When Men Become Beasts: The Untold Rigors of Rape Survivors on UDUS Campus

By Yisau Babatunde

*Esther’s Back shot -Picture Credit: Yisau Babatunde for Digest

*Suliyat lost a part of her months ago. She couldn’t really place the month, but the year was 2024. It was a random night in 2024, dusk had turned the sky into a deep pink flecked over the blue. *Suliyat, then a year one student of Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto was about to rest at her hostel in Gidan Yaro, after returning from a long lecture day, when she recalled she needed to get sachet water. So she made a move to the stores in the village.

“It was around 11pm, I forgot to buy sachet water while coming from the hostel Mini Mart earlier. Immediately I was done cooking, I stepped out to get water,” Suliyat told Digest Press.

Unfortunately for her, she couldn’t get the water at her first stop, so she had to get it elsewhere. “When I was going to the next shop, I saw people around, but while I was coming back, everyone had dispersed. This sent a little bit of shock down my spine,” she noted.

On Suliyat’s way home, she felt someone grabbing her cloth from behind.

“Immediately, fear gripped me. The only word I heard from a close range was a language I didn’t understand. (Hausa), they almost stripped me naked but I struggled to free myself since they are just two young boys,” she explained.

Besides trying to force themselves on her, Suliyat recalled how horrifying and irritating their body and mouth odour were.

“Once free, I took to my heels even forgetting my slippers along the way.”

Scared to the bone, Suliyat could neither recall the route that led back to her hostel, nor looked back to see whether they were following or not. She just kept going, bare footed. And even when she fell down and got wounded, she didn’t care. All that ever mattered was to get to safety.

“Like a messiah, I stumbled upon three sisters, who calmed my nerves. I was given a scarf to cover my torn dress and walked me down to my hostel to ensure my safety,” she told our reporter with a distant smile.

For the rest of the session, Suliyat relocated to a friend’s hostel and never stayed out after 8pm.

“I bought everything I needed before going in, even if I forgot anything, I would manage the available resources like that.”

“When I resume for my second year, I relocated to the school hostel and still maintain my timeframe of not staying outside till late night. With zero trust for the security system of this institution, I knew I had to protect myself at all times. I didn’t try reporting it or tell any other person except for my roommate and friend.”

Despite leaving the incident behind, the post traumatic experience lives on. Now she doesn’t see men, regardless of their age, the same again.

“These days, when I see men whether young or adult, I believe them to be of the same category, my relationship with men reduces drastically especially those who claimed to love me,” She concluded.

Suliyat’s story is not unique. *Esther, is another victim with a similar horrific experience. She attested to how difficult it was for females residing at the back of the school stadium. Reminiscing her trauma, Esther narrated how she narrowly escaped being deflowered.

“I was returning from evening church service, that unfortunate night. It was already dark, around 9:30pm,” she began.

“When I got to the stadium, I was within the middle of that pitch when I found out that I was being followed by two young men, I was scared and started running to avert a sad story,” she furthered.

Esther never imagined that she would one day witness first hand: all the horrible rumors that heralded the school stadium.

“They eventually caught up with me, dragged me by my hair, I tried giving a fight not until I received a thunderous slap on my cheeks while the other held me down firmly,” she retorted, her face now glassy from tears which she refused to let fall.

“That moment, everything else left my soul, all I could think of was death,” she said.

With clothes already torn, one of the bad guys forced his dirty smelling mouth down her throat and concurrently fondled her breasts, the other was undoing his zippers for a nighttime show. The next second, a stream of hot tears flowed ceaselessly down Esther’s cheeks. She began begging them to leave her alone. Although she had resigned to fate, a part of her heart prayed for a miracle.

“Luckily, there were people walking towards that path. Upon sighting the rays of their touch light, those wicked boys took to their heels,” she furthered.

She would later be told by her rescuers that the culprits are “Yaro Boys”

“They are wolves devouring innocent ladies walking alone in the stadium at night.”

Like Suliyat, Esther tried leaving the horrible experience behind her and lived like nothing like that ever happened but the trauma keeps coming.

“I felt shy and embarrassed to report to the school security and live with this experience all this while. Sometimes, in my sleep, I dreamt of being raped by unknown men and no one was there to help me. I couldn’t sleep properly for months until I travelled back home and took treatment as well as therapy sessions.” Esther whined about the harrowing experience.

Raging Wrong With No Remedy

A rape attempt against Tawakalit and Zainab is part of a disturbing pattern of how unsafe the environment is for the female students, here at Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto and Nigeria.

These survivors are already burdened by the trauma of their experiences, now face the added weight of personal safety concerns, potential leaving their story untold and the potential risk those unchecked abusers pose to society and many other female students out there.

Nigerian Media think tank, Center for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID), in partnership with the Nigerian Women Trust Fund (NWTF), has published a research report looking into the prevalence of violence against women in tertiary institutions.

The report, titled “Prevalence Of Gender-Based Violence Against Female Undergraduates In Tertiary Institutions In Nigeria”, was officially published on Thursday, Aug. 31 after a webinar marking its launch.

On the different forms of GBV and their prevalence in tertiary institutions, the study found that sexual violence is the most prevalent, followed by psychological violence at 25.5 per cent.

