Draft of Month 2 assignment: A journey within the tunnel, Getting justice for sexual violence victims in Nigeria
Jan 21, 2015
Story
PLEASE CLASSMATES AND MIDWIVES, I WILL APPRECIATE YOUR COMMENT BEFORE MY FINAL POSTING:-
In a country that gained independence about 49 years ago, with about half of those years
in democratic governance, the expectation is that such a country would have taken
developmental strides in all directions. Yes! Nigeria is relatively doing well and
developing in many areas: in industrialization, science and technology, entrepreneurship,
banking and finance, and other areas. Even in the educational and agricultural sectors,
though still below expectation, it can be said that the country has recorded some
achievements. When put on a performance scale on issues of security and getting justice
for its people, my beloved country has not only performed below expectations, but is also
failing its people seriously.
I could remember with nostalgia, those days when we were in primary schools. At
every anniversary of Nigerian independent day, we (school children) received gifts, we
would gather in each local council headquarter to wine and dine and give great ovation to
our dear country. Great was our hope, expectations and aspiration for the nation then. In
those days girls and women could go out at any time of the day, visit their neighbours and
friends and even spent the night with them without fear of being molested or abused. As
a mother you could leave your girl child with your neighbours and travel out of town
without fear of the girl being abused. The situation was not too different as we
progressed to higher institutions of learning. The youths then enjoyed lots of goodies
until mid-1980s when Nigerians experienced a downturn all of a sudden. The experience
then was like sleeping in the White House to suddenly wake up in a ghetto.
Since then, the situation has not been the same in the nation. During that period, the
middle class was completely wiped out of the economic strata. A person either belongs to
the upper class or is down there on the lowest rung of the economic ladder. The rate of
poverty became so high and people became so frustrated that this formed the major
reason why violence became the order of the day, including sexual violence. It is a truism
that people would want to vent their anger and feelings of economic impotency on
somebody or on something.
At the inception of the current democratic experiment and chief Olusegun Obasanjo
became the executive president, normalcy started setting in into Nigerian society, but
sexual violence still abounds. The reasons for this are not far fetched. The first is that the
level of poverty is still high and the second reason is that rapists are not often brought to
book despite the fact that cases of sexual violence against women are reported almost
everyday. The stories continues of young innocent girls and women being molested,
violated, harassed by men, who like animals, could not control their beastly urges
just because they think there is no law to make them pay for their evil deeds.
As a guidance counselor, then in a secondary school before I moved to the university,
Lanke, not her real name, girl of thirteen years of age walked up to me one day and
declared her intention to end her life because she was fed up with life. She
confessed that she approached me because I was always nice and accessible to the
students. On further enquiry concerning the bad thought she had, she told me of a cousin
living with them, who has been violating her sexually since she was eight years old. The
cousin threatened that she would die if she revealed the secret.
Omope was referred to me by her mother for counseling for her sexual promiscuity.
She was seventeen years old then. She revealed that she was introduced to sex at age ten
by one of her mother’s numerous men friend and could not stop having sex since then. I
discovered that a girl of thirteen was pregnant as we were admitting them newly to the
secondary school in 2005, the poor girl revealed that a neighbour pretended as if he
wanted to send her on errand forced her and have sex with her which resulted into the
pregnancy.
When i joined the university; a girl visited a friend in the male hostel, the friend raped
her, daring her to shout and carry the stigma around throughout her stay on campus. What
will you say of a girl coming from class after reading, only to be accosted by some boys
on her to the hostel and was raped. Or the one that was coming from town to campus in
the night carried by a bike and was raped by the bike rider. I could go on and on with
several cases of rape I have handled personally not to talk of those reported by the media
almost everyday.
The coordinator of Women Against Rape, Sexual Harassment and Sexual
Exploitation (WARSHE) during interview shared the case of a girl who was gang raped but the accused
were discharged and acquitted for lack of enough evidence after some months in court.
The victim was so disappointed that she tearfully expressed her feeling that witchcraft
could possibly be her hope of getting justice against those boys. Also a man who pleaded
guilty to having raped two under-aged children in his neighborhood had the court
pronouncing that he committed the crime because he was mentally unbalanced. This was
far from the truth. It was just a judicial maneuver to get him off the hook. The judge
only referred him for a psychiatrist treatment.
These are the few ones I could share in this journal. There are countless number of
house helps out there that are used as alternative when the wife of the master of the house
is not around; the countless number of girl students being sexually abused by their
teachers and are coerced into keeping it a secret. We have to STOP women abusers in
this country so that we will not jeopardize the future of our nation, as we all know that
women is the heart of every nation.
