By Punch Editorial Board
Child rape, defilement and molestation are on the rise despite spirited efforts by rights groups and government agencies. Almost on a daily basis, reports are rife of innocent children across the country violated by lecherous caregivers who exploit, desecrate and destroy the fragile memories of these little ones. These psychopaths deserve swift and severe punishment. There should be stiffer sanctions imposed on paedophiles and their enablers. The government must enforce stringent laws to stamp out this evil.
The alarm raised afresh by the International Federation of Women Lawyers, Rivers State Chapter, should refocus attention on the epidemic of child rape. In less than four months, the group said it recorded more than 50 cases of sexual abuse of children and school pupils in Rivers. The Lagos State Ministry of Youth and Sports Development also recorded 2,154 child abuse cases in 2020. Notably, sexual defilement topped the list with 1,005 cases.
The culprits are usually the same – teachers, uncles, parents, clerics, neighbours, and drivers – protectors who become predators. The incidents are heartbreaking. Jimoh Rafiu, 46, was reported in March to have defiled his own six-year-old daughter. His excuse for his depravity was provocative: he claimed that his wife did not give him sex! Another suspect, Yahaya Oisamaye, was remanded in Edo State for allegedly defiling his 15-month-old child. In Ubima community, Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State, a father caught a 60-year-old paedophile pants down defiling his 12-year-old deaf, dumb and physically challenged daughter. This is sheer wickedness!
The 2014 UNICEF National Survey on Violence Against Children said six of 10 children in Nigeria suffered one or more forms of physical, sexual or emotional violence before they reached 18. One in four girls, and one in 10 boys, it said, had also experienced sexual violence. The report added that more than 70 percent of the victims experienced the violence repeatedly.
Regrettably, 60 percent of child abuse cases are never made public, according to Director of the National Orientation Agency, Lagos State, Waheed Ishola. This allows a vast number of child abusers to go unpunished.
Beyond the physical damage, studies have shown that sexually abused children develop psychosocial challenges: some become sex addicts due to this premature exposure; others turn to prostitution as they lose their sense of self-worth and self-dignity. Early signs include a drop in academic performance, depression and suicidal thoughts, say experts.
This crime is a global phenomenon attracting diverse counter-measures by governments. Nigeria’s federal and state governments need to step up measures as it has reached near-epidemic proportions in the country. Every other segment of the society, formal and informal, must join the crusade.
Parents and guardians must take personal responsibility for the safety and security of their children and wards. Regular medical check-ups can help uncover evidence of defilement. They must fight frivolous and salacious compliments on their children by randy caregivers and neighbours passed off as jokes. Where a case of abuse is established, parents and guardians must never agree to secret agreements and settlements; these embolden paedophiles to source more victims. Faith-based organisations, community leaders and traditional rulers should leverage their leadership positions for continuous sensitisation against the scourge.
The police need to be more professional, sympathetic and stop shielding criminal suspects. A pastor, Mishack Aguebere, who defiled his wife’s 13-year-old sister on his church premises in 2018 in Rumuomasi, Obio/Akpor LGA of Rivers State, bagged only two years jail term because, according to FIDA, the police deliberately arraigned him under a section that imposed a maximum of three-year jail term. This was a felon who had sexually assaulted the child by pouring hot candle wax into her private parts, inserting a key holder to scoop the wax from her private parts to lick. The punishment and the diabolical crime are certainly not commensurate!
Schools, public and private, must set up surveillance and monitoring units to help victims of defilement speak up against rapists. School heads, supervisors and teachers as in loco parentis should not aid, perpetrate, abet or shield child molesters. Anyone caught should be summarily dismissed, and made to face the full wrath of the law.
States that have yet to domesticate the Child Rights Act must do so immediately. Nigeria enacted the Act in 2003 and since then, only 28 states have adopted it. Inexcusably, nine northern states – Adamawa, Borno, Bauchi, Gombe, Jigawa, Kebbi, Yobe, Kano and Zamfara — are still vacillating. The states’ Houses of Assembly and rights groups should initiate moves to protect the rights of children. State governments must enforce existing laws.
Many countries are reviewing their laws and strategies. In 2020, a nationwide protest over a gang-rape and a video circulated online depicting sexual violence prompted Bangladesh to pass a new law imposing the death penalty for rapists. China, the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Iran had earlier passed and implemented similar punishment with convictions and executions. In Indonesia, Ukraine, Czech Republic, rapists are castrated.
In Kaduna State, Governor Nasir el-Rufai, in response to increasing rape and defilement, in 2020 approved surgical castration for convicted rapists of children under the age of 14. While the propriety of death and castration raise human rights concerns, they reflect society’s revulsion at the depravity of paedophiles. In Lagos State, failure to report rape attracts a jail term of two years. The judiciary must play its role by imposing the maximum sentence on rape convicts.
In 2010, the United States adopted a new National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction encompassing prevention, care and rehabilitation, and leveraging all federal, state and local government assets. Several countries maintain a Sex Offender Registry to enable governments and law enforcement keep track of paedophiles. While all others make the register available only to law enforcement, the US register is made publicly available. Nigeria should adopt the register mode and make it publicly available. The United Kingdom’s Tackling Child Sexual Abuse includes harnessing all its law enforcement and intelligence capabilities to ensure that all child sexual offenders are brought to justice.
ublicly naming and shaming convicts will also serve as additional deterrent. Every state should have a regularly-updated sex offenders’ list. Public advocacy groups should step up their activities. Paedophiles must be ostracised and made to face the full wrath of the law.