Rape And All Barbaric Forms, And Causes Of, Immorality: Our Misrepresentation Of This Tragic Phenomenal -By Adepoju Isaiah Gbenga

Rape simply means an act of forcing sexual intercourse or other sexual activity upon another person, without their consent.

I will go by the legal definition to enable us see it from the legal microscope: SECTION 357 of the criminal code of Nigeria provides as thus “Any person who has unlawful carnal knowledge of a woman or girl without her consent or with her consent, if the consent is obtained by force or by any means of threat or intimidation of any kind or by fear of harm or by means of false and fraudulent representation as to the nature of the act, or, in the case of a married woman, by personating her husband, is guilty of an offence which is called rape”

Rape can come in/from several faces such as child molestation, sexual harassment – in most cases; emotional and psychological ill-treatment/ridicule and harassment etc.

The issues of rape are most common in loose societies where the citizens indulge themselves under influences which can alter psychological balance to the stage of being professionally called ‘imbalance’. Money ritual, Voodooism, and Satanism are part of the influences and causes of rape, but on these instances, I would suggest that the law break the backbone of such culprits which indulge into such practices. Nonetheless, the punishment should also vary according to circumstances which surround the act itself.

It is common in Nigeria but it is not restricted to it alone or to other under-developed or developing countries, it also has its foot dipped deep in the developed countries also. In this case, we will discuss the topic from the standpoint of Nigeria as a young Nation.

I will in precise argument state my ground on the issues of rape, it’s simulators, misunderstandings and other factors which fuels the fire that has already been ravaging the bushes of our sanity and purity both in the legal process, and I will from an unbiased standpoint prospect a workable solution. First: the inspiration behind this article is to counter (with the use of reason) the silent or blazing fire of the ideology that the perpetrators of this act (Rapists) deserve nothing from the law except death.

[The idea of sentencing the perpetrators to death by sentence is one immoral act and if the legal system decides to take such ‘bold step’ today or if the legislative chamber determine to entrench it as a law in the constitution, the society itself will be losing the virtue of a democratic spirit. In this article, I will only give unbiased view on the issue; carefully highlighting the kind of people who are likely to go into this act, a reasonable approach to this phenomenal and ways to curb this disintegration].

Of course, we live in a poverty-stricken country where an average citizen live on less than two dollars per day and still in the same society that the law has only punished citizens who had committed the act of rape but had sat like a grumpy old papa before the perpetrator think of the act, and eventually commits the crime. The law and its students have done rigorous works which shows their commitment to the eradication of this act, but in this case there are still far more ground to cover since the act and its causes are still evident in the society. We need not to only focus on punishing the culprits or even the ‘potential culprit’, we need to actually fish out the causes of this act – the unidentifiable source – and separate the human race from every act that tends to lead to the act of rape.

We need to highlight the people whom I will call ‘potential culprits’. [Note: The term ‘potential culprit’ is neither to stigmatize nor to justify the ‘unpotential culprits’ from the crime but to work on the people who has less chance to possess psychological prowess. The act of rape can be committed by anybody; in fact, statistics show that rape is mostly committed by familiar people: fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, friends, and etcetera].

The people who are likely to go into this act are misbegotten sons of garages, the people who continually live on the pennies of the streets, loose parents, guardians and opposite sex and those who had in one way or the other become addicted to narcotics, hard drugs, and excessive consumption of alcohol which can; which is recognized by sociologists as one of the the simulators for rape and other societal vices.

If we are to give a realistic approach to this phenomenal without being bias, we need to see things from their own point of view and not just judge them from this other side of ‘light’ that we think we are. The perpetrators of this act did not just stand up one sunny morning and became slaves to lust just because of indecent dressing or lust for it or whatsoever simulators that draws one to the act. They have lived in perpetual subjugation of drugs and alcohols, psychological depression derived from pornographies, and sexual figures from the society etc (in the cases of responsible fathers suddenly raping their daughters or mothers in reversed roles, it will be further discussed – though I believe that it is pure insanity).

This alone could instigate the thinking of such heinous crime but can you think of the society mixing and jinxing it with images, flashes of sex, pornographies, and it being, vaguely, legalized. It is evident in our TV stations; it is being discussed on platforms where we are supposed to gain wisdom and reason. Do you know that some cartoon shows employ its vague usage in their productions – with this, not only the ‘garagians’ are in danger of potential rape but also the children who are left alone with their favorite Cartoon Network at home. This alone is one of the ways that we haven’t quite tackled as we ought to – even though, some have tackled it out-rightly but the society is ignorant of it. The society ought not to; the society ought to be strict with banning.

