding place. Let’s incarcerate them like animals.
Chikenan…
