Pretty, supple and pliant. Responsible, devoted and progressive. Those words paint the portrait of Vera Uwaila Omozuwa, the 22-year-old microbiology student of the University of Benin, raped, assaulted and murdered inside the solemn, sacred hall of her local church. Vera is the latest victim in the national widening gyre of rape victims.
Rape is the act of forcing somebody to have sex. It means sex without valid consent of the other party. It could be at gunpoint, by coercion, trickery, abduction or any other violent means. But the key point is that it is done without the consent (against the wish) of the other party. Make no mistake about it, rape is not just about a man forcing a woman of any age including infants into sexual act; it could also be a case of a woman forcing, tricking or luring a man of any age into sex. Either way, rape is what it is: evil, distasteful and contemptible.
The cancer called rape is a global phenomenon and various governments have taken bold and stringent step to tame the beast of rape. In 2015, UNICEF reported that one in four girls and one in ten boys in Nigeria had experienced sexual violence before the age of 18. According to a survey by Positive Action for Treatment Access, over 31.4 percent of girls in Nigeria admitted that their first sexual encounter had been rape or forced sex of some kind.
Aside North America, I don’t recall any other continent where incidents of rape gather bewildering traction as we have it in Africa. It’s scary. Worrisome. But it can be checked. In the global rape index, Nigeria is a bit ‘lucky.’ The country is not listed among the top 100 nations with high rape index per 100,000. South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Bermuda, Sweden lead the ignoble class. But Nigeria’s non-listing on the global log of the World Population Review could be on account of non-availability of data. Otherwise, rape is alive and well here.
We’ve seen cases of child molestation by those who should protect them: Uncles, Aunties, teachers, clerics, parents (biological and surrogate). We have witnessed all sorts. And in strange places too. Inside mosques, churches, on school premises, in homes, on highways usually by abductors and all manner of bandits. Rape is kicking in Nigeria. The case of Vera who was gruesomely murdered inside a church calls attention to the growing army of rapists and depraved humans.
Vera’s rape case rubbishes some theories about rape. It raises a curious angle to the mind-set of some humans who have moulted all decent behavioural traits of normal man to assume the bestial mannerisms of the ape. Some theorists postulate that women attract rape to themselves by the way they are dressed. Vera shatters such theory. The late Miss Omozuwa was reputed for her modesty both in dressing and in comportment. She chose a church, a quiet and presumably safe place to study. She showed devotion to her cause. She was in school to study and bring honour to her parents. She was in school to acquire knowledge and prime herself for tomorrow. She did not go clubbing; did not dress in a slovenly manner. She evinced all attributes of a virtuous girl and distanced herself from the crazy crowd of boisterous and riotous maidens. Nothing in her suggested an inclination to prostitution or invitation to randy men. She was reserved, conscious of her dignity and womanhood. But she died the cruellest death. Raped, battered and murdered. This is a bit much for her family and true friends. It’s simply beyond the pale for humanity.
Her death diminishes all humans. It exposes the suspects as a band of apes. And that’s what they are. Apes and humans belong to the Hominoidea superfamily of primates. Just like humans, apes are tailless but they are lower than humans in cognitive intelligence. Apes still manifest primitive traits that make them sink lower among animals in the primate order. All rapists are apes. They are beastly like the ape and boorish like the baboon.
But we can kill rape. We can knock it down the steep slope of hell. We can make rape unattractive to its patrons – the band of beasts. Nigeria has launched a Name and Shame register for sexual offenders including rapists. Let’s make this work. No more masking the masquerade. All rapists must be openly paraded, properly documented and abashedly exposed until odium and shame become their garment.
The judiciary must rise to the occasion. The most effective way to kill crime is to punish the criminals. No rape case should drag in the court. Why would a rape case go beyond two months in a court? If rape cases or cases bordering on sexual molestation are given expedited hearing, Nigeria would have taken one bold step to stamping out the scourge. Let’s not forget that some countries have gone beyond ‘name and shame.’ They have proposed castration (ala Ukraine). In Malaysia, whoever commits rape gets imprisonment for a term which may extend to twenty years, and such shall be liable to whipping.
In India, death penalty is a possible punishment for rape of a girl under 12 years; the minimum punishment is 20 years in jail. Rape of a girl below 16 attracts a different but strong penalty. Other countries have come hard on rapists with amendments to their laws to make rape a very unattractive misadventure to any person.
And the police? The law enforcers (investigators) should know they hold the key to any case. The thoroughness of their investigations helps the prosecutor. Therefore, the police must be professional in handling rape cases. They must keep evidence sacred and uncontaminated. Collecting samples of evidence from a rape scene or victim should be professionally done just so that fingerprints and other shreds of evidence are not compromised.
We must do something before Nigeria becomes the rape capital of the world. Statistics from a National Survey carried out in 2014 on Violence Against Children in Nigeria showed that one in four females reported experiencing sexual violence in childhood with approximately 70% reporting more than one incident of sexual violence. In the same study, it was found that 24.8% of females from age 18 to 24 years experienced sexual abuse prior to age 18 of which 5.0% sought help, with only 3.5% receiving any services. Simple interpretation: Rape is high but prosecution is low. Reason is stigmatization. Rape victims in Nigeria are usually stigmatized, sometimes bullied by investigators and the public. This must stop. When rape victims fear they might be bullied or victimised, they shrink into their shell. Such victims should be protected and insulated from stigmatization. That way we encourage other victims to step out from their emotional cocoon. Nigeria must use the case of Vera to establish the verity that rape is evil.
Nobody wants to live the life of a rape victim. It’s a worse torment than death. Parents, police, judiciary, and the public must rise in unison to fight this scourge. In Nigeria, rape is a criminal offence attracting life sentence. But you ask: how many suspects have been convicted? And that’s how we encourage the rapists with slow and shoddy prosecution.