Speak Out: Child Rape in Nigeria

I am done with my second month assignment. I have been very busy, my organization is organizing a one day conference on Danger of illegal migration for 120 Nigerian youths on the 3rd of february. The planing is taking my time but i have to find time to write my assignment. Please read and make your input. I am not very sure if this is a frontline story but i just have to write something. I look forward to your constructed feedback. Thank You

What! When did this happen? The stainless cup in my hand dropped as I screamed. He broke the news with mixed feeling; he knew it will make news of real concern to me. However, he was sympathetic with Hauwa (not real name) for going through such a wicked ordeal from the police. I rushed to the table to get my phone so as to read the news in details. I got the Google mobile app and typed "16 years old girl raped by policemen in kano state." I found the news! It was true! It happened! Policemen!

Hauwa's Story
As the Christmas celebration drawn near, while others were rejoicing others were sorrowing. Hauwa was one of those who celebrated with mixed feeling, being sad of the dirty ordeal she when through and also thankfully to God for being alive to tell her story.

She had been abducted for days by uniformed men called police. She escaped from the dirty stiny room, (I guess), and the news broke out. It was breaking news of a 16years old girl raped by Policemen. Hauwa was returning from her mother's place by motorbike that evening, it was late, I agree. Her mother had married another man after her father's death. The cyclist does not have a headlight, so he slowed down as soon as he saw the police check point. They were stopped by the policemen at the check point and wanted to know why he was driving at night without headlight and carrying a little girl. Yes, they were right, they were doing their duty. After accusing the cyclist of driving without light but asked him to drop her; they dismissed him and promised to take her home in their patrol vehicle.
The cyclist left trusting in their words leaving Hauwa in the police care. As the waiting became endless, she pleaded with the officer in charge to let her go home alone but he refused. They finally set off at about 2am and instead of taking her home as promised, they drove with her into their barracks and ordered her into a room.

Days go by and Hauwa was still held captive or better still kidnapped in the custody of the uniformed animals. She was there for 28 days and was subjected to series of rapes by six policemen. As if that was not enough, they collected money from civilians who also took part to rape the little girl. "Her virginity and innocence was traded for money". This is no longer an eye-saw; it is an ear-saw. The news broke out on the 11th of December, 2010 after she managed to escape.

The Nigerian Police
On 3rd January 2008, Police and government officials in northern Nigeria’s city of Kano reported an upsurge in incidents of child rape and said that young girls are now unsafe in the city. The victims are mostly girls ages 3-11, while the suspects are usually between the ages of 45 and 70. IRIN report

The same kano city with high rate of child rape and the same police who raised the initial alarm. ‘When a man is bitten by a dog, whose voice for help should be heard? Is it the dog or the man’? The man is silent trying to find a way out while the dog is barking and calling for help. This is the case of the Nigeria police and the people. They commit the crime and make the loudest noise.

To UN, Nigerian police officers belong to one of the best police officers around the world, but back home they are nothing to write about. They have been reduced to zero because of their attitude to the people. May be it is the saying that a prophet is not recognized in his own land. Something is amiss somewhere. It is saddening to see how deteriorating the Nigerian Police Force has become. It is common to hear how innocent people are being shot to death by police officers because of illegal N20 compliance on the numerous illegal roadblocks they mount on high ways. Agreed, there are loyal and faithful ones but bad eggs cannot be managed with good eggs. The bad over takes the good.

It's a shame! Which way Nigeria! Why should the police be the penetrators? What are their roles? To protect the citizen, is it? Police is your friend, is the advert we see. Like this I ask: raping little girls. I lamented, should I see a policeman and run or should I run for my dear life. If I run, he may shot at me and say I am a thief, if I stay, I may be raped even in custody or I may be protected. POLICE PLEASE PROTECT ME (P3M)

