Who is Sexualizing Our Children?
Sonnie Ekwowusi
The sex scandal involving a 10-year old girl and a boy, both students of Chrisland Schools, Victoria Garden, Lekki, Lagos during the recently-concluded World School Games in Dubai, has once again brought to the fore the vexed issue of sexualization of Nigerian pre-teens, teens, teenagers and young school pupils especially pupils in primary and secondary schools. The striking lamentable aspect of the Chrisland Schools sex scandal is that while the 10-year old girl and the boy were busy engaging in immoral sex, the onlookers who happened to be their school mates where busy videoing the sexual perversity and posting it on social media. You see, we now live in an age in which public shame and sense of guilt have completely evaporated from the being of so many people including pre-teens and teens.
It is important to note however that sexual perversity is not the exclusive preserve of Chrisland Schools: it also occurs in other secondary schools in Nigeria. Other Nigerian secondary school students are also implicated in sexual perversity. So, no need making Chrisland schools an escape goat. You will recall that in 2017 some senior students of Ireti Grammar School, Falomo, South-West Ikoyi, Lagos, who had finished their exams decided that the best to celebrate it was to gang rape the girls from a nearby school called Falomo Senior High School, Ikoyi, Lagos. One of the eye-witnesses stated that after chasing the girls and successfully catching up with them, the Ireti Grammar School boys forcefully used scissors to rip off the girls’ skirts before commencing their gang-rape. What further shocked the eye-witness was that as the different gang-rapes were simultaneously going on in broad day light of course, the passers-by and onlookers who had gathered and besieged the rapists and their girl-victims did not deem it fit to rescue the girl-victims from the rapists. Instead they were busy laughing and applauding the rapists and videoing the rape incident.
In the past, the friendly relationship between boyfriends and girlfriends could attain maturity with the exchange of love letters. A boyfriend or a girlfriend engaging in sexual promiscuity hid away from their parents, the public and the law. Today things have fallen apart. All the sexual mores’ boundaries have been obliterated to the extent that sexual promiscuity is now glamourized even in front of the camera as the animals in the TV Reality Show called BBNaija do. In today’s Nigeria, adults including governments and parents bombard Nigerian pre-teens, teenagers and young adults with “safe-sex” or “condom-safe-sex” adverts with the tragically misguided belief that sexual promiscuity make them good and that the resultant pregnancy could be aborted.
The ample evidence of sexualization of our children could be gathered on TV, in music videos, in movies, on mobile phones and on the internet. At every turn — TV, music, movies, mobile phones, internet, public education — young people are encouraged to indulge in sexual perversity, in all of its barbaric forms, with no fear of pregnancy because if a pregnancy does occur, abortion is sold as a safe, easy and painless way to rid them of the unwanted “product of conception.” You see, every one gets morality right when it concerns stealing of government money, the official corruption reigning supreme in Buhari government, fighting insecurity by arresting and prosecution of terrorists, bandits and kidnappers and so forth, but when it comes to sexual matters or watching of BBNaija porn where our human flesh is weak, we tend to remove our moral thinking cap and replace it with our immoral thinking cap in order to give free rein to the demands of our sinful bodies.
It is not surprising that some of us try to rationalize BBNaija porn and sexualization of our children. Man is weak. Sex sells. Since the Fall, man has been inclined to sexual promiscuity. Besides, we live in a perverse world that lays claim to the soul of our children. We live in a sexual State. The State which ought to be the guardian of the morals of children now sexualizes our children. Why? Because the State argues that pre-marital sex or casual sex makes children feel good and consequently any parent or anybody depriving children of casual sex is infringing on their “right” to have casual sex.
In order to facilitate the quick sexualisation of our children and school pupils, the State has introduced into the school curricula textbooks and Literature in English books containing lewd subject-matters to give the unsuspecting young school pupils the wrong impression that self-control is unnecessary, repressive and an impossibility; that casual sex makes them feel good; that they should engage in casual sex before marriage; that ‘safe sex’ is what to aim for in life provided that they don’t get pregnant. And if they do get pregnant they should procure abortion as soon as possible.
Acting on a tip off two years ago, the Police raided a clinic in Lagos for aborting under-aged Nigerian girls (aged between 13-18) and injecting them with dangerous abortificients without the consent of their parents. The police recovered some injections and medical equipment used in aborting girls which included Manual Vacuum Aspirator. Unfortunately today, Marie Stopes has bribed its way and has reopened to continue to abort Nigerian under-aged girls.
