A troubled nation

On a daily basis, one keeps ruminating over a litany of societal decadence afflicting our dear nation. It is always one problem or another. What seems more disturbing is the prevalent cases of rape and defilement of children, toddlers and babies across the land. No doubt, rape is something that should not be tolerated at all. Rape dehumanises and is emblematic of degradation of societal values. It becomes unpardonable when an innocent and harmless child is attacked by an adult that is old enough to father her. That is the rot that we are witnessing in our society today.

Few days ago, it was reported that doctors at the Federal Medical Centre Yola, Adamawa State had battled to save the life of a five-year-old girl reportedly raped by an unidentified man. Doctors at the hospital said the development had caused severe damage to the girl’s rectum and womb that would require major corrective surgery to save her life. The girl was said to have been rushed to the hospital after she was found in a pool of her blood, making the girl’s condition to be critical after the defilement.

There are several other examples that can be mentioned in which children and toddlers have been raped or killed in the country. Among the cases is that involving a headmaster in one of the schools in Lagos State, who was caught having sex with a primary school pupil in one of the school’s toilets. Recently, a 15-year-old girl was discovered to be pregnant by a close confidant that it took a lot of persuasions to get the girl to divulge the person who impregnated and defiled her.

This situation requires urgent attention now more than ever before. We should realise that the plague of child sexual abuse erodes the moral and social foundation of our children. Unfortunately, parents and guardians appear helpless and clueless concerning what to do because of the poor legislation and enforcement, as there appears to be no sex offenders’ register Nigeria. What this simply means is that a previously rapist or paedophile can still be employed by another school to teach children. A 2015 United Nations International Children Education Fund (UNICEF) report showed that six out of 10 children in the country are vulnerable to sexual abuse before the age of 18.

To arrest the trend, parents should be more vigilant by ensuring that as part of the things they look out for in enrolling their kids in a particular school is the moral integrity of the teachers and workers. They are also encouraged to teach their children basic things on sex education. This is to ensure that unnecessary myth centred about sex, is made known to a girl-child to equip her, early in life.

The National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP) had warned on the need to curb the incidence of child trafficking and sexual abuse in Nigeria. This unpleasant record may be caused Nigeria being ranked as one of the countries that signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, but little has been done by school authorities and government to protect children at crèche, kindergarten, nursery and other places. The convention prescribes that children should have the right to survival, the right to develop to the fullest, right to protection from harmful influences and abuse and exploitation and to participate fully in family, cultural and social life.

A 13-year-old girl, Elizabeth Ochanya was a victim of such calamity, who died from Vesico-Vaginal Fistula disease she allegedly suffered from sexual assaults from a father and son in Makurdi, Benue State. The fate that befell Ochanya was one of the reasons the Child Rights Act was enacted to cure. The situation makes thousands of girls from less privileged families to serve as housemaids or slave labourers, where they are daily sexually-exploited. When escape of not being abused at home is made, they succumb to the wayward lust of male neighbours and outsiders that descend on them. It is saddening that only 24 out of the 36 states of the federation have domesticated the CRA to ensure that every girl-child is protected.

Rape in Nigeria has, therefore, reached an epidemic level. Section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011 prescribes a life sentence for the offence of defilement of a child unlike other states. The country’s criminal justice system should be fully activated against the growing aberrant behaviour that has become a recurring decimal. In the many countries including the United States of America, sex offender registries are kept by all the states and district.

Until this problem is taken as a national tragedy, the matter would remain same, making human life worthless for budding young girls. As it is, the signal that we are giving our girls is simple – nobody cares about you – whether you are raped or not. This should not be. Nigeria needs to become the real home for everyone. Hence, we need to turn a new leaf that signifies that decent life is cherished and sacred.

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