Rape: Why Men must speak out

All over the world rape is a story so common, our dear country Nigeria is not an exception to this social malaise. It rarely ever makes it into the newspapers, and that is worrying. The victims fear stigmatisation and pass over reporting the crime to the police. In developed world there are departments in the police force trained on the subject and this shows in their response when a victim comes to report the crime. You can almost certainly picture a Nigerian police man being highly insensitive about this matter, “why you go hin house”, “but he’s your boyfriend”, “why you too wear this kain cloth”, the list of blame game one liner is endless. The assumption that what women wear can provoke a man stems from rooted stereotypes about male and female sexuality. Rape is a serious wrong committed against women, it interferes with women’s dignity. This is something our constitution takes seriously; the right not to be subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment is a fundamental human right.

Quite right, our society frowns at indecent dressing, and it is true to say some women take fashion to unimaginable ebb, but surely it is not an invitation to commit a crime, this argument is not relevant considering you need a woman’s consent to have sex, if a man wants to satisfy his sexual cravings and cannot do so within the permissible walls of marriage or acceptable relationship, then find a prostitute who will happily exchange her consent for your money, it is not the best option, but atleast you won’t be violating a woman’s dignity, and even though religious activist may argue it violates God’s law, you won’t be violating the laws of the land, what you do with your desires is between you and God. Our attitude as a society almost encourage this heinous crime against women because many of our cultures permit the subordination and victimisation of women. This is not far fetched from why Justice isn’t being done every time women are subjected to this evil that men do. In 2012, Cynthia Osokogwu was lured to an hotel, drugged and raped before being murdered, unfortunately she didn’t live to tell her story. There was also another incident which aired over social media for several weeks when five undergraduate students took turns to rape a young woman, like thousands of women in her shoes, she lived to tell her story, but nothing has come out of it till date. More recently, pastoral authority has been seen to cross the holistic line of sexual immorality. It is now imperative that all men young and old should get involve more than ever before, make a difference, show that strength men are known for to make a difference in defeating this behavioural injustice, no man should ever have sex against a woman’s will, educate your children, let all men speak out, no matter your class or status, condemn any degradation of women, after all no matter how female Independence has changed the course of our societal paradigm, it is still an inherent role of men to cater for the women in the society.