Rape Antagonists Going Nude – Excerpt From Reuben Abati -By Olusegun Elemo

Olusegun Elemo

The subject of rape has become a global phenomenon that has eaten deep into the entire social structure of many nations of the world today. There is hardly any continent or country that rape isn’t a subject of discussion attracting several victims of both underage and overage on a daily basis. From the world super power, United States to South Africa, Sweden, India, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Canada, Sri Lanka and Ethiopia in their order of rape incidences.

The issue of rape is one that has also negatively affected the psyche and confidence of womanhood in various societies many of whom have suffered from this atrocious crime and are unable to speak out either due to victimization or lack of a functional justice system especially in developing countries like Nigeria. The global level of rape cases on a daily basis is extremely alarming and when the statistics are collated for in-depth analysis, it even becomes more dreadful. Many analysts put rape occurrence to about 300,000 annually. According to RAINN – Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, only 68% of sexual assaults are reported to the police. This allows about 98% of rapists get away without any penalty. RAINN also put rape stat for under 18 at 44% while victims below age 30 constitute 80%. It says 47% of rapists are either a friend or acquaintance. Rape in Nigeria is one social hard nut that has drawn the government and civil society’s core attention as well as individual activists who have either been victims or mere sympathizers.

The reason to comment on a piece like this was ignited by a story of an alleged rape I heard recently, which incidentally spurred me to further condemn this ever increasing callous act. The irony has always been; if there are commercial sex workers, then why rape? Some would answer by referring to Nigeria as a poverty stricken country and therefore people lack the money to patronize commercial sex workers. Is there a relationship between the economy and rape? Are there fewer cases of rape in developed economies than we have in under-developed and developing? From the available statistics, I don’t see any connection between the economic strength of a country and the level of rape incidents. As a matter of fact, both factors are mutually exclusive. Developed countries are even more caught in the web than developing or under developed nations. It then becomes an issue of, the more money you get, the more aggressive you become at women. (That was a joke!)

The story I heard was of a young lady who had a friend that was crushing on her which led to a kiss at a particular time. After a while, she went visiting and they both decided to go into the shower. I don’t know if people do wear their clothes to shower though but as expected, they had sex and later the lady came out claiming rape. I became worried to presume there was no dignity left in many of our women nowadays. I grabbed my twitter handle and began commenting on the interdependence of nudity and rape. I assumed a relationship between both no matter how little and the insignificance of the victims it covers. I know there are some victims of rape who clearly have expressed a sense of nudity at a point or the other but of course on the other hand, there are several cases of child rape or even extremely overage rape incidents that clearly had nothing to show in the context of nudity. You then begin to ask, in such scenario, what could warrant a 40year old man forcing a 5years old girl to bed? Apparently, societies are still unable to properly contextualize the reason for such insane behavior.

After my series of tweets on 23rd January, 2016, I ran again into another tweet of a young lady with the twitter handle @sugabelly who attracted wide sympathy from many people including myself when her rape allegation caught much interest sometime in late 2015. I actually haven’t met her but responded to her tweet based on the background of my earlier tweets of 23rd, the response I later got from her handle was enormously shocking and that got me troubled on why a lady would rain so much insult on someone she had not even met but by coincidence conversing with for the very first time. I felt very bad for her. Another important aspect of self control is the ability to accommodate opposing views no matter how critically threatened you feel. Although, I believe 140 characters may often result in frictional minds, one must be willing to give free space to allow for others perspectives at all times. That’s how we learn. Please find below few snapshots from my tweet history and more can be seen through my handle @olusegunelemo.

From the little I know about psychology, I know there can’t be sexual stimulation without transportation of images into the brain whether imaginary or real. If there is indeed transportation of images into the brain to ignite sexual rousing, where did those images emanate from? Films, sounds, novels, magazines, or live images? This postulation drove me to the article written by the former special assistant to ex-president Goodluck Jonathan on media and publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati in December 2015 which was titled “SugarBelly, Rape And Audu’s Sons” which obviously was targeted towards highlighting major points in the Sugabelly and the Audu family rape saga.

“The objectification of women in popular culture erodes the dignity of women. But the worse of it all is that women themselves promote this negative effect. Nigeria has been lucky in locking into global trends on all fronts, but in a global village, we have not been successful in retaining local standards as a bulwark against negative, imperial cultural influences.

Social media, for example, is dominated by images of sexual libertinism; even our young ladies who are now role models on the basis of concrete accomplishments help to foster this image. I am making this point delicately; my concern is that we have too many Nigerian female role models who are busy trying to be like Amber Rose, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, Rita Ora, Miles Cyrus, Blac Chyna – if you know what I mean, all those foreign cultural icons whose lifestyles commodify women.

Our own equivalents are all over social media: pretty girls who are perpetually showing cleavages, wearing body tights that accentuate curves, some even boast that they won’t wear bras and pants and that illicit sex is cool: that is how this self-denigration has grown all the way down, creating a sexual tension even among the uneducated wannabes. I am not victimizing the victim, knowing full well that there is that human rights border of freedom of choice and expression; still, new cultural realities should command certain limits”.

I heard people acquit the nudity of women from rape cases. They say things as; why do you look when you can’t control yourself? It is true every man should be able to control himself but the fact that there are things to control is an indication that something is certainly not right somewhere. Do you control what isn’t out of control? Why is it out of control? What is responsible? Can it be checked? Is it deliberate or coincidental? These are questions that require objective responses failure for which associated consequences will continue to increase.

Whatever the case may be, there are various reasons for rape and you certainly can’t extract or exclude nudity from it whether intended or insentience. My argument is not to justify rape in any sense. In fact I believe rape cases should be more reported so that more rapists can be severely punished because that is one violation if not only, that breaks human confidence and psychology like no other thing but on the other hand, societies must show reasoning to understand that the growing trend of nudity cannot be allowed to continue. It is of course an indication of collapse of societal values and this has an overbearing relationship with rape incidents in the world. Even if the relationship between nudity and rape is just 1%, I believe that one percent which has been identified requires a unanimous attention rather than chasing the shadow of 99% unidentified rape causes.

Olusegun Elemo
olusegun.elemo@gmail.com