Government should investigate into this pandemic (rape) as it focuses on Covid-19 with an intent to nip it in the bud.
Rapists are atavistic sadists, who do not belong to the modern world. Very crude in their rusticism, they brutally inflict torturous and indelible scars on the psyches of their victims; and that is for those who survived the act.
These scars—psychological traumas—remain with victims as long as they live. Some victims could not live a normal life due to stigma and the repeated visual sight of the scene of rape which continue to haunt them. They see all men as evils because of their experiences in the hands of evil men. Phobia for the opposite sex compels them to live like monastic nuns. They abhor marriage not because they are not products of marriage, but because passion and desire for marriage was brutally wiped out of them due to a singular or repeatedly acts of rape. There is this case of a woman who chose to be anonymous on TVC Program (Your View) some days back; she is a product of rape only to grow up to become a victim of rape. Her mother (the first victim) could not withhold her animus against her (being the product of rape which she cannot be blamed for) and her rapist father who did not accept to be her father is a serving federal lawmaker in Nigeria. What a miserable experience!
What prompted this write up was a program I (and other viewers) watched yesterday, Friday 19/06/2020, on Good Morning Nigeria titled ‘Upsurge in Rape Cases’. Should I say it is interesting? It is rather emotional. I thought I am a man with iron heart and strong mind who could hold tears, before I knew it a stream of tears already rolled down my cheeks: I was literally moved to tears. I could not hold it just as they could not; I mean the presenters and invited guests (Minister of Women Affairs, Paulen Telan, Barr. Esther Uzoma, National Coordinator of the Proactive Gender Initiatives (PGI), DCP Frank Mba, Police Public Relation Officer, and Tamara Ebiwei, the rape victim who chose to open up after many years of nursing her pain). It is touchingly disquieting, I doubt any mortal with the faintest streak of human feeling will have the ability to condone rapists even if they were his brothers, husbands, uncles, cousins or fathers for that matter. I contemplated, ruminated and cogitated over and over again, the only appropriate punishment that appeals to me for this dehumanising heinous crime of rape is death. Coincidentally, we learn from the Islamic jurisprudence that a rapist is to be stoned to death (especially when s/he is married). Any punishment short of this is travesty of justice—it is injustice of the highest order. Death punishment for rapists has been advocated by many concerned individuals, right groups and organizations.
However, and piteously, we have developed this imbecile mind-set that makes rapists go away with the crime. We condone rapist to remain in our midst when s/he has actually exhibited animalistic tendency that is only unique to wild, blood sucking and predacious animals. No one is safe in such a community or any human settlement that condones rapists. It is a grievous crime, which once its committal is established without any scintilla of doubt, justice should never be tempered with mercy. The guest on the Good Morning Nigeria Show, Tamara Ebiwei—a former rape victim—speaks volumes of the traumas experienced by her. She had been coping with the stigma since she was raped at age 10, though at the moment she has overcome it (the stigma); she is yet to marshal the ability to put the psychological trauma behind. Raped when she was 10, after more than 20 years as she is in her 30s presently, she finds it difficult to maintain a relationship with a man that could culminate into marriage for the fear of the unknown. Inferentially, she could not see the humanity in a man when it comes to marriage due to the sordid experience. What worsened the issue and her predicament, has she narrated, was the out of court settlement which her tormentor’s family pleaded for and to which her father consented—for pecuniary gain. Lamenting her father’s action which she interpreted as exchange of her dignity for money, she developed hatred for her father.
It’s an emotionally tear inducing revelation. So was the rape incidence narrated by DCP Frank Mba. I urge everyone to watch the episode on the YouTube on this link https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qaSeyhS-LnQ. This brings up an important question: how should cases of rape be settled out of court? This is condoning evil! To make death penalty for rape implementable, there is need to illegalize, nay, criminalize any attempt at out of court settlement by parents of victims or victims themselves. This is to serve as deterrent to others and to show government’s commitment to fighting against rape and rapists. The Kaduna State High Court recently convicted a rapist to death by hanging for raping a baby that was 2 years and 9 month. He raped the baby to death! The judgment is in sync with the rape crime which has become pandemic. Rapists should be killed outrightly. They should not be condemned to life imprisonment. It will be wasteful and unjust to sentence a rapist to death by life imprisonment while s/he feeds on tax payers’ money and becomes liability to the government. In addition to death by hanging, rapists’ names and photographs should be published and circulated so that other about-to-be rapists will be wary and give it a second thought. Families and friends who do not want to be embarrassed will caution and strongly admonish any of their beloved ones who shows symptom(s) of rape tendency.
It should be noted, as I pointed out in my previous article “The Rising Cases of Rape and the Aberration of Government’s Unresponsiveness” that there exists the Criminal Code applicable in all the Southern States; and the Penal Code applicable in all northern State which stipulates imprisonment for life, with or without caning, as punishment for rapists. The problem is notably applying the laws. Like in the Kaduna State’s example cited above, the case lingered for five years because the rape was committed in 2015. This is unnecessary delay which could amount to injustice. ‘Justice delayed is justice denied’ as the saying goes. And we shall not be surprised if the High Court verdict is upturned afterwards because the convict has the right to appeal within 90 days of the judgement. This is the problem with our judicial system. This is a crime which the convict confessed he committed. The leeway to appeal is for what? Well, this is the domain of the legal practitioners. I could reason why some advocates call for special court of rape cases. It is a good idea; nevertheless it is better to restructure the existing judicial system (the courts) in such a way that cases of rape will be attended to with utmost expedition.
The Nigerian police was reported to have recorded 717 rape cases between January and May in 2020. This is a gloomy statistics in a country where rape cases are hardly reported for religious and cultural reasons. It implies that cases of rape this year and especially during this lockdown must be in the region of thousands. Indecent dressing is definitely not the cause; for this cannot explain how a two year old girl was raped to death. We have seen and heard; and has been reported cases of rape in which victims are well cladded in their hijabs and face veils. This is not to justify indecent dressing. Many rapists commit the crime for ritual purposes: to wield unlimited influence, acquire illicit wealth and other fetish reasons. Like it was rumoured about two decades ago in South Africa that sex with virgin could cure HIV/AIDS. This snowballed the cases of rape of children and babies. That fetish belief or spiritualism could be the reason for spike in rape cases in Nigeria is not out of place. Government should investigate into this pandemic (rape) as it focuses on Covid-19 with an intent to nip it in the bud. As I dedicate this article to Tamara, Barakah and other rape victims—dead and alive—may Almighty God from His noble throne in the high heaven console them and have mercy on them.
Abdulkadir Salaudeen writes from Federal University, Gashua, Yobe State.