By Ismail Amanatullah
Pedophilia is considered as a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Most of the time, these culprits use force or threats.
UNICEF statistics shows that abuse in all its forms is a daily reality for many Nigerian children and only a fraction receive help. It further stated that 6 out of 10 children experience some form of violence and 1 in 4 girls and 10% of boys have been victims of sexual violence. Only 2% of girls and 4% of boys receive any help.
The highest rate of child abuse is in babies less than 1 year of age and 25% of victims are younger than age 3.
A few victims of rape and attempted rape are able to come out to talk about it while many others would rather keep the pain to themselves; either because they lost hope in justice or they are afraid of stigmatization.
In an interview with the News Digest Press, a 300-level student of University of Abuja who prefers to stay anonymous narrated her experience in the hands of a pedophile.
She said: “I felt it poke and shift uncomfortably, making him move to the next girl. It always happened when he requested our brothers to bring us along before they could play games in his house. We were all young and just knew we were to kneel by the table and not sit on the chair when we got there. My friends and I meet outside to talk about the weird happening but don’t know what to translate it into. We just knew it was . After a few more happenings, we stopped going there no matter how much he called us. It happened again when my friend’s brother called me to their kitchen and innocent me followed him but was skeptical about why he wanted me in their kitchen.”
According to her,”what made the alarm bell ring was when he locked the door and started to remove his belt. Adrenaline kicked in and I shouted, pushing him with all my might, I unlocked the door and ran out with him running after me. He got on his knees and started begging me not to tell anyone but I had no intention of doing so in the first place. I couldn’t say it, not even to my friend. After a few years, that same friend told me about how the same brother was trying to molest her alongside his friend. We were in our early teens then. Although the abuse hasn’t affected me in any way, it’s something I wish hadn’t happened.”
A female student of Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto who also subscribed for anonymity, recounts her ordeal of attempted rape.
“I was about six years old then and the guy should be around sixteen,”she remembered. ” We were in my house’s living room, he always visits them. I was very tired from playing around the compound with other kids and told them to give me a break of like five minutes to rest. I headed straight to our three-seater couch to lie down and was a bit shocked to see him sitting in the living room alone.”
She continued: “I didn’t mind him but I was shocked when he came to lie behind me on the same couch, his body pressed against mine in the most uncomfortable way. I knew it wasn’t right for us to be that close and wanted so badly for him to stand up but I couldn’t say a word. His lips were suddenly headed for mine when I quickly stood up. One second more and his lips would be on mine. My lips couldn’t form any words. I just stared at him for a while and walked out quickly to meet the other kids. I couldn’t say anything to them but made sure to avoid him everytime and he stopped coming to our house. My mom never really liked him.”
Another part of the story happened with her friend, when both of them were playing the normal Mummy and Daddy game amongst kids then.
“I was the mommy and he was daddy. We were play-sleeping, pretending it was night when I suddenly felt his lips on my legs. It advanced up to my inner thighs before I pushed him away. I had no idea what he was doing but I knew it wasn’t right. He approached me the next day to continue and I made it clear that I’m not interested in this kind of play. His sister knew what happened but I felt very embarrassed when she told me.”
The occurrence has made it impossible for her to maintain body contact with a person unless he is the initiator. Ever since then, she mastered the art of not touching anyone even when walking in the most cramped of places.
Victims of pedophilia are usually traumatized and it leads to anger, anxiety, sadness, low self esteem, mental health problems like: depression, self harm, eating disorders and suicidal thoughts. Drug addiction, disturbing thoughts or poor physical health.