There are several things that we are doing, even though we are doing it in a light, yet we are getting it mostly wrong. We continually cut the branches of the tree of rape and throw it into the lake and we leave the root. Then dew will rain and the rain would fall, the root would shoot another branch and the discarded branch brings forth solidification in a riverside in another region of fertile ground (the region where the campaign against rape isn’t too solid or as rigid is it ought to be) and everything becomes so thorny and with circumlocution we ramble in heavy dictions trying ‘to cut the branch’, again. This, indeed, is sheer ignorance.

Of course we will find ourselves doing the same thing over and over again and with each redo we find out that there are still many branches left to cut. So in this case, we are supposed to cut the branch with three fingers and direct the other seven fingers to the uprooting of the tree as it is the only that can not be replaced by the earth.

FEMINISTIC APPROACH TO RAPE

Since the girl-child is always the one involved in the case of rape, as a victim, I would focus more on them and why boys are always excluded from victimization. We should look at it from the feministic spectacle. According to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie “Girls are taught to shrink themselves”. Of course, the most commonest approach we give to the case of rape, apart from voodooism and Satanism or that which bears semblance with it, is improper dressing. But improper dressing isn’t even the reason for rape. It is only an excuse for the culprit, his/her lawyer to try and exonerate him/her from the crime itself. (Note: if a girl hadn’t aroused the boy physically, there should be no case for rape). Girls are always seen as some set of people meant to ‘cover’ ‘shield’ ‘hide’ etc. While the boy isn’t told to do the same. The girl is taught how to be ‘morally upright’ while the boy is left out of the ‘moral lessons’. One significant cause of rape is lack of moral uprightness from the boy. We shouldn’t insignificantly point fingers at the lady’s dress because she wore something of her choice since every person is granted the freedom to choose (except if we hold otherwise that women are properties). In this case, the boy-child should be solely responsible for their acts done by them, for them, to the opposite gender.

From ‘Table 2’ the total number of males was three hundred and twenty nine (329). That is males constituted about 99% of those who engaged in the act of rape for the past Five years (between 2014/15 – 2020 – but there is a substantial increment in rape cases for the year 2020, especially in the north). On the other hand, the total numbers of females who engaged in the act of rape are two (2). This means that females constituted only about 0.6% of perpetrators of the act of rape.

Rape is mostly caused by moral degradation which breeds lack of self-control, and that is why boys are not always the victims, the one whose anus will always be sewn with pointed needles. Moral is the basis for rape, it’s the very foundation of it. To curb rape, we need to begin to learn moral uprightness without being gender biased: both the boy-child and the girl-child.

Whenever we hear “Walk Against Rape” we begin to think about the gathering of some pathetic females raising up placards, posters – which, mostly, carries the picture of the last victim – wearing tight trousers clamoring for justice. No. No. No, it shouldn’t be like that. Boys are the ones who should front the movement to clamor for justice against rapists since the act is committed, mostly, by the boy-child.
In the cases of parents raping their children, there’s no justification for that, even though that is not a subject of discussion in this article, but I will only give a surface discussion of the act. The most reasonable explanation for that is Satanism, voodoism, and the culprits must be handled with the iron-hand of the law. Without much Ado, we need to see the case from this perspective: psychology says that we cram and redo seventy percent of what we watch; out of the things we do all day is seeing – images that eventually get stuck in our heads like when a crab grabs a delicious toe and munches it with the strength of his arms – which mimics the disadvantages of watching meaningless TV stations.

Watching meaningless TV stations is neither the justification nor only reason for the act; we need to consider the bad moral upbringing of the parents, their addictions mostly caused by the consumption of pornographic contents and actions similar to its influences, and the natural urge in the cravings of a sex to its opposite – which in their case is much worse because their urge would be without self-control.
And this is how the society influences our morale and our sanity as a whole. Note: in this case, my point of focus will be on other causes of parents raping their children and out of my points, I will dissuade myself from attempting to give a justified prospect to the case of voodoism, satanism as there is no justification for that, and I don’t think the space given here will be enough to propound articulately the Introduction of the legal system in cases of spirituality and how they intertwine.

