First of all, let’s summarize the details for those who may have missed the story. Two adults, a female and a male, had sex. The female, now rusticated and expelled, was a student of Babcock University at the time of the act. Her male counterpart was at the time of the said sex liaison an already expelled student of Babcock. Why he was expelled is not of particular interest, however those in the know say that it was for abuse of substance.
The other point is that their sexual encounter was videoed and [it] leaked into the social media. At the point of the leak, Babcock authorities quickly expelled the lady in the act. The question arises, is Babcock right? From what we have seen and read, many Nigerians seem to be missing on some crucial issues.
For those who hold brief for the girl, their point is that the girl did not leak the tape and it was [intended to be] a private session. They attempt to attribute the leakage to revenge porn for which she is thus not culpable. Great.
However, it is evident and has been so admitted even by her defenders, that the sex happened within a hospital or medical remand center. The stag boy is said to be undergoing therapy for mental issues, apparently issuing from substance abuse etc. However, the video is proof enough that they did it in a hospital or in-patient medical facility.
Now, here are the issues. Sex between two consenting adults is legal and is largely the norm in our very urban age. So most people do not have issues with the two literally getting sexed up to their hearts’ content.
However, while sex is admissible as a modern pleasure for consenting adults, it is an offence known to the law, to be conducting sexual sessions in public. Thus, even for the legally married, it is not acceptable that they go down on themselves in public over what should have been the ‘’other room’’ pleasures. If they did the law will duly sanction them.
There are two [twin] points here. Sex is agreeable between consenting adults, but not in the public. That is, sex must remain a private rite and not a public spectator sport. This is where the twist ensues. The question then is what is public, what is private? Interestingly this Babcock sex case dramatizes a matter most Nigerians miss. It is about the change in the meanings of concepts and categories.
To answer, a perspective is needed. It is that change is inherent in all things. And whether or not it is perceptible to parties, concepts and categories, are forever changing. One of those categories or concepts is the idea of public.
Public is what is in the purview of the generality of peoples with little or no restrictions. Having said this, one point is clear. It is that technology, especially the social media, has conspired to alter what is public.
Understandably, many a Nigerian see the internet from their own point of view, that they are pushing stuff to the world. They are correct but not exhaustive in their understanding. Actually, the internet and thus the social media, from the very beginning was built to be a public square.
Thus in urban terms, anything posted or streamed in the internet is actually the digital equivalent of your analogue grandfather doing the same act in the market square. In fact, it is even more. This is so because while your grandfather was restricted to the citizens present at the site of his actions, your social media recorded act is a global pronouncement. Even more unlike the acts of your grandfather, the social media is an eternally retrievable storehouse. All the world can access it at its pleasure. The social media is thus your village market square raised to the power of the universe.
Two, a hospital is not a private estate. A hospital is largely a public place too. Just about any persons who is sick or even not sick may be visiting a hospital for one purpose or the other. Additionally, even if you are in a private ward, the doctors and other medics have unrestricted rights to barge in on you at any time. More so, for records or monitoring etc., hospitals may wire CCTVs into her premises, private wards and all. The implication of this is that having sex in a hospital’s open or private wards, is the equivalent of having sex in a largely open or ‘’open to be viewed’’ ground.
Again, it is common knowledge that whoever is on admission in a hospital is under the care and charge of medics. The implication of this is that any reasonable visitor – and university students are supposed to be – should seek the permission of the medics before administering any procedures on in-patients. And this must include sex.
It is therefore safe to conclude as follows. That the girl in question, being an urban type is aware that the social media is a public space, that hospital precincts are also public spaces. She, being a reasonable person, will also be in the know that hospitals are dedicated places, are for specific procedures and not others. Pointedly, any reasonable person will know that hospitals are constructed for purposes other than as sex romp bunkers.
What thus follows is the compelling conclusion that the lady in issue is fully aware of the nature of risks she was taking. And these risks include that she violated or abused the right of the in-patient sick to be cared only as per the regime approved by the medics. The point of this is important. This is because whoever is sufficiently sick to be an in-patient, may suffer medical emergencies from any unapproved procedures, including sexual titillations. In other words, she may have been about the business, wittingly or otherwise, of committing grievous bodily harm, including manslaughter, to a distressed in-patient etc.
By the way, she can’t make a plea that the in-patient asked or pestered her for sex. An in-patient, especially one with mental issues, is not such as one to be deemed in control of his or her senses. What she did by accenting, assuming that was what happened, is to abuse the existential weakness of the sick for her own purpose. Let’s recall that sometimes in-patients plead with visitors to help them with a procedures not recommended by their medics. It is criminal to so do, no matter the pleas. Matters get even more criminal when the patient is a ‘’mental case.’’
Next, many are stating that she did not leak the tape. The point is that taken together it is reasonable to assume she is in the know and comfortable with the public nature of her acts and risks. So whether or not she had a hand in the release of the tapes is not in issue. Having done it in public – hospital, videoed it etc. the rest follows.
The only missing link would have been whether or not she is aware their act was being videoed. The question becomes neutered on the afore stated facts. It is that a reasonable urban person would assume that if he walked into any public institution, including a hospital, she could be under videoed watch. By the way, her sexual preferences also betrays her as a highly urban type, oral sex romps and all that jazz.
This is not an approval that the hospital should out the tape. The point is that she is aware she is acting unilaterally in public space and thus open to being filmed and thus later broadcast.
Pitiably, hers is that of a ‘’reality show’’ actor caught in the trap of change. She was exuberant in a digital reality age and has to live with the consequences of digitalism. The internet has made space very fungible – non-Newtonian if you liked. Today, what is public is expanded. It includes not just what the eyes see in the open, but also whatever privacies that can be curated via the social media. In fact your kitchen leveraged by digital media can ‘’go as public’’ as the biggest IPO in Wall Street.
Next time it is not enough to be on the right side of the law. Next time, it is also important to be on the right side of the change curve. Don’t dare think analogue while drawing digital breath.
Babcock University in our considered opinion, is in order to take whatever disciplinary actions that are approved by its bye laws, including expulsion. She is a tar on Babcock’s reputational equity. If she must seek the gains of the flesh it must not cost innocent third parties or institutions their reputation or honor. All else is in humor.