#MeToo: Making a case for the Nigerian female

Some policemen begged us to let the man go, since the penetration was not much,” was the claim of the relative of a victim of rape. According to the media report, the rapist had pretended to want to buy groundnuts from the girl, but had dragged her into his shop and raped her.

The man, one Martins Ukemezie, a father of two, had denied the girl’s claim, but later, changed his narrative as he said he only attempted to rape her.

A report from the Mirabel Centre in Ikeja, which conducted tests on the victim read: “The patient was examined and was found to be forcefully penetrated. There is absence of hymen; laceration at the labia majora with purulent vaginal discharge.”

The victim clocked 13 a day after the incident.

A couple of years ago, when some of the girls abducted by Boko Haram were rescued, some of them lamented being rejected by their communities. What was their offence? They had dared to allow themselves be sexually assaulted by terrorists. As if that was not enough, some of them, many of them barely teens themselves, came home pregnant, and in some cases, had even borne children.

Fast-forward to recent times, one of the most significant movements — albeit in developed climes — #MeToo, was launched. In less than 15 years of its existence, from celebrities to presidents, the movement has shaken up the world for good as more men now see the need to view women, not from the basis of their sexual makeup.

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Sadly, Nigeria seems light-years from making much impact in the light of #MeToo.

“You are not alone. 17,700,000 women have reported a sexual assault since 1998

That’s what welcomes you to the page of the #MeToo movement founded by Tarana Burke in 2006, with the aim of helping “survivors of sexual violence, particularly young women of colour from low wealth communities find pathways to healing.”

Three words stand out for the Nigerian setting, when it comes to the #MeToo issue — women, colour, low-wealth. In a country like Nigeria, plagued by values that seem to relegate women to second class citizens, add to that the swelling ranks of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) occasioned by Boko Haram, herdsmen’s violent histrionics, domestic violence, the allure of codeine, among others, it is a little disturbing that the #MeToo fever has not caught up with the majority of the populace, in terms of localised accounts.

It is no longer news that female IDPs in parts of the country have found themselves at the mercy of selling their bodies to gain access to paltry meals. Reports of sexual harassment by husbands, bosses, touts, colleagues, among others, now seem commonplace. Even girls, barely two years old, are not out of the risk-zone. And then, there is the it-is-a-family matter issue, as sexual assaults by family members are gladly swept under the carpet. And don’t even get started on the complicity of religious organisation.

It is important to note that whether one decides to stay aloof or not, somehow, directly or by distant extension, the #MeToo movement should see Nigeria as a major partaker. Some stakeholders have done a wonderful job to make positive differences in the lives of women in the country, going as far as providing medical services and legal counsel where necessary, and for that they deserve accolades.

However, there is much to be done. Beyond too-much-talk-and-no-action NGOs championed by people too eager to see their faces on the front screens of news cameras, politicians cashing in on the election fever to make a facade of a difference in the hope of reaping undeserved votes, so-called stakeholders too anxious about parading their skills in phonetics to the wrong audience, among others, it is time to do more beyond rhetoric.

Let’s do some basic mathematical assumption. Going by the statistics by the National Population Commission, more than 2 million people constitute IDPs in the country as at the first quarter of 2018. Say 700,000 of those are female. Feel free to assume the number of sexual assault victims. Add that to the millions of reported and unreported cases of sexual assaults of females in recent times. Add the figures and take it back 20 years, precisely 1998. Isn’t it possible that half of the #MeToo’s 17 million figure could have been Nigerians? There is no better time to act than now.