#RAPE: 5 young Nigerians speak on how government can stem the tide

…#Rape has become a pandemic in Nigeria

The case of 22-year old Uwaila Omozuwa, a 100-level student of the Department of Microbiology, University of Benin, UNIBEN who was raped and hacked to death in a church by yet to be identified assailants, has left everyone raging and frustrated as well as scarred and traumatized.

The young lady was said to have been reading at night in a church in her community when some unknown persons using a fire extinguisher, attacked, raped, and killed her.

As if that was not enough, another young woman named Barakat, an 18-year-old from Oyo State was also said to have raped and also killed not too far from her house in Ibadan.

Similarly, there is also the case of an 18-year-old salesgirl who was raped by a dispatch rider in a shop. The man who is said to be 45 years old had found that she was the only one in the shop and had taken the opportunity to sexually assault this young girl

Nigerians are filled with rage and some have taken to the streets and social media to demand justice for these innocent young women.

Some young Nigerians who spoke to Nigeria Today expressed their frustrations while sharing ideas on how the authorities can tackle the rape menace in the country.

ADETU OLAYINKA

Well, you know, I think the govt should empower women. I think it was Russia, that sometimes last year, gave women the power to kill anyone who attempts to rape them.

But if we say that women empowerment is the trick to ending #rape, what of underaged children who also fall prey? How can we protect these little children? When I read Naguib Mahfouz’s “The Answer is No,” I realized that the girl child really needed to be empowered.

Rape has existed for a long time and rather than the act to become extinct, it proliferates.

Also, #rape culture should end. And more serious attention by the government will do. The parliament should come up with stiffer penalties against rapists.

The law should provide for rape victims to be compensated and rapists to be hanged, not sentenced to life imprisonment. Any rapist should forfeit his neck!

FUAD BADRU

I believe parents and social institutions have a lot of roles to play. Everyone has been clamouring for more attention on the female child but what about the male child? If the male child is not well oriented from childhood, he will later grow to become something else entirely. Parents must try as much as possible to give both the male and female children at the same level of attention when it comes to sex education. Male children are hardly given any attention at all.

The government also has some work to do concerning social institutions. They should also play their part by providing basic amenities and security for citizens. If this is in place, rape will reduce.

The government should also encourage sex education and support it in schools. If people know about things they should know, probably they will not get involved in something as heinous as rape.

KEHINDE SHERIFAT

The best way to end rape is by having strict consequences for crimes committed! The government should put strict punishments in place for anyone who even attempts to rape. Not only should the government put these punishments in place, but it should also be meted out accordingly.

It is high time the government and those at various parastatals stopped the irrational act of not prosecuting those who ought to be and offering bail for people whose crimes are simply unbelievable, like rapists. If a potential rapist should be aware of the punishment and torment which he shall be faced with then, he might just learn to stay away from it!

SHOYOMBO MOSHOOD

In reality, rape cannot be totally stopped, it can only be reduced. And why I say this is because we are in a society where the word ‘sex’ is being heard more than any other word and the desire for sex keeps increasing.

The government should help by providing helplines for victims to call her the nearest security agency for rescue. And rapists should have very strict and certain punishment. ‘Strict and certain’ means a justified punishment, no matter who the rapist is, his position in the society, or his influence.

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TOFUNMI HASSAN

This is a big question o. To be sincere, I think rape is a subconscious disease that even those who engage in the act don’t have control over. I say it is subconscious because when you do things that you’re not supposed to do because you see people half-naked, you see pornography online and all those kinds of things, and then you have very low self-esteem and then you want it but you can’t get it. You begin to think about rape.

It is not something people just jump into, for those who have low self-esteem and who later feel sorry after they commit the act. So, for people not to do it is for them to learn about it.

Government implementing laws against it to me is not the solution because those who will get raped will still get raped.

However, if the government can come up with a you-rape-you-die law or a you-rape-you -get-castrated rule, rapists will become scared. But most of these things can’t work in Nigeria because there is no surveillance camera to capture that incident at that time and to also serve as evidence to the authorities! I don’t even know what to say! Nigeria is just so somehow!