Child Rights Act
The Act defines a child as one who is below the age of eighteen years. It categorically provides that such a child’s best interests shall remain paramount in all considerations. A child shall be given such protection and care as is necessary for its well being, retaining the right to survival and development and to a name and registration at birth.
In 2003, Nigeria adopted the Child Rights Act to bring under control the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The law was passed at the Federal level and the 36 states of Nigeria were expected to pass the act. I may not be sure but I think 24 states have passed the act. Even if the 36 states pass the act in Nigeria, what difference does it make? How many citizens know that the act is in existence, few, many, who is in charge, who should I go to when the need arise. I don’t even know; talk less of Hauwa and her family. Even if I know, will I get the true justice as it is on paper? Nigeria always talks about its policies as one of the best in the world. Then I ask, best in action or on paper, lock up in one minister’s cabinet and dusted when it is needed to be presented to foreigners. One sad thing is that despite all these laws, children are still deprived from enjoying the full privilege of their basic rights.

The people and the news
To my greatest surprise and disappointment, 9 out of 10 people (7 female and 3 male) I spoke with about the 16years old girl raped in kano by the police responded that they did not hear the news. It was in the newspaper and online. Is it that child rape is no longer news; it is a daily occurrence in the society and has been taken as a normal act. The middle aged hairdresser said ‘I did not hear it at all, this is a serious case, government should punish those involve well enough’. I said, ‘the officers involved have been dismissed from duty but the case is still in court’. She replied, ‘dismissal is not enough, they need to be sent to life imprisonment and allowed to die in prison so that others can help lesson. If they dismiss them from job alone, they can get another job and continue to rape little girls.’ As I rose to leave, the curiosity on her face brighten and she said a warm thank which I supposed was for the news I shared with her.

Why
Why should Hauwa be raped and it was not a breaking news. Is it because she is a girl or she is a child and do not have a voice. It could be because she is from a poor home, no father, and mother not living with her. What would her grandparent whom she is living with do? This is injustice to the core. This ought to be breaking news but it is not because I know that if I continue to interview more people, I will get no response. One of my respondent said ‘they cannot (government) put this one in the newspaper because so as to protect the image of the police. Also, poor power supply is a major problem.’

My husband is a daily news reader, he broke the news to me and I went online to read more. Maybe, I wouldn’t have heard too, if he did not inform me. I think Nigerian women have poor reading culture and more women need to be trained and encouraged to become journalist as world pulse is doing today. (I am very grateful to world pulse)

Hauwa does not have a voice, so I want to be her voice. This is all I can offer to her and to so many wounded hearts like her out there. ‘To speak for the speechless.’

Trauma of Rape
Child rape is the most scandalous of all crimes; it affects the very foundations of faith and trust the child receives from the society. Child sexual abuse is widespread, cutting right across any economic, social, political, religious or race boundaries. From experience, some of the traumas of child rape are withdrawal, fear and depression. I withdraw from everyone for a long time and refused to talk about it and not wanting to take part in normal activities. It almost affected my daily interaction with other as I grow. I find it difficult to talk in possible places. I felt so pity because I have worn the shoes she is wearing now. Hers is even very tight or over size, abducted for 28 days is enough pain before facing the big shot of several rapes. I wonder what will be the outcome for her. She definitely needs a special therapy of maybe constant counseling and medical attention. The counseling sessions should be continued for longer period of time to allow the child to reconnect socially and start new lie afresh.

Kano city is the northern part of Nigeria and I am in the west, so we cannot meet but I would have loved to see her. But a lot of human rights activitists have taken up her case to make sure she gets justice. Then I ask what amount of compensation will restore her virginity or will erase the memory of all that happened to her. If she is my kind of person, then she will have a film of the entire scene on her mind and each time she closes her eyes, the film begins to play. The social stigma of rape is so strong that the child lives alone with scars and guilt all through its life.

Way out
Let’s speak out now, let’s talk about it daily, let’s empower girls from a day old to the aged women and get more women to get involved. Do not be silent. Rape is a silent kill, it kills the future of the girl, she grows to frown at the society, and withdraws from what she is sure she can do well. She is stigmatized and called names, she find it difficult to raise her head because her strength has been kills. She can be strong again, she can face the world again, she can be bold again but she need someone to lead her by her hands, someone to say to her - go girl go. You are a star, you can do it, you can be what you want to be in future. And that person is U.