By Bilyaminu Gambo Kong-kol
Gone are the days when female gender in Nigeria and the world at large enjoyed decent treatment of love, care, respect, reverence, and honour. Unfortunately, the current narrative portrays a scenario where our sisters, daughters and sometimes mothers are rendered victims of domestic violence, rape, marital crisis, unjustified divorce, and forced marriages as well as negligence of responsibility by men which in turn lead to women and child labour, that result to fear, depression, frustration, confusion, and even death.
The trending violence against the female gender in Nigeria is ‘Rape’. There were cases of rape in Bauchi, Benin, Ibadan, Lagos, Jigawa, Kano and Kaduna which received total condemnation from all angles. The rapists in some cases even killed their victims. Now, why murder after the rape? The culprits in such a situation are relatives of their victims or close associates.
It is dreadful that girls and women are being abused by their closed ones such as parents, siblings, uncles, cousins, and neighbours. These are people who supposed to provide solace and protection to them but turned out to be their enemies; engaging in raping, torturing and the worst part killing to keep their inhuman act hidden.
To me, indecent dressing is one of the factors responsible for rape. It has continued to increase on a daily basis thereby tempting men to harass or rape not only indecent dressers but anyone that comes their way. That is why in most cases teenagers and the elderly become victims. Secondly, pornographies, and indecent Nigerian and foreign movies also contribute a lot in leading their viewers to sexual abuse.
It is lamentable that some men fully obey their evil desires and breach the trust. How on earth can a responsible human rape his daughter, sibling, cousin, neighbour or niece? It is good to note that humans’ hearts always induce them to engage in nasty stuff, one needs to be courageous and strong enough to overcome the little euphoria that may lead to this inhumane behaviour called RAPE!
In the meantime, others believed the high cost of wedding and economic challenge in Nigeria also play a role, but this is a weak hypothesis as married men with children engaged in the habit also.
On the other hand, the rape of minors, can either be attributed to ritualistic purposes or wickedness.
I always ask, what pleasure could one drive in raping an under five-year-old girl? Whatever the reason, sexual harassment and rape must be put to hold in Nigeria.
Governments, traditional, religious and community leaders, civil society organizations and parents must strive to break off the ugly trend.
I recommend a death sentence, life imprisonment, a website for publication of details of rapists, the establishment of an act to enforce decent dressing, cost of wedding control as well as forfeiture of all belongings of rapists to their victims as penalties for the evil act. These will serve as deterrent to others.
Bilyaminu Gambo Kong-kol writes from Bayero University, Kano
bilyaminugambokonkol20@gmail.com
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Sky Daily
