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.

When it Feels Like Giving Up

Dear blog visitor and reader, I apologize for my long absence on blog posts. Too many factors came in the way. I had actually written some materials to post on my link but the sheer volume of occurrences of some of the issues in question and the apparent feeling of helplessness in addressing them was quite overwhelming. One of the issues is sexual violence especially childhood sexual assault. There was hardly a day that would go by (on monitoring media reports), that another gory story of a violation of a child would not turn up. After the usual apparent outrage by the public, the matter naturally dies off and nothing is done to tackle the issue.
The police appear ill equipped to handle these cases because of poor or lack of training in this aspect and lack of requisite equipment, and there are also obstacles occasioned by lack of protocol for collection of credible evidence and attendant technical blockades in the judiciary.
Generally, the issue of management of sexual violence is not a priority for a health sector grappling with budget issues while facing myriads of communicable and non communicable diseases prevalent in our communities.
This and other forensic issues remain an orphan in most of African countries. Everyone talks and pities the situation but there is very little investment in human and material resources, and practically no institutional changes are implemented in tackling the fundamental problems.
I've made presentations before stakeholders, government agencies and NGOs, and I've met with government officials whose offices I reckoned could drive a change. However, the status remains the same and there is a tendency of thinking it is a hopeless situation in our generation to take concrete action in protecting the vulnerable in our community. I've attended to cases of sexual violence in children which reached a dead end even before actual case management began because the kind of multidisciplinary and multi-agency team work required to make any meaningful impact is simply lacking.
So where do we go from here?

2014 ended on a most tragic note. The sudden death of my teacher, senior colleague, a mentor and friend shattered any fragile stability in place. Prof Effiong Essien Udo Akang, an eminent Pathologist and Neuropathologist, was the best friend a colleague could have. He was ever supportive and was a shoulder for younger colleagues to lean on especially when disillusionment beckoned. He was also my Head of Department. The sudden and unexpected nature of the incident made it even more painful. One can only hope for some recovery from this irreparable trauma occasioned by the sudden exist of someone I had interacted with on daily basis for as long as I could recall. He was my family; he was dependable and someone to confide in.

Prof Akang died on 31 December, 2014. He left a huge void that may never be filled and I will miss him every day of this life; every day I pass beside his office door almost knocking as usual to exchange ideas or pleasantries. Indeed it is hard to say Goodbye!