There is only one cause for parents raping their children (without including the cause such as Voodooism and Satanism). What they see – poor proper upbringing allows them to give room for their lustful cravings – depletes them of the self-control of their libidos, hormone or craving for sexual pleasure. Also, too much familiarity between a child and his/her parent can be recognized as a trigger for the act – I do not see that it is the cause, I only say it is the trigger. The parents’ lack of self-control is like a raging fire pressed down by a wet towel which will eventually burst out with time, but the child revealing him/herself will quicken the process. (It is mere foolishness if a parent – mother, father or both – who undresses in the front of a male child thinks it has no effect on his person, or the father who walks around with, transparent, boxers around the house. That is why in the schooling of the girl-child (though I believe that the boy-child should also be taught with same strictness) they are taught chastity even when they are with their parents. Know: parents are humans, and can once in a while lose their feet of self control. This feeling of seduction grows gradually and not a one time thing, it will develop from abstract images to flashes, to flash-like experience and then to the act itself).

I think we need to educate the children (but to thoroughly handle the culprits of the act, though) on how they dress at home and how they expose their skin to the air. I believe it’s time we sensitize ourselves (mostly the girls and those vulnerable to victimization) about how to own us – ourselves: emotions, intention, mood, outward appearance etc – and how to abhor the need for likeability; how to respond to strangers, not only in words but also in actions; how to be kept safe by our actions and behaviors.

It is good that we have put our right and strong foot forward in the light of the rigorous campaigns and the media and social media storm with hashtags. That is the first step towards making this society habitable and livable for those, who one way or the other, are weak, emotionally, psychologically, to defend themselves against rape and all forms of societal vices, either those vaguely legalised or outright banned.

There is a need for us to draw lines to our clamoring for justice as it is the one thing that separates us from rapists (in cases of not being psychologically Imbalance); but in our case we wouldn’t be raping an ‘unprotected’ girl-child or boy-child but we would be raping the society of its sanity and would inevitably cross the thin thread that separates us, humans, from animals.

While it is a good thing to do as we clamor for justice, let’s not also forget that our duties as responsible citizens of this country comes first. We should be the gorgon’s eye to every, and, any acts publicized on respectable networks, and we should endeavor to counter it with the same bulldozer-formation or at best, inform the proper authorities. Just like the builders of that high wall that held a weapon with one hand and with the other built the wall (theological history), let’s hold our weapons with one hand but with the other; let’s hold reason.

In the light of the recent rise in rape cases and victims, the people took to the streets, raising awareness and teaching both girls and boys how best to avoid unplatonic dealings with loose men or women. Among these movements is the African Youth Union Commission (AYUC) Niger State Chapter walk campaign against rape, tagged “NIGER WALKS AGAINST RAPE” which held in Minna, the State Capital. The campaign is geared towards creating awareness, using placards and hand flyers.

Also, an independent movement worked against rape by shooting a spoken word video against it. The “E Don Do” independent Movement, a voluntary spoken word against rape held in Minna. “It was a deliberate act by the movement to employ the use of Pidgin English for the understandability of the street urchins and for appealing to everybody’s consciousness” the convener said. The movement was a strong action by the citizens, for them to show the world how they feel about the rampant rape cases in the Northern-parts and in Nigeria as a whole.

This is us putting our strong foot forward, and with this, it shows the patriotic love we have for our young Nation and how much we see it as ‘home’ – an abode for our mortal bodies and mind.

CONCLUSION

Rape is an act that stands against who we are as a society; it is the very thing that antagonizes the essence of our community – of our Nation. Thereby as a people (both genders), we should chase it out of our society with our ‘heavy hand’.

Let us as one people unified by Ubuntu to chase lust, rape, sexual stimulants, child abuse and all barbaric forms of molestation into Oblivion. Let’s not fight the muddy ju-jitsu in the rain lest we stain our sanity and purity and we become wanderers in this antique land.

We as one people can only fight against immorality and restore the glory of this golden Adulawo city.

REFERENCES
1). SECTION 357 of the criminal code of Nigeria

2). (Excerpts: We Should All Be Feminist, by Chimamanda Adichie Ngozi. Pub:2014. EBook ISBN:9780008115289)
3). ©Oludayo Tade ET Collins udechukwu “Characterizing rapists and their victims” Select Nigeria Newspaper. Publication date: April 28, 2020.
(https://www.intechopen.com/online-first/characterizing-rapists-and-their-victims-in-select-nigeria-newspapers)