Misdirected Messaging in Sexual Violence against Children and Women

A couple of days ago, I read a newspaper headline and couldn't believe what a high ranking government official in one of cosmopolitan states in Africa was quoted to have said. The headline, Pupils urged to resist sexual abuse, once again portrays a basic lack of understanding of this subject by those whose responsibility is it to protect these children from predators. At the said workshop on violence and sexual abuse for secondary school pupils in Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria, a celebrity in attendance  "advised students to be careful of how they dress and the way they react to sex abuse". This is a myth that has been perpetrated by the society. A girl is not raped because of her dressing. She is raped because someone made a conscious decision to abuse his position or power and exert control over her. We are only feeding the beast, a subject of my earlier post, if we keep giving perpetrators excuse for the violation inflicted on the victims.

Meanwhile, we need to ask our government officials and agencies how exactly these pupils are supposed to resist sexual abuse. A director in the ministry of Justice, Clara Ibirogba, who spoke on behalf of the attorney general of the state provided the answer:..."pupils should avoid watching bad films, exposing private parts and reading pornographic materials."
Clearly this is a manifestation of lacking of understanding of basic issues in sexual violence and the need for proper education of policy makers and government agencies in the fight to curb this menace.
Reading through the news report shows the enormous responsibility placed on children in the fight against sexual violence and that invariably implies that they share a major blame for any failure in this regard.
This is bad messaging. It should not happen.
We need to start focusing on the perpetrators and direct attention to appropriate quarters.
Again, victims of sexual do not invite rape upon themselves. No, someone violated them and that person carries the entire responsibility. It is this kind of misdirected message that emboldens perpetrators and essentially puts their victims in the dock of public court. How could we ask children and victims of sexual violence to resist sexual abuse? Placing them on that danger line defeats the message. Society must go after predators and ensure our children are protected.

It is this attitude and poor treatment of victims that made the mother of a girl allegedly raped by a security man, again in Lagos, to cry out in a recent media headline: Police blame me for my daughter’s rape, protect rapist – Mother of eight-year-old girl raped by security man
The link provides a typical example of how deep in the hole we are about solving the problem of sexual violence especially against children and women especially in Africa. A major link in this fight, state agency like the police, is so weak in this regard that it has become part of the problem. The sad story of this woman is replicated all over.
Aggressive training programme for the police, setting up special police unit for sexual violence (often general duty police officers regard sexual violence as "domestic affair" despite the provision in the criminal code), and enlightenment for the general public on sexual violence have become an urgent need in our communities.
The agony of this hapless woman should not be the order as it is presently.