‘Sexuality Education; Antidote for Rape’

This Interview Was First Published in Daily Independent Newspaper edition of
Saturday, March 7, 2009, 2009By the same author under the same headline

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As a counsellor, psychologist and a mother, Celine Njoku, assistant secretary general of the Counseling Association of Nigeria (CASSON), reckons that the pervading scourge of child rape in the country has, to a great extent, been indirectly encouraged by the failure of the home front and the larger society to make young girls aware of some basic sexuality education.

She spoke with Reporter Oba' Adeoye on a whole lot of other things bordering on child rape. Excerpts:

In the past few weeks, the media have been inundated with reports of child rape all over the place...
[Cuts in]! It's everywhere, it happens everywhere and it is a sad development.
What are the basic factors, which you think are responsible for this rising trend?
There are many variables; many factors are responsible for this trend. One, these children are not aware of the degree of what is being done to them; they are not assertive, because if they were aware, it may not have reached this present rate. There are three types of assertiveness, assertiveness, an-assertiveness and over-assertiveness. A lot of these girls are unassertive; they don't know their rights. We would now go further to tell them that you can never be overassertive except during the time of rape.

What would you advise in such circumstance?
Talking about madness, aggressiveness, you bite the person, you shout, like it happened in the case of a recent victim. The girl had to use over-assertiveness and shouted. She had earlier told the people in their yard that, please, anytime you hear me scream, come to my rescue. The girls have to be aware of what is happening. The girls feel it's a normal phenomenon, just like abortion. They'll say if I get pregnant, I'll abort it. Just freely like that, they'll tell you innocently. When you now put in sexuality education, sexuality, which means the total behaviour of whom you are as a human being, and when you marry it with education, the person would now be aware of these useless things happening around us; abuses, rapes and the rest.

What are you saying in essence?
What I am saying is that most of our girls are unassertive, even married women. They don't know what they are doing; they don't know their rights. They don't know how to defend their bodies, which is the temple of God. If you are aware, you'll be sensitive to those body parts, like your breasts, your everything, you'll be proud because that's why we are the feminine gender; something beautiful, something precious, something to be adored. Then, when somebody makes to touch you in these areas, over-assertiveness can now come into the picture.

But, don't you think the family has a role to play?
The home has fallen. Everybody is looking for money. Even when you make this money and your children are morally deformed, what then is the essence of the money? Can you imagine that a lot of these girls cannot even talk to their parents?

What do you call this kind of practice where elderly men pick interests in little children?
It's a psychological disorder and it is called Paedophilia.

What is Paedophilia?
It is an abnormal condition in which an adult has a sexual desire for children. Pedo means small, while Philia means love. So, these rapists of underage girls are Paedophiles and they are abnormal.

Do you not think that the upbringing of these rapists has something to do with this abnormality?
Yes, and that brings me again to this issue of overcrowded areas and houses. If you have time, you just make a visit to any of these 'face-me-I-face-you' houses around. You'll find some jobless men of 65 years who are retired. You now see an unconscious woman, say, Baba Kola, Baba Ikechuckwu please help me carry this my girl. What do these men do to the babies? They finger them and practice all sorts of rubbish on these little girls.
The crime definitely has something to do with upbringing. Then, the environment, the level of the friends one keeps matter a lot. Some of these friendships are very deceitful, and thrive on myths, false beliefs. Imagine a boy coming up to say, my scrotum is paining me, perhaps he has a boil there. Then one of the friends would now ask whether he has a girlfriend, and if the other says no. The friend would now say, look if you don't take care, your scrotum would one-day bursts at the market square. That's myths! And from thereon, they continue to live with such myths and misconceptions.

What is the way out?
We should return to the background. The girls should be taught aright. Some of these girls don't even know how to dress, much less how to sit. Everybody should stand up and mothers especially should train up these girls the same way we were brought up. We should teach sexuality education.
Then again, we need to get out and talk about it everywhere, in the newspapers, on the television and on the radio.

…read more on the said edition of the newspaper