UWA

So many issues shattered the peace of this weekend in Nigeria, but I doubt any other news (including the rape of a girl by several men, and a teenage girl shot by trigger happy policeman) had the traction that the rape and death of Vera Uwaila Omozuwa

 had on and over Nigerians. I feel like rewriting what I just wrote now, because there's no peace to be shattered in Nigeria, not over a weekend, and definitely not over a working week. Even Covid-19 didn't have the power to protect Nigerians from unfortunate events, that will make any ear that hears it tinge. We don't know how to cry again in Nigeria, the voice of the people have been stifled by a regime that considers protests illegal, so you won't see, or you will see only a few brave people on the streets, so we turn only to social media to vent, and hope not to be found and incarcerated, as has been the case with missing Dadiyata for months on end, while politicians and those in positions of authority hardly add their voices to these things, that bug us on the streets, like they were of no consequence to issues of governance, and therefore have nothing to do with them.


During my university days on campus, after libraries were closed (I was even locked up in one, after I slept off), and classes were too far to walk to, buildings of churches and mosques were the next available and popular spots to go read. Tutorials also happened there, organized by Catholic, Pentecostal fellowships and Muslim groups, when it seemed like there was a competition to see which of the groups produced the better students. Another reason why they were choice spots was because there was always "light" in those places for some reason or the other, and unlike other reading spots, they were the safest, especially as regards the possibility of rape for female students, and mugging for both male and female students. Going to read in religious places is a tradition that preceded my time in school, and I was sure will succeed me. It stands to reason also that students who are not within campuses may also want to continue the tradition outside campuses. On these streets, we celebrated children reading under streetlights of busy roads while selling wares with their mothers, or on their own. A bank recently decided to sponsor a girl's education, after she was found using the light from their ATM to read. 

If we begin to list the reasons why Uwa decided to go and read at the church that fateful night, we might not be able to exhaust them all fully. However, what happened to her later that night would've been the last thing she expected, and especially at that location. Sadly, our police and policing haven't developed to the point where forensics could have been able to tell us whether the motive was murder, or attempted murder following rape, or attempted rape, and until a culprit that's not coerced to tell the truth, is found what we have as information regarding Uwa's death, remains just speculations by those who saw her after the dastardly acts have been committed, leaving her in a coma, from which she eventually passed on.

Even though the police mentioned something about finger prints on the fire extinguisher cylinder, I doubt Edo State police command has the wherewithal to pursue that, and if they do, which database have they to tally their findings with. An autopsy will definitely reveal the horrors she passed through, and cause of her death, but will not reveal who her perpetrators are. Sadly, the record of the Nigerian police as regards rape is abysmally poor and nothing to write home about. Before human rights activists, and bodies committed to fighting sexual violence in all its forms came to be, victims of rape had no one to turn to, as the police was known to further compound their predicament, even in cases where the rapists were caught during the act. On several occasions, the police that should protect victims, and bring perpetrators to book, championed so called "peace moves" and "settlement proposals" from the rapists' people to the victim's family.


It is the lack of justice for victims over the years, that have continued to enable rapists, the results of which is evident in the metro section of our newspapers daily. Even religious leaders are not left out as perpetrators, and babies even as young as a few months are not left out as victims, talk more of teenagers, young adults like Uwa, and women. When everybody was looking at India as the rape capital of the world, the news about rape in Nigeria was there, a constant, just like in South Africa, only that the world didn't seem to have our time. The Nigerian society looks like a society that enables sexual violence against females, and the reports are there, have been there, and once a while there's the noise either in sex for marks scandal in universities, or the occasional story on twitter that will trend for a few days, and then disappear, without any recourse to legal aid, but someone's life would've been scarred and/or ruined, sometimes for life, even when the seem to be enjoying family life, in seemingly blissful marriages.


I hope that the death of Uwa will not go the way of others. This is not the first time that a Governor, a Commissioner of Police, even the Inspector General of Police will be on a matter, yet justice will remain a fleeting illusion. Nothing remains newsworthy in Nigeria beyond a week, and that's even when it's most dastardly, and usually it is overtaken by something worse making one wonder if the country isn't one big movie set for a horror movie. It is painful not to imagine how things can be done differently, seeing as the rhetoric is the same as has always been, when things like this happen. It is the helplessness Nigerians feel with the police and the criminal justice system, when crimes are committed, that leaves the Nigerian society with no option than to resort to self help, especially when the culprit is caught red handed. I want to be optimistic, but there's not even a straw to hold on to now. I pray the Almighty gives Uwa's family the fortitude to bear this great loss.


