Nigeria has recorded a persistent increase in crime rate mainly because offenders are not made to face penalties stiff enough to deter potential criminals.
In many big crime cases, the perpetrators seldom get caught, and in the few cases where they are arrested, not much is heard, after the initial media frenzy associated with such arrests. There have been a number of allegations that the cases are either later swept under the carpet, or the culprits escape with minor punishments.
Aside from robbery, assassination, kidnap and other top crime cases, the high incidence of rape in Nigeria can also be associated with the perceived ‘pat on the back’ treatment given to offenders even with strict laws against such ignoble acts.
Some have said that, as regards the latest crazy dimension the issue of rape has taken in the country, the psychological state of offenders could be traced to the nation’s economic situation, which citizens respond to in different ways. According to the proponents of this theory, a man who is weighed down by excruciating poverty and debt may become mentally unstable to the effect that he begins to engage in acts fit for only animals.
Others have said that rapists have continued to engage in the crime because those who are involved are either ashamed to speak out, owing to the stigma associated with rape, or are intimidated not to take action by those considered to be influential in the society.
Whichever explanation suits the thinking of the different schools of thought, the fact remains that, despite the increase in the charges related to rape, many offenders are left off the hook to go and sin no more, and this has only made the criminals more daring.
The Point had reported many touching rape cases, including that of a father from hell who had continuously defiled his daughters, and their mother, after raising the first alarm, refused to press charges against her husband because of what she described as the shame that would follow such an action. She preferred to go back home with the beast, hoping that he would change.
Even in a case involving a top private school in Lagos, where it was established that a teacher in the school regularly raped a minor, and the poor parents decided to report him to law enforcement agents, the school’s proprietress refused to cooperate with the Non Governmental Organisation that took up the case, to prevent future occurrence. Instead, she pounced on the parents, calling them all manner of names, and threatening them with her “influence” in the society.
She even threatened The Point’s correspondent until she found that this correspondent had reported the case to higher authorities. She was more concerned about the name of her school than the future of the little girl involved in the mess. If there was a law that convicts school owners who cover up such acts, the society would not continue to breed insensitive and wicked school owners, who care more about their business names than the lives of pupils in their custody.
When rapists become so bold as to commit the crime in the House of God, as alleged in the brutal rape and murder of Vera Uwaila Omozuwa, a 22-year-old microbiology student of the University of Benin, in a church where she had gone to study, the situation becomes an emergency where an ant should be killed with a sledge hammer.
It is no longer news that members of the House of Representatives have killed a memo seeking castration as punishment for rapists, but we propose “genuine” life imprisonment for such offenders if death by hanging seems too harsh.
Whether the crime is perpetrated by a male or female, the punishment must be severe enough to deter others. We are tired of putting the blame at the doorstep of mothers or parents when such crimes occur. Mothers cannot watch their children for 24 hours in a day even if they are housewives. The onus is for everyone to be at alert and for rapists to know that in the new Nigerian setting, there is no longer an escape route for them.
We, however, urge Nigerians to take this recent increase in rape seriously and not trivialise issues surrounding it on social media with false allegations aimed at tarnishing the image of others. There should also be punishment for claims proved to be false.
The emotional effect of rape lives forever with the victim, hence the act can be likened to murder. Anyone who commits this crime is assumed to have murdered a soul and should be treated like a murderer, whether they are relatives, friends or enemies. A society united against a crime usually succeeds, in the end, in taming the monster because there will be no hiding place for criminals.
We call on the Federal Government to speed up investigations into the current allegations of rape with a view to bringing culprits to book, not on paper, but in reality. Nigerians must see that it is a new dawn in the fight against rapists. The media must also follow up cases until justice is done.