The United Nations Population Funds (UNFPA) needs no introduction in Nigeria. For decades, the UNFPA has been sexualizing Nigeria girls and women. Specifically, in 2014, the UNFPA organized what it dubbed the third Family Planning Pre-Conference which was held at the Reiz Continental Hotel, Abuja. At that Conference, the UNFPA launched a condom-safe-sex campaign entitled, “No Hoodie No Honey”. This campaign was widely reported in the Nigerian media. The campaign was also posted on Twitter, Facebook and on other social media.
The campaign was targeted at young Nigerian girls in the age bracket of 14-18. The campaign was aimed at supplying condoms and contraceptives to these young Nigerian girls and convincing them that “safe-sex” is their right and therefore they shouldn’t be ashamed to practice “safe sex” even if the different Nigerian cultures and religions teach otherwise. For example, one of the inscriptions on the No Hoodie No Honey roll-up stand posted on Twitter read: “Lets push for easy access to the female condom and that a woman may buy condoms without being shamed” First: the campaign was tainted by fraud and deception.
While scientific evidence consistently shows that the condoms, which contain naturally-occurring holes, do not protect its user against infections and against HIV and rarely protect against unwanted pregnancy, the UNFPA fraudulently masquerades about the cities of Nigeria and giving the Nigerian youths the false hope that condoms protect from any misdeed. This is very irresponsible of the UNFPA. At the same time, the Pfizer Pharmaceutical Inc., Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) rolled out in Nigeria and other African countries one-dollar injectable contraceptives called Sayana press injectable. Sayana press is self-injectable abortifacient. They give it to Nigerian school girls so that they can inject themselves with it and indulge in “safe-sex” anyway they like without getting pregnant.
About 16 years ago, an NGO called the Concerned Mothers Association, Lagos, took the Lagos State government to the Federal High Court, Lagos over the sexualization of the Integrated Science curriculum to include the techniques of kissing, masturbation, breast enlargement, abortion etc. I was one of the lawyers who appeared for the Concerned Mothers in that suit. The lead counsel in the suit was Mrs. Sylvia Sinaba SAN (of blessed memory). I remember that when the suit came up for hearing before the judge who happened to be a female, she was completely stunned by the sexualization pleaded on the writ and Statement of Claim. In her shock, she first took up the writ, held it up momentarily in her right hand and queried, “What is this?”. Silence enveloped the courtroom. Anyway, to cut the long judicial story short, the matter was amicably resolved out of court. In the spirit of amicable settlement, the Lagos State government at that time yanked off the offensive portion of the Integrated Science curriculum although I suspect that by now it has been brought back into the curriculum.
Between from March 27 to 29 2017, I attended a Conference which took place at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Victoria Island, Lagos,. One of the Speakers at that Conference was Ahmed Akanbi, a Muslim parent and a Lagos-based legal practitioner. Midway in his presentation, Ahmed did something which shocked most of the Conference attendees. He carefully dipped his hands into his handbag and brought out two English literature books containing some lewd subject-matters and showed them to the audience. He told us that the two books were recommended books for primary six pupils in the primary school attended by his daughter. The title of the first book authored by Oyekunle Oyedeji is: Tears of a bride, while the second book written by Queen O. Okweshine bears the title: Precious Child.
According to Ahmed, his 9-year old daughter in Primary 6 came back home from school one day and engaged him in a conversation that bothered on some sex experiences. At first, Ahmed was utterly stunned that his 9 year old daughter was conversant with sex matters. But after he had regained his composure he asked his daughter where she learned about those sex experiences. It was then that his daughter opened her mouth and narrated to him how their school teacher has been using the aforesaid two books to teach them how to practice “safe sex” and how to gain sexual pleasure. Ahmed read to the hearing of the participants some sexy portions of the two books. The participants rose to their feet in utter shock.
The most tragic is the introduction of the so-called Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) otherwise called sex education or Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Right or Family Life Education or teen-sex education in Nigerian schools without the consent of parents and stakeholders in education. As I scribble this, I have in front of me the CSE syllabus being used in teaching our secondary school students the techniques of masturbation, dating, putting on the condoms, sexual communications and negotiations, how to do abortion in secret, how to practice “safe-sex” in secret without getting pregnant by using contraceptives such as IUCD injectables, vaginal foams and jellies, diaphragm, hormonal implants, oral contraceptive pills, touching and examination of male and female reproductive organs, naked body images, erection, ejaculation, kissing, caressing, sterilization procedure for male by making of incision in the scrotum and by cutting and tying the vas deferens; sterilization procedure for female by cutting and tying the Fallopian tube, infertility and other immoral topics.
The NGO back rolling this immoral CSE curriculum in Nigeria is called Action Health Incorporated (AHI), situate in Yaba, Lagos. The immoral CSE is being sponsored in Nigeria by a well-known international pro-abortion organization called John D. and Catherine T. MarArthur Foundation of Chicago, U.S.A. The CSE curriculum is copied verbatim from the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS).