'kovich


PICTURE CREDIT:
- https://m.guardian.ng
- https://www.pulse.ng

A LESSON IN SEXUAL RIGHTS BY @BBNAIJA

Honestly, I had thought that I wouldn't have cause to write anything concerning the ongoing Big Brother Nigeria Show on DSTV, besides the regular pieces I put out on social media. To the extent that severally, I have avoided the temptation of airing my views over controversial events, opting rather to read other people's views on those matters, while keenly watching the show, when free at work, and back at home especially when my bout of insomnia strikes, as well as following reactions especially on Twitter.


I was not one of those Nigerians who viewed what was going on in the Big Brother House as "immoral", not because it isn't, but because of the legendary hypocrisy of Nigerians, relating some of the things happening in the House to the likes of what I (as well as many Nigerians) experienced during the one-year mandatory National Youth Service Corp, NYSC programs post graduation from Nigerian universities, of which many who did ignominious acts especially during the three-week camping period, have turned out to be done of Nigeria's most adaptable of individuals, excelling in the various fields of endeavour, including as pastors, and imams. When a popular comedian asked a pastor who had criticized the program and prayed that heaven visit calamity on the organizers of the program, I agreed totally with the former when he asked the pastor to organize a Christian reality show if he was unhappy with @BBNaija, rather than ask heaven to deprive people of their source of livelihood should his prayer come to pass. Besides, he has a choice not to watch in the first place.

I doubt that any adult that's sexually active will be locked up in that house, without having "agro" build up so much that it will take more than divine grace not to look for an outlet to "let off steam". Some, like "Thin Tall Tony" have managed to find in Bisola a receptacle to lodge a quantum of his DNA, on more than a regular basis, that could possibly explain why Nigerians have managed to ensure that eviction eluded them (because of the "SHOW behind the show" they provide when they can),

besides their personal efforts, like getting to become Head Of House and avoid eviction, but some others haven't been that lucky. So when Kemen tried to "finger" an apparently "unwilling" (because she was asleep) and unconsenting (in waking up and turning over in a bid to ward off the wandering fingers of Kemen) TBoss, it didn't feel right at all when I eventually saw it online, not live after learning on Twitter that such had taken place in my absence.

I have heard arguments to the effect that if TBoss didn't want anything to happen, he shouldn't have allowed Kemen to lie beside her seeing that Kemen is no eunuch, but that's much like saying that a half nude lady walking on the street is asking to be sexually harassed, molested or even raped. Rape can even be claimed when there's already sexual intercourse, and the woman says she's had enough. Yea, exactly just that, and it's incumbent on the man to at that stage, pull out! Now, seeing that this happened on foreign soil, South Africa to be precise, with lawyers waiting to lurch at opportunities like this, unlike where this could easily pass had it been Nigeria, the bigger implication is that the organizers of Big Brother Naija may need to have some sort of legal paperwork done, or some insurance to prevent anti-rape groups from accusing them of aiding and abetting rape, which may have influenced the action taken by @BBNaija in disqualifying Kemen, and evicting him from the house with immediate alacrity, once the fact of the act became evident.

KEMEN & TBOSS WHEN THE GOING WAS GOOD.

That is how the BBNaija accused of immorality by a large section of hypocritically "religious" Nigerians, taught the same people a lesson in sexual rights, that they otherwise will simply shove off with a wave of the hand as nothing significant and a non-issue. By this singular act of BBNaija, I will now devote more time to seeing the program live over just the highlights, now that I'm sure that there are legal boundaries that won't be crossed. Interestingly, it's beginning to look like a backlash is building up against TBoss in the house, and outside of it as Nigeria's Twitterati have noticed that every housemate that ever laid on TBoss bed have somehow managed to be evicted. This makes the show all the more interesting, as long as the lessons to be learnt isn't lost on the viewers.


'kovich


VIDEO CREDITS:
- YouTube


PICTURE CREDIT:
- https://gbeduonline.com