W HAT HOPE FOR RAPEVICTIMS?
The 12-year-old was raped by the son of the property-owner in Rumuodara in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. And the rapist wasn’t smitten by a pang of guilt thereafter. His family is rich in the eyes of people nearby because they own the apartment where the rape victim and her family live. All it takes to be known as a rich person in Nigeria is to drive a car and own a house.
People who do not drive cars and who do not live in their own personal apartment aren’t rich in the eyes of many people, such people who do not have money are underlings not to be taken seriously and can be given the look of patrician disdain by so-called money bags. What is worse is that agents of state protect these lots.
The mother of the victim expected the parents of the rapist to rebuke their child but they did nothing and she sought help from agents of state permitted by law to defend the helpless in the society.
Days- on- end she went to their office to seek justice. But justice travelled to lose Island every time she stopped by. Finally, an agent of state, a lady, who should have compassion for her and her challenge, acted contrarily.
She counselled the woman to let the matter rest, to stop pursuing the rape case because according to her, that might not have been the first time the young girl engaged in the tricks of the flesh with men and this particular rape case shouldn’t creäte any raucous claque.
I heard this in a taxi in Port Harcourt, narrated by the victim’s mother and it was befuddling because she was helpless and had to give up the fight for justice. Poor people operate from the position of weakness. They are cheated by the powerful.
People get away with atrocious misconducts against children. But this shouldn’t be. The democratization of evil and association with depraved people are some of the reasons rape victims and children are not safe in Nigeria and are not protected as they ought to and this has to change.
Parents need to protect their children. Children shouldn’t run errands for people with questionable character and they should stop children from going into the rooms of people with dubious character.
They should also speak up, for in Nigeria, rape cases aren’t brought forward for fear of children being pilloried. The ones bold enough to speak up should get justice and not made to suffer and paralyzed by verbal incontinence, they should not become victims because they were proactive enough to seek for justice.
Why do people get away with rape cases in Nigeria? Why do people rape children, some as old as only few months old? It staggers my imagination. Parents should monitor the relationships of their children with relatives, family friends, visitors and neighbors. They should ensure that children are not left all by themselves with people whose character they are not sure of and in housing units full with crooks. Children shouldn’t be allowed to take strolls at night and sent on errands which will see them walk through dark-back-streets.
Children must be properly guided on how to stop the source of bad behavior and the time frame to report depravity.
They should be coached to shout and ask for help when the target of the behavior starts to groom them improperly for debauched undertakings. Any observer in every environment where children live should stop the harassment of children when they see that they are sexually molested. There is nothing as an innocent passerby.
The police and the justice system must ensure that rape victims get justice in the real sense. A duty exists for those in authority to help put rapists in jail.