Under the so-called CSE, school pupils in open classrooms are required to touch each other’s genital saying: “I like you”. The pupils are also expected to touch each other’s private parts and find out the differences in their respective private parts. As I write this, I have in front of me the youth peer sexuality education Training Guide/Toolkit, funded by the United Nations Population Funds (UNFPA) in collaboration with other United Nations agencies. This Guide contains suggested lessons for youth to teach their peers about sexuality. I gather that the Guide is already being used in some Nigerian secondary schools. On page 59 of the Guide, students are required to give to their peers a list of sexual terms, including words like “vagina,” “breasts,” “orgasm,” “pleasure,” and “masturbation.”
On page 61, the youth facilitators are told to share with other youths with whom they feel more comfortable things like “Your sexual fantasies (fantasies), “Your feelings about oral sex (oral)”, “Whether you enjoy erotic material (X), “Whether you have fantasized about a homosexual relationship (gay-fan),” “Whether you have had a homosexual relationship (gay-exp)”. On page 75 there is a condom relay race activity involving boys and girls. It instructs the peer leader to “Ask two volunteers (participants or co-facilitators) to hold the two penis models” and then to invite two teams to race to put the condoms on the models. Let me add another fact that may shock you. A couple of years ago, some secondary teachers where hired and paid N20,000 each to be demonstrating in open classroom to secondary school boys and girls, with the aid of rubber penis and rubber vagina, the different technique of wearing the condoms before/during sexual intercourse. One of these teachers was traced to Government College, Eric More, Surulere, Lagos.
A couple of years ago, a Lagos-based NGO took the Federal government, Federal Ministry of Education and others to the Federal High Court, Lagos. I was the counsel for the NGO in the suit. Why did the NGO go to court? Because the following textbooks: New School Chemistry for Senior Secondary Schools By: Osei Yaw Ababio; Revised by: L. E.S Akpanisi Herbert Igwe ; Modern Biology for Senior Secondary School By: Sarojini T. Ramalingam, revised by Lucy I Akunwa and J.BC Obidiwe and the New School Physics for Senior Secondary By: M. W Anyakoha PhD, used in many secondary schools in Nigeria were smeared with the following watermark inscriptions: “I know that My Mother is a harlot and that my Father is a Kidnapper”,“I am a son/daughter of a Harlot and kidnapper”, “I confess that my Family is bad, Evil, and a Disgrace to the Nation”, “My Parents Taught me how to love and smoke Indian Hemp, to kill and practice illegal things”. At first, I could not understand why the publishers of the aforesaid textbooks smeared the pages of the books with the aforesaid watermark inscriptions. But after we had invited the publishers of the books to our law firm and interrogated them on their mission, it dawned on me that the water mark inscriptions were part of the efforts to sexualize school pupils as well as portray the family institution as something bad.
As we speak, the Honorable Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire (Oredo Local Council, Edo State) and the Federal Ministry of Health, in conspiracy with the World Health Organization (WHO), are distributing (free of charge, of course) dangerous abortificients, substances and sex pills such as long-acting irreversible contraceptives (LACs), long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs) contraceptives such as Depo-Provera, (DMPA), Sayana Press, Norplant, Norethisterone Enanthate, IUCD, postinor 2, Lo-femenal, Norplant, suction tubes, Vasectomy (male sterilization), tubal ligation (female sterilization), among others, to the Nigerian public and Nigerian children. You will recall that in August 2012 Federal government spent a whopping sum of $11.3 million to purchase condoms for ‘safe-sex among Nigerian children.
In April 2011, the then Health Minister Prof. Chukwu flagged off an aggressive free distribution of contraceptives (including hormone and injectable contraceptives) in all public health centres and institutions in Nigeria. In 2017, the Federal Government spent another gargantum sum of N915m on procurement of contraceptive commodities for ‘safe-sex’. In July 2017 the then Health Minister Professor Isaac Adewole announced that in collaboration with its partners and the private sector, Nigeria would be spending additional $4.3 million for procurement of contraceptives in order to achieve a modern contraceptive distribution rate of 27% among all girls and all women in Nigeria by 2020. He also said that Nigeria was committed to increasing its annual allocation for contraceptives to $4 million in each of the States. At the behest of Prof Adewole, the Federal government announced in January 2018 that it was released $1m for free distribution of contraceptives for the enhancement of quality of ‘safe-sex’ among Nigeria adults and teenagers.
It beats the imagination that in a country like Nigeria where malnutrition and kwashiorkor are taking their highest toll on the citizenry; a country in which medical statistics reveals that 2,300 under-five children and 145 pregnant women are dying day owing to lack of access to basic primary health, the Federal Ministry of Health, which was established to develop health policies and programs that will, inter alia, strengthen the country’s health system and our successive Ministers of Health , have chosen the path of infamy by conspiring with foreign organizations be supplying to the Nigerian populace the aforesaid dangerous drugs which are harmful to them.
