BECAUSE of the sheer ugliness of the event we are commenting on today, we shall start with its only positive. When, on the morning of Saturday December 5, at Oju-Ore, Sango-Ota area of Ogun State, a soldier whose identity is yet to be ascertained apprehended a young woman and proceeded to strip her naked—well, just—it was a group of onlookers, astonished by what they were witnessing, who came to the lady’s rescue.
From the amateur 46-second video of the event now posted across various online platforms, we see at first the soldier pulling the young woman by her long braids, and in short order we see a clutch of people, women and men, imploring him to stop. One of them, conscious perhaps of numerous stories of trigger-happy soldiers retaliating against civilians who had apparently shot first, has his hands in the air throughout. We applaud these brave Nigerians and hold them up as an exemplar of much needed civic vigilance against impunity.
For the yet-to-be-identified soldier, we reserve our strongest condemnation and a wish for his speedy apprehension and trial for assault. From reports in the media, this martial do-gooder had alighted from the public transport in which he was traveling with other passengers and promptly accosted the young woman who was, of all things, taking an early Saturday morning stroll. The young woman’s offence? “Indecent dressing,” a sartorial ‘crime’ not known to any Nigerian statute and regnant only in the soldier’s perverse imagination. For that ‘crime,’ the soldier jumped on the woman, pulled her hither and thither, and was set to strip her naked— never mind the irony—until the aforementioned ordinary heroes stepped in.
This, suffice to say, is a page from the litany of everyday harassment that Nigerians from all walks of life, but especially young women and members of the underclass are used to. When Nigerian women complain that they are given the short shrift as a matter of course, and that the Nigerian system is rigged against them in a rigidly masculine society, this is exactly what they are talking about. The young woman in question, it is important to remember, had committed no offence, and the soldier who assaulted her had no constitutional right to. Yet, here we are, only a few weeks’ remove from #EndSARS.
Apparently stung by the anger and criticism of a cross section of Nigerians on social media, spokesperson for the 81st Division of the Nigerian Army, Major Olaniyi Osoba, promptly condemned the incident, urged the young woman involved to make an official report, and promised a full investigation. His exact words: “For any case of assault, let it be officially reported. Like the one you mentioned now, I am working on it already. The only challenge is that the quality of the video is poor: I can’t even see the face of the person. We will take appropriate action. We don’t condone such unprofessional acts.”
We are encouraged by Major Osoba’s words, and we urge him to reach out to the young woman as part of his Division’s investigation instead of waiting for her to make a report. Furthermore, given that this is a clear case of criminal assault, we are surprised that the police have not opened an investigation. Given their experience, most Nigerians will be understandably skeptical that anything will come out of the army’s investigation, and that the matter will be eventually swept under the carpet. We are counting on Major Osoba and the police to prove them wrong.
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