By Amanatullah Ismail
Rape has become a persistent plague disrupting the peace and emotional stability of some Nigerians. But before divulging the details of this abomination, let’s look at the meaning of rape.
Rape is an unlawful sexual activity, often involving sexual intercourse, against the will of the victim through force or with a young child who is incapable of giving legal consent. Rape was long considered to be caused by unbridled sexual desire, but now, it is understood as a pathological assertion of power over a victim.
In a definition adopted by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2012, rape involves a penetration, no matter how slight, to the vagina or anus with any other body part, object or oral penetration with the sexual organ of another person without consent of the victim” (Britannica).
According to UNICEF data, one in four girls and one in ten boys had experienced sexual violence before the age of 18.
Despite the increase in activism, justice is rare. Nigeria, a country of over 200 million citizens had only 32 rape convictions between 2019 and 2020, according to a data from Nigeria’s National Anti- trafficking Agency. Some survivors find it more effective to name and shame rapists on social media than to report to the police.
There was an alarming increase in sexual abuse during the lockdown, leading to the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, to call the gender based violence a “shadow pandemic”. In Nigeria, we had more than 700 cases of sexual assault between January and May 2020, with numbers surging after a temporary lockdown began in March. The government declared a nationwide state of emergency on rape in June after a series of harrowing crimes, but this had little or no effect.
On May 27, 2020, Vera Uwaila Omozuwa, a 22-year-old university student bled to death after brutally raped in a church in Benin. Few days later, Barakat Bello, another 18-year-old, was gang raped and stabbed to death during a robbery in her home in Ibadan. This sparked outrage online and nationwide street protest.
In fact, President Muhammad Buhari, in his June 12 speech, urged all states to adopt the existing Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Act, which demands a minimum of twelve-year sentence for rape and create a sex offender register. “I am particularly upset about recent incidents of rape, especially of very young girls,” the President said.
In July, the Nigerian Senate passed a bill, which if enacted would protect students from sexual harassment at universities. Unfortunately, state governors and house of assembly are reluctant in ractifying same in their laws.
The number of rape victims is high; the fear is even higher; the fear of stigmatisaton. Rape affects self-esteem and self confidence of its victims. It makes them feel less of a human and makes them think they are failures — someone who have nothing more to achieve in life. It triggers depression and intrigue suicide thought.
There are cases of girlfriends being raped by their boyfriends. The most surprising part is women being raped by their husbands. Why would you need to rape your wife? Knowing that you have promised to protect her and love her till you breath your last, why then have you chosen to be the source of her pain and sadness?
There has been a kind of focus on rape outside marriage but there’s been little or nothing about marital rape. Or, is rape legal because it is done with the label marriage on it? Are the victims supposed to keep mum because he/she is married to the assaulter? Is this to save the marriage or is it to avoid public judgement? These questions are those whose answers are unknown to me.
It should however be known that the male gender also suffer from rape. In fact, according to UNICEF, one in ten boys experience it before the age of 18. Unlike women though, they prefer to keep it to themselves as they believe.
Now, not later, is the time to fight rape. It is killing not only the future of our young ones, but even their present.