Thank God for organizations like Women Against Rape, Sexual Harassment and
Sexual Exploitation (WARSHE). They sprang up to take up many cases of sexual
violence for many victims who are socially, culturally, and economically disadvantaged
and may not be able to afford taking up personal cases themselves even if they
desire to because of poverty and social status. Many would have their own families
shutting them up because of fear of stigma and reprisal. With the educational and
enlightenment campaigns embarked upon by these organizations, people are now
becoming emboldened to come out and declare cases of sexual abuse.
The most challenging aspects of the work of these organizations is the difficulties that
are usually encountered in securing justice for girls and women who have survived sexual
violence and abuse. At WARSHE, the coordinator cited instances of frustrating
encounters with persons in the administration of justice, medical doctors, police officers,
magistrates, and even judges.
To address this issue, a workshop was convened by WARSHE on the search for justice
with financial support of African Women Development Fund (AWDF). The participants
were drawn from various strata of the society, including medical practitioners, lawyers,
magistrates, prosecutors, police detectives, teachers, social workers, students, media
practitioners, NGOs, etc. The workshop was held in June 2004 and they came up with a
communiqué at the end of workshop. Also in a paper presented by Olasupo Ojo,
president of the Center for Rule of Law at another workshop organized by WARSHE in
2006 for Police Investigators and Prosecutors under Osun State command. He said “For
reasons that are undergoing continuous investigation, it is becoming more and more
difficult to secure conviction in cases of sexual violence especially Rape cases. Justice
with regards sexual offences under the criminal justice system in Nigeria is administered
by public institutions. Each public institution is administered by human beings with their
peculiar idiosyncrasies as determined by their background, social orientations and
cultural beliefs which ultimately influence the performance of their functions as public
officers either positively or negatively depending on individual circumstances.” He went
further to say that once there is a report of sexual violence, the normal thing is there must
be no delay , the investigation must commence immediately because of the peculiar
nature of the offence and evidence required to prove it. This can only be achieved when
the investigation is handled by policemen that are matured, humane and have overcome
societal stereotypes by virtue of formal or informal education. The sad thing is that we
have few of these categories of policemen in the system and that is why most cases of
sexual violence are lost even from the foundation.
It will help tremendously if the international community can have a way of impressing
it upon the government of Nigeria to start enforcing to the letter all existing laws and
legislations against sexual harassment. To sanitize the police and take active part in
sponsoring workshops such as organized by WARSHE in 2004 from time to time. This
could be targeted towards local government dwellers all over the nation. A bureau could
be established by government that will be backed by appropriate legislations to focus on
handling reported cases of sexual violence and getting justice for the victims.
Great hope will be engendered by the time attention of all are focused on the issue and
all is ready to do something positive about it. There is the need for a place where
women can gather to discuss and present a common front to agitate for their right from
government in order to confront the menace of sexual violence. Women Inspiration
Center (WIC) is pertinent here. In this center , there will be recreational facilities for
women, cybercafé for women, a place for continuing education for girls who dropped out
of school due to poverty or unwanted pregnancy, a place for those of them who don’t
want further their education but want learn a vocation, a place where an abused girl or
woman could run to for safety and a place where we will also have a magazine that will
be publishing issues as they affect women. By the time, the noise is so loud from
all sides, the government will have to stop playing the ostrich and pay attention towards
enforcing existing laws that make acts of sexual violence against women a criminal act.
Meanwhile, before the realization of the Women Inspiration Center, we need your
support all over the world to put a stop to the menaces of sexual violence by supporting
our crusade OPERATION STOP SEXUAL VIOLENCE and ABUSE. Patriarchy
Poverty, Conflicts, Culture of impunity, Stigmatization and Women Silence, Religion as
opiate, Myth and Superstitions. All makes women vulnerable to sexual violence and
abuse in Nigeria. We will not fold our hands and allow this to continue. We know our
destiny lies in our hands and so a team of women, myself as the coordinator, have
decided to embark on aggressive campaign on Sexual Violence and Abuse. We will be
going from village to village, town to town and city to city to call on Government to a
take closer look at the issues of sexual violence, the police to live up to their
responsibility as regards sexual violence, the medical workers to be prompt, thorough and
non- judgmental in examining victims and give detail results after such examinations,
educating women on how to protect themselves , educating men on healthy sexual
relationship and parents to rise up to their responsibilities in taking care and protecting
their children form being abused. Meanwhile according to the saying of WARSHE :-
Make sure you are not raped!!!!!!!!!!
Make sure SHE is not raped!!!!!!!!!!
- Africa