The girl-child needs help in Nigeria but who is there to help them? The fundamental assumption today in Nigeria is that rape has come to stay because it is tolerated by government, people and society.
Loco parentis is clearly missing in Nigeria, as regards rape. People hardly talk about it and government does nothing but lecture for its sake and agents of state sometimes blame victims’ for their woes.
You can feel the sociopathic detachment to issues of rape by religious bodies and traditional institutions. Royal fathers do not speak truth to power and clergy men have all become politicians instead of addressing burning societal issues.
The cornucopias in their domain seem to be better than justice. What goes around comes around. We cannot afford to break wind always with policies that are antithetical to national security and suppose that we can tame acts of malevolence bothering Nigeria. Fate will not grant Nigeria an exception, criminality will increase and the country needs many tough laws to put the fear of state into the hearts of people.
As stated by this present writer elsewhere, “what drives ethical behaviour can be attributed to a person’s moral fibre. This, in turn, can be influenced by conscience, observation of accepted social mores and the laws of the land. Fear of consequences or expectations of rewards are other factors considered when behavioural decisions are being deliberated.”
Are rapists punished in Nigeria? Isn’t it clear for all to see that they do not have conscience? Rapists get the death sentence in Indonesia as well as chemical castration in Indonesia and Poland but why does Nigeria celebrate rapists and not punish them? Nigeria should institute the death penalty for rape to stem the tide. However hard we pretend, we cannot wish this away with magniloquence, doing so would be akin to telling the Arabs and the Israelis to settle their differences in a good Christian manner or even asking a Jew what his Christian name is. Wouldn’t that be a bad joke?
I move away from karmic arguments although I know that many people will live and others shall die: laws or not, but I know that a good government can make horrors pass over our homes.
Thoughts like these overwhelm me with a feeling of helplessness and I cannot but wonder why these total turkeys in government cannot properly secure the country and considering that they are outsmarted by bad people.
I will pray for victims tonight, it might be just the bit of inspiration that some of them need to go on. They have blood running through their veins, just like you and I, they are human, too. That is the way to go; Nigeria needs an abundance of community spirit.
Leaders are groomed, some learnt on the job and many others took the bull by the horn to fix their countries, the system needs to be rejigged.
A sane society must develop clear rules for sexual conduct for the growth and the survival of the society.
Bad cultures have subsumed the Nigerian culture and since some acts are learned, government needs to beat crooks so they can unlearn some of the acts learned.
Brothels in the past housing loose women were in far-flung areas of our cities but today they are in neighbourhoods where we raise children. And we pretend to be a serious people.
Simon Abah, Abuja
