OF RAPE AND ‘PLEA BARGAIN’

Incidents of rape should invite full force of the law

The broader culture of impunity around sexual violence in Nigeria represents a multi-layered failure – familial, institutional, and moral. While victims rarely report the violence they endure for fear of being stigmatised, revelations by the Plateau State Police Commissioner, Bassey Ewah that traditional and religious leaders now openly make plea for the release of perpetrators of rape, including of minors, is quite disturbing. Parading dozens of suspects involved in rape, child molestation and sexual violence last Friday, Ewah highlighted no fewer than 10 cases within the last one month in Plateau State. “We are now recording cases where little boys and girls are being raped, often by persons entrusted with their care and protection as guardians,” said Ewah who added that more worrisome “is the emerging trend where some traditional and religious leaders approach the Police to plead that such matters be ‘settled at home’ in order to protect the image of families or communities involved.”

The patriarchal interpretations within our various faiths preach endurance hence victims and their abusers (where summoned) are usually advised to go home and find a way to settle their differences, rather than make public the injury or the violence within. But no society should treat such a heinous crime with levity. We therefore agree with Ewah on the danger of treating such a crime as a ‘family matter’. But with leaders of various faiths preaching forgiveness as a sure pathway to heaven, we understand what accounts for the growing perversion. Inevitably, the victim and the abuser (where summoned) are usually advised to go home and find a way to settle their differences, rather than make public the injury or the violence within. Again, most abused women who opt to remain in the most challenging of marriages claim stability for their children as the excuse for their ‘fortitude’.  

We cannot continue to ignore the societal upsurge in these occurrences, for the implications on our collective psyche, as citizenry, and our development as a nation, are ominous. A point of safe, protective and comforting recourse must exist for victims of sexual violence to address their immediate needs as well as to enable them muster the courage to pursue the ends of justice. Ewah’s charge that any person – regardless of status, title, or office – who approaches the Police to plead on behalf of a rape or defilement suspect should be arrested and charged as an accessory after the fact, is the right thing. “You cannot obstruct justice and claim to be a custodian of peace,” he argued.

While rape—the act of sexual assault against a person (male or female)—comes in different forms, the most common in our country is against girls and women. But the number of victims is difficult to come by, essentially because in the country, insensitivity and the fear of stigma (or persecution) discourage targets of sexual violence from formalising the reports of incidents. This reluctance, however, has only contributed to the rise in a culture of impunity on the part of the perpetrators. This is why our society also needs to be alive to its responsibility

As we have repeatedly argued, rape is a violation of the most demeaning kind that scars many victims for life. But having created a society in which the seemingly strong are seeking ways to display their superiority over ‘weaker’ people, rape may be a more blatant manifestation of a deeper deviation in our social psychology. It goes without saying that when positive means of personal identification and legitimate expression are suppressed, the devil finds work. But no society should condone rape which regrettably is fast becoming a social epidemic in Nigeria today.