I have not written an article in such a long time that my fingers find it difficult to trace the keys on a computer in the right order. In the days before my new career path, I found it easy to churn out articles on any subject as it was to breathe fresh air.
Granted special dispensation to momentarily have an opinion, I must explain my sleepless nights these days. Apologies already presumed accepted for intruding on your moment of peaceful reflection.
In a world of extremely befuddling happenings from the Arab Spring through a persistently collapsing global economy and the antics of yet another rogue trader, each day gives something new that makes you go…hmmm.
What on earth drives five male students firstly to viciously rape a female fellow student of the same university record the heinous crime against a woman and have the sheer audacity to publish the act on the ever visible global internet platform?
Rape of any kind is an abhorrent act but a vicious gang rape goes beyond the limits of insanity. There is usually logic to madness.
In Nigeria we have the tendency to ascribe all that is wrong with our society to the assumed failings of government. The gang rape and subsequent publishing of the act over the internet falls outside the realms of a leadership failure. Responsibility for our actions regardless of the states we find ourselves must remain ours.
If government has failed, does a gang rape constitute a protest vote against the perceived state of the nation? Any attack against the defenceless is a conscious act people undertake and should be seen as such. Where such culprits are subsequently not brought to book and in record time could then be pointers to failings in the system. After the fact you might say however there are certain extents of human behaviour you cannot prescribe and therefore pre-empt.
Most rapes are not issues of sex. Power, control and domination are of greater cause and effect than the quest of an indulgence that could easily be bought, borrowed or pleaded for in the streets of every major city of the world.
Our society has degenerated to the point where university students, who can be considered adults, knowingly rape a fellow student and gloat over it on the internet?
Today in Haiti, the people are on the streets in protest against the alleged acts of Uruguayan soldiers who were part of the United Nations peacekeeping force in that country. The protests have struck chords at the highest levels of leadership in Uruguay and the United Nations. The people stood up and in large numbers, the world had no choice but to listen.
This grave crime in Abia State, Nigeria must not be left to stand with or without the responses of leadership. The people of Nigeria and indeed Abia State and particularly the Women of Nigeria must make sure they are heard in their condemnation of this crime.
Where we limit our objections to beer parlours, small groups and chat rooms or simply shrug and shake our heads at a society that is increasingly growing decadent, this crime and similar types shall continue unabated.
Where are the women’s societies and other civil society organisations? One our usually brash and gregarious lawyers should take this matter up pro bono and institute a major precedent-setting civil case against the perpetrators of this crime when they are apprehended.
These criminals should indeed consider themselves lucky when apprehended that the world has moved forward from the days of our fathers where such matters were summarily dealt with and without due and fair legal processes.
We as a people must not only rise in constant protest when the target is government but also when society fails itself. This terrible crime in my humble opinion remains a major failure of our societal and traditional systems in the main.
No individual has a constitutional right to shoot people on the streets because they do not have a job. It remains a crime in the eyes of the law to steal the next man’s entire fruit basket simply because you were hungry. It should still be unacceptable to run over any official of government, or human being for that matter, because the world’s economic markets are crashing all around us.
Universities remain institutions but not institutions for cultivating insanity and breeding the next generation of society’s adults.
Lest I be accused of being overly sentimental on this issue, my sleepless nights since this story broke, are due to constant reminders that I have two young daughters who have their lives ahead of them. Freedom to approach and live in the world should not be tampered with especially by the manic desires of one or more testosterone-filled men or oestrogen-deficient women. That remains a gross act of war declared against my person in my books.
I listened calmly as a group of friends, both male and female, firstly watched via the uploaded video and then commented on the crime. Needless to say, the rage and anger unanimously expressed told how every rational and sane person felt violated by what had happened to the young lady.
Of everyone gathered, those who were parents and especially of young daughters voiced the various means and methods of punishment preferred for the criminal five who carried out this act. Despite what public opinion may sometimes be about the Nigerian Police or security and protection agencies, those young men would be better off in the hands of the authorities when caught.
Our society must return to the days of self-policing. We are and should ultimately be responsible for our own actions and those of our children, neighbours, friends, family and the guy across the street. We must protect the next man rather than watch the defenceless get completely annihilated from our homes and streets.
From the disabled to the elderly, women, children and the innocent, all must be protected from these attacks and we must act as the first line of protection by watching over them all.
Where such atrocities are committed in our society, the law must act fast and come down hard on the culprits to the general satisfaction of the rest of society lest it all comes apart at the seams.
How do these young men walk around the same university campus and amongst sane students while possibly crossing their victim or her friends following this act? While they may have gained self or group-satisfaction over their domination and utter dehumanisation of this young lady, their parents must feel quite satisfied also at the sorts of adults they have bred and reared. It may call for another street party or moment of testimony to celebrate, in their world. I however doubt that very much because Nigerians in the main are civil decent people but for the few who elect to deviate from the norm.
Today’s Nigerian youth has found numerous legal paths out of poverty and unemployment. The Entertainment industry has rescued many who would have otherwise been compelled to break the laws and threaten society. The success stories are numerous because they did not make the choices to become rapists, thieves, thugs and threats to the lives and property of others around them.
The industrious people, that most Nigerians are known to be, rely on their innate abilities to invent jobs, tasks and businesses which enable them earn a buck. Self-employment or self-dependency is less likely to put you behind bars for a lifetime except where your name was Bernie Madoff or similar.
Politics, government and leadership should not always be the reasons we feel aggrieved. The economy will continue on its path tomorrow morning but the lives of those young men and their victim shall remain scarred for different reasons.
There are already a number of things to be afraid of today lest we add the man standing next to us onto the list.
This crime in Abia State goes to the obliteration of our collective sensitivities and sensibilities. Where are those expensive prayer warriors when you need them?
What do you think?
