As I sat in one corner of
the expansive hall of the International Conference Center in Abuja few hours
back, I watched from a very vantage position as President Goodluck Jonathan
addressed the crowd that gather for the first Africa’s legislative summit.
In between glances I stole
at a desk of the delegation of the legislators from Africa’s newest country of
South Sudan, I also reflected on the ordeals faced by women and girls in
Nigeria at these moments of our national life. The address of President Jonathan
did not touch on the vexed issue of gender equity but I didn’t stopped thinking
about the plight of Nigerian women under the current political dispensation
that continuously thumbs its chest as great achiever in the drive to actualize
gender equity in political appointments.
The current administration
is known to have made concrete, cogent and verifiable effort to seek to
follow the recommendation made by the United Nation’s at the Beijing
(China) Women Conference that nations belonging to the world body should ensure
that at least 35 percent of the top political positions go to women. Although
the recent gale of cabinet change at the highest level of the Good luck
Jonathan's administration saw the exit of over three female ministers,
Nigerians are in high expectation that their replacements would also be Women
so as to safeguard the legacy being built by the current government.
Back to our conversation, I
looked round the venue of this first Africa’s legislative summit funded by the
Nigerian government from tax payers’ resources, I could only see a handful of
women participants and/or African legislators attending this event that
obviously turned out to be so rowdy, unorganized; unfocused and chaotic.
The revelation above
strengthened my resolve to interrogate the issue of the existential ordeals
confronting Nigerian Women and girls.
Not long ago, Mrs. Clara
Chime, the wife of Enugu state governor was in the news for accusing her
husband who holds top government position as the political administrator of
Nigeria’s erstwhile South Eastern regional State of Enugu, of a range of
domestic deprivation and violence. The Governor stridently deny these
allegations but as the saying goes that nothing is hidden under the sun, the
allegations wouldn't go away no matter how hard the governor and his media spin
doctors tried to conceal it.
Aside being a governor, Mr.
Sullivan Chime is a top lawyer who prior to emerging as governor six years
back, also held the top legal position as the Enugu State Attorney General and
Justice Commissioner to a governor then who also reportedly divorced his wife.
Allegations of Spousal
abuses are on the rise but the most pathetic aspect of the entire story is the
astronomic rise in cases of violent sexual assaults by adult males on
vulnerable girls and even infants. A serving police operative was recently
dismissed by the police hierarchy for allegedly raping a two year old child and
this alleged pedophile is being prosecuted. But confidence from members of the
public is waning speedily on the integrity of the Nigerian court system to
handle cases of spousal abuses and sexual violence.
On a national scale, the
wave of violent sexual violations of little girls and teenagers by adults are
on the geometric increase and the judiciary is not forthcoming with sufficiently
dealing with this increased phenomenon of sexual attacks no thanks to the slow
process of adjudication that inhibits dispensation of justice in Nigeria.
Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, a
professor of law also supported my claim that the Nigerian judiciary is not helpful
in tackling the growing cases of violent sexual attacks targeted against
vulnerable girls by male rapists who most often are left off the hook by the
courts on technicalities thus allowing the victims of rape to suffer the double
jeopardy of violence and lack of Justice.
In her book; “Women law and Human
Rights: Global and National Perspectives”, Professor (Mrs.) Joy Ezeilo
narrated a story of a particular violent rape of a teenage girl by a depraved
adult male but who eventually escaped the long arm of the law because of
certain so-called technical deficiencies embodied in the witness testimony
rendered in the court of first instance which made Supreme Court to set him
free.
As recorded by Professor
Ezeilo, in the case of Okoyomon versus the State, the prosecutrix testified
that she went to the bush to fetch firewood and, as they were there, the
accused (rapist) met them and told her to follow him so that he could show her
a spot where there was a lot of firewood.
The girl then followed the
accused rapist who on getting to the so-called spot whereby he claimed there
were too many fire woods, he threw her down and had carnal knowledge of her.
They were still in that position when prosecution witness number one saw them.
The accused got up, pulled
up his shorts and left. The matter was reported to the police and a medical
examination was conducted. It was discovered that her hymen was broken and she
had offensive vaginal discharge; the accused person denied this allegation.
The trial judge disbelieved
the evidence of the accused and found him guilty of rape and sentenced him to
four years imprisonment with hard labor.
The court of Appeal
reportedly affirmed the decision of the trial court but on further appeal, the
Supreme Court overturned the Verdicts of the two courts below and dismissed the
conviction of the rapist on the grounds that penetration was not proved in
evidence and that there were no medical records to show who broke the little
girl's hymen.
As documented in this
vastly scholarly book cited above, there abound several cases of violent sexual
attacks of little girls by depraved adult rapists that are not properly
investigated and prosecuted thus making it possible for many violent rapists to
roam the Nigerian streets as free persons even as they repeatedly rape other
vulnerable girl children.
Apart from the incredible
obstacles mounted in the law courts against victims of violent rape who are
subjected to all sorts of silly questions, the operatives of the Nigeria police
are not sufficiently trained and equipped with the 21st Century compliant DNA
testing facilities to pin down rapists to particular crime and successfully get
them convicted by the courts.
Professor Ezeilo concluded
that the major impediments to litigating women’s rights are poverty, illiteracy
and lack of awareness of legal rights.
“In fact, the ability to
respond to rights violations by way of seeking redress for wrongs suffered is
hinged on rights recognition, thereby making legal literacy paramount in the
quest to enforce rights…the level of enjoyment of human rights is low in
Nigeria because of poverty, particularly the feminization of poverty”, so says
Professor Joy Ezeilo.
The challenge before
President Jonathan is for the ministry of women Affairs to wake up to its
constitutional obligation and work actively with sister agencies to ensure that
violent rapists of young girls are not enjoying the kind of legal advantage
they now have over these vulnerable girls. Take for instance, the other day, an
Ondo State magistrate court set free a traditional ruler who was brought to
court for the alleged rape of a serving NYSC female graduate.
The court which set free
this accused rapist in Ondo State claimed that the victim failed to show the
court which part of her private part was damaged in the process of committing
the dastardly crime allegedly by this randy monarch of the community in which
this lady was doing her mandatory one year national service. Such a huge comedy
called Court session!
As I reflect on this irony
of girls being bombarded by violent rapists who are on the loose, I read a
story in the local press on November 12th 2013 which ironically reported that
females top table of recruits into Nigerian military.
In the story anchored for The Guardian of Nigeria by Chuka
Odittah, we were informed as follows; “statistics of employment generation by
the federal government in the public sector indicates that more females have
continued to break gender barriers in the Nigerian Armed Forces with a total of
537 females clinching commissioned Army officers’ slot in the 4th quarter of
2012, over and above their male counterpart".
The newspaper quoted a
fresh data reportedly obtained from the National Bureau of statistics (NBS) in
Abuja.
The symbolism of the emerging
female dominance in the entry into military's officers' corps is that the
current government must double up her effort towards eradicating all traces of
sexual violence against the female gender and especially the vulnerable girls.
The challenge is also for
the National Assembly to amend relevant laws to impose stringent penalties for
violent sexual offences and to compel the law enforcement authority to procure
the state of the art laboratory to generate quality body of evidence against
rapists. Nigerians endowed with resources should also render funding support to
credible civil society and non-governmental organizations such as the human
rights writers association of Nigeria [HURIWA] to be able to wage
unrelenting media campaign against sexual violence.
* Emmanuel
Onwubiko is head; HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA; andblogs@www.huriwa.org;
www.huriwa.blogspot.com.
12/11/2013.
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