More importantly, the Nigerian crisis is also a crisis of improper parenting. Sexualization of our children is self-inflicted. It is the outcome of irresponsible parenting. We now live in the so-called post-truth age or so-called global human rights age that permits all sorts of choices. Juvenile delinquency is no longer the only known vice holding us captive today: adult delinquency equally wrecks our society. The causes of most societal vices are traceable to poor parenting and dysfunctional families. Most young parents are not good role models for their children. Many modern women, for instance, now argue (although irrationally and illogically) that they are the owners of their bodies and therefore nobody should dictate to them how they should use their bodies or dress their bodies. Some married women, with the greatest respect, dress like street prostitutes.
Nowadays it is not difficult to see married women in their 60s or 70s, who ordinarily should have been an exemplary grandmother, gallivanting around town in their respective revealing mini-skirts. Not to talk of married men who go about bare-chested and in ordinary pant that exposes their protruding beer stomachs. Where are those dignity, respectability and candour that are synonymous with proper parenting? What has happened to the age-old wisdom of parents admired in those days when men were men and women were won by those who deserved them? Where are those cherished family tradition and family values which bring honour and respect to the family? We have lost everything. And that is why some children can have the effrontery to summon their parents to a meeting to scold them, sorry, to advise them on why they should be good role models for their children and for society.
So, we must begin to parent the parents. Parenting is an art. Only parents who have learned the art of parenting can become successful parents. It is not enough to bring children into the world. Even animals bring their offspring into the world too. If most young parents do not have proper parental upbringing they cannot properly parent their own children to be responsible citizens. How do lawyers say it again in Latin? Nemo dat quod non habet (Nobody can give what he or she doesn’t have). By analogy, irresponsible parents cannot bring up responsible children. Once upon a time someone I know attended the graduating ceremony of a certain co-educational school. The obscenity he saw at the school almost killed him. Amid the obscene music, some girls of the school bent down and opened their buttocks for some boys of the school to be violently sexing them or fucking them from behind (sorry for the language) to the cheering of their visiting mothers.
Time was 3.30 pm. Traumatized by what was going on, he quickly left the school and went home. In the past, the family provided the bridge that allowed the youngsters to graduate from childhood to adulthood with a certain sense of security. In the past, motherhood was revered. Decency and modesty were synonymous with motherhood. Unfortunately today, many youngsters cannot rely on the formation they are getting from their parents because their parents were not properly brought up. Our values are warped. In some homes, the parents shamelessly watch internet pornography with their children. Therefore to reinvigorate the family, parents, especially young parents, should be parented to enable them to parent their own children to be responsible citizens.
Solution: I have carefully studied the various Nigerian laws and international laws and there is nothing therein guaranteeing sexualization of children or teen sexual right or condom teen “safe-sex”. Instead the various sexual perversities and sexual assaults are punishable under the Nigerian law with or without the option of a fine. Therefore the Federal government should stop implementing the adolescent sexual reproductive which sexualizes Nigerian children. Ehanire and the Federal Ministry of Health should be stopped forthwith from promoting sexual promiscuity among Nigerian children by distributing to them (free of charge, of course) dangerous abortificients, substance and contraceptives. The family institution, unarguably, is indeed the fundamental unit of society.
Destruction of the family may lead to economic failure. Therefore the family institution should be reinvigorated. As I earlier said, we must begin to parent the parents. How? By organizing family orientation courses for parents to enable them to become capable of parenting their own children to be responsible citizens. Another way is by organizing marriage courses for would-be parents and for young people who are about to get married. Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) otherwise called sex education or Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Right or Family Life Education or teen-sex education should be banned in Nigerian schools. Any school teacher caught luring school kids into sexual immorality should be arrested and prosecuted.
The Federal Ministry of Health should be revamped. Staffers of the Federal conspiring with the WHO to sexualize our children should be fired. Sex-related textbooks such as Tears of a bride, Precious Child should be banned for use in our schools. The UNFPA should be expelled from Nigeria. Ditto for Marie Stopes UK abortion international. If the Marie Stopes abortion clinics have been shut down in some African countries, why not also shut them down in Nigeria? Moral instruction should be a compulsory subject in our secondary schools.
Our future is built on the triumph of the potential of our children. Therefore if those potentials are ruined in sexual immorality our future is invariably ruined. To destroy the character of school children is an unpardonable crime. School children constitute the real treasure of Nigeria. And the greatest crime anybody can commit is to destroy the treasure of the country.
