Rape, Rapists and the Society

Adeola had gone to see her childhood friend, Dan. They had been friends for over 15 years. They used to regularly study together. On one of those days when Dan came to her house to study, he began making unsolicited compliments on her body. Sensing danger, Adeola swiftly cautioned him.

Offended by her audacity to dismiss his compliments, Dan decided to teach her a lesson by beating and forcing himself on her. And she told no one. She has been living with the scar ever since.

Dele’s case is a bit different. His mother, as usual, dropped him at her sister’s place and left home for the East for 3-day training. Alone with Dele, her sister started to perform sexual acts on him. And that has been the trend for the past four years.

Now that Dele is 18, he has grown accustomed to it and is often eager to spend time with his aunty. This soon became detrimental to his education as he couldn’t concentrate on his studies again. All he now desires is the erotic moments he spends alone with his aunty.

A couple of years back, a popular musician’s wife spoke extensively about how she was raped by someone whom her family had trusted. In the end, she was blamed. However, her courage marked the birth of people who began to find their voices whether they were believed or not.

In 2021, the case of popular actor, James Olanrewaju Omiyinka, aka Baba Ijesha, hit the media space and it further revealed the existence of several rape apologists. It, however, equally showed that a lot of other people are willing to go to any extent to support rape victims.

More worrying is that a good number of suspected rapists move freely on the streets after committing the heinous act. Also worrisome is the fact that not much is being done in respect of strengthening our weak laws to incisively deal with perpetrators of rape.

Most experts believe that the primary cause of rape is an aggressive desire to dominate the victim rather than an attempt to achieve sexual fulfillment. They consider rape an act of violence rather than principally a sexual encounter. This is the opinion of experts. But one is of the opinion that besides the desire to dominate, rape, can also be situated in the perpetrator’s state of minds.

The brazen manner rape is often committed indicates that the perpetrators still have a stone-age mentality of women as chattels who are to be used without independent thoughts. It also portrays some as pure lunatics. Or what do we think of such recent reported case of a 14-year-old, who was gang-raped to death by some miscreants in Lagos?

The Junior Secondary School three student on holiday was said to be alone at home when the mad hoodlums fiercely gained entry into her parent’s apartment and took turn to rape her. The miscreants, according to report, usually hang out in a smoking joint in Abule-Ado area of Lagos State.

Rape victims suffer a sense of abuse that goes beyond physical injury. They may become skeptical of men and experience feelings of embarrassment and disgrace. Victims who suffer rape trauma syndrome experience physical symptoms such as headaches, sleep disturbances, and fatigue.

They may also develop psychological disturbances related to the circumstances of the rape, such as intense fears. Fear of being raped has social as well as personal consequences. For example, it may prevent women from socializing or traveling as they wish while worried and un-enlightened parents can use it as an excuse to limit the educational progress of girl-child.

If not promptly tamed, rape might become a pandemic that is worse than COVID-19. The heinous crime is a violation of the mind and human independence. It robs the victim the ability to choose when and with whom a person wants to have a consensual relationship with.

In order to frontally combat the evil of rape, more prominent folks in the society need to stand up and be counted. They need to raise their voices against the menace.

Omolara Otuyemi, Lagos State Ministry of Information and Strategy, Alausa, Lagos