Miss Nwodo: Campaigning against rape, my greatest achievement
Miss Precious Nwodo is a 400-level medical student of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. She is waging war against rape in Nigeria on the platform of Miss Charming Nigeria Beauty Pageant which she won in Lagos in 2017. In this interview, she tells why she
What informed your current anti-rape crusade?
I would like to say that the motive for the public lecture which I organized on January 15, 2018 tagged, “War Against Rape And Sexual Molestation in Our Country, Nigeria” has been a heartbreak to me. I noticed that this rape has become a monster which has eaten deep in the life of the youth especially in our country, Nigeria.
The pageantry, Miss Charming Nigeria gave me the platform to organize this programme and fight rape and sexual molestation. to organize this programme because so many of our youth have become rape victims due to many unnecessary risk factors.
What are your strategies for the campaign?
Aside holding public lecture, the other strategies include going to secondary schools because I really want to catch them young, so to say, because this word rape and sexual molestation starts from our youthful age. I would want to go to villages, even campus of tertiary institutions. I will visit these places with my team – the Queen Precious Foundation to create sufficient awareness on the monster of rape and why it should be stopped in the society.
What is the reach of this anti-rape campaign?
I will not limit the antirape war to the Southeast. I will have to go further in spreading my tentacles to see how I can reach out to the Nigerian youth because right now we need to be aware of this monster called rape.
Are there some challenges you envisaged project? in this
There’s no step you take that won’t have challenges in life. I will say that one of the challenges is from the social justice and human rights because in the case of rape, all hands must be on deck to work with these persons to determine penalties. Funding is also a key issue but with God’s help and support from the pageant sponsors, Mysha Beauty Products and Arrakhab Beach Resort in Lagos, this dream will go a very long way in reducing the rate of rape in Nigeria.
Is it only girls’ schools you will be visiting?
I will take the campaign to both girls and boys secondary schools because these days, it is not just only girls that are being raped, boys are raped, too. That’s why we need to make it a general changer because we really need to know some of the risk factors, and why they are being raped. Apart from the social media, it could be the mode of dressing, the vulgar language, working along the road in a lonely area, watching pornography. What I’m saying is that we need to also enlighten the male child about rape; not just the female.