Other forms of GBV noted by respondents include socio-economic violence and physical violence.

Students make up a majority of perpetrators, with 37.3 per cent, followed by academic staff at 26.7 per cent. Other perpetrators mentioned in the study are administrative staff, security agents, intimate partners, and community members.

In the report of National campus climate baseline survey on sexual harassment in Nigerian Tertiary Institution showed that 73% of female students experienced sexual harassment either from their colleagues or academic staffs.The study advocated for an anonymous mechanism to encourage victims to come forward without fear or being abused by the society.

Despite the absolute increase of sexual harassment in schools in Nigeria, a bill aimed at criminalizing sexual harassment in tertiary institutions has been stuck in the National Assembly for eight years.

Unyielded Warning of Coming Back Late

“It will be of great use if the students stop entering the house at the odd hours, where everywhere is already dark and everyone is already sleeping.” Those were the words of Mallam Garba, landlord of Matrix Vllla.

“I always tell my female tenants not to return home late, I also stopped allowing male visitors to come into the house whether day or night, all these are for their safety but most of them don’t care to listen, what do you expect me to do then?“ He quarried.

Mallam Abubakar Isiya another landlord whined about the strict warning of not allowing his female tenants to dress anyhow even when in the house, because often all these females dress indecently especially at night while walking around the neighborhood where many young boys lived.

“I told them to dress well and cover up or I will return their money and send them out of the house,” he noted.

“We had a meeting early this year, while we discussed this too, we are trying every possible best to start collaborating with some security agency to minimize or put a stop to this security imbalance,” he concluded.

“Why stay back late when your life is at stake?” — Dean of Private Hostels.

Speaking with Digest, Professor Tsargem, Dean of private hostels, showed an affectionate concern most especially pointing to those female students who fail to comply with security measures of going back to their hostels early, precautions at all times.

In his words “If you know your life is in danger, why should you be returning back to your hostel late at night. A place that’s frequently reported for attempted rape, assault or robbery. It will be difficult to subdue if those passing there cannot abide by some set down rules by the school security authorities.”

“There is a link within the landlords to the school management, the school authorities also ordered them to provide enough security for their tenants because there are still students of Usmanu Danfodiyo University even though they are not living at the school hostel.”

Finally, I will be meeting with them these days and this topic is one of the vital points to discuss.

Always Move in Groups —CSO

The Chief Security officer of Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto, Abdullahi Gwandu, told Digest that students need to be conscious of their own safety.

“For you to be in a better position of safety, walking alone is not the way but rather goes in 5’s which should be the minimum. Pay full concentration and walk as fast as you can,” he began.

“Move in groups not only girls but boys too. From experience and the data gathered so far, those hoodlums or attackers come at the maximum of two or three, how will they attack five people at a go, impossible.”

“Sadly, students are not even conscious of their own security. You will see a lady walking all the way from GTbank to her hostel, chatting and laughing loudly which will surely attract the attention of attackers, making them less conscious of their present situation on the road. The phone is yours, when you get to your hostel, take your time pressing the phone as much as you want. Out of 24hours of a girl’s time, 20 hours out of it is dedicated to the phone,” The CSO noted.

“The responsibility of protecting your lives and properties is your core assignment because the school management cannot attach security personnel to each student. In this school, we have over 24,000 students and we don’t even have 500 security personnel to cater for the security of not only the students but other strategic areas of interest, which covers the permanent site, city campus and college of health sciences (UDUTH), so how do we help when you don’t even value your so dear called life.”

Females aren’t the weaker sex – Gender Based Violence Expert

When highlighting the major causes of which females become the sole target of gender based violence especially within University campuses, Mrs Jimoh Nurah Oluwatoyin; the founder of Brain builders youth development initiative, an organization focusing on helping victims or survivors of GBV to find support or emergency resources.

“The major cause of this, is the general belief that females are the weaker sex and could be overpowered by the male gender believing that if she didn’t agree to the sex demand, she will be physically subdued. Other factors might be inadequate protection for our females on the campuses or poor reporting channels which kills their voice of telling their pain,” Mrs Jimoh explained.

Pointing out different ways the females can protect themselves because society had failed woefully in that aspect.

“Our female students should start equipping themselves with protective skills such as Taekwondo as well as moving around with protective gears like pepper spray especially when moving at night but should not be used indiscriminately.”

“For a victim or survivor of this unbearable act, it might be difficult to move on but you need to put your piece together and keep going. As I always say it was never your fault, it is the whole fault of your abuser. Do not allow societal stigma or the poor justice system deter you from speaking out. Even when you think no one is hearing you, you have already protected another female who is on the tick list of your abuser. The road might be lonely and tiring, never blame yourself, you are just a victim of a bad system,” she encouraged.

On the possible way out, Mrs Jimoh Nurah Oluwatoyin highlighted a series of ways in combating these barbaric acts within our school communities.

“Every single person as well as bodies ranging from Students Union Bodies, MSSN, Christian Union Bodies, ASUU, NANU should use their platform in condemning GBV in whatever form. And if it occurs, school authorities should avoid the “blame game” or “Silence culture.”

“The Students Union Body can create a GBV reporting desk for the victims, perceiving the closeness, this will give the victim a sense of comfort,” She ended.

This story was completed with support from Digest Press.

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