You probably don’t know Sugabelly. I don’t know her either. But it is
the twitter handle of a Nigerian lady: @sugabelly, who in the wake of
the death of former Governor Abubakar Audu of Kogi State felt the urge
to go public with her story. My foregrounding her/story as opposed to
his/story is further affirmation of an earlier submission that Audu’s
death is “inconclusive”.
As the rest of Nigeria mourned the death
of Abubakar Audu and pondered the implications of an inconclusive
electoral process, Sugabelly showed up on social media and started
celebrating his death. Her
message was that the death of the man was good riddance to bad rubbish.
“I feel so amazing”, she wrote. “Like God actually answered my prayers…
That’s usually how it is.
Powerful people rarely remember the people whose lives they destroy.”
She alleged that Audu’s sons once gang-raped her-seven of them, when
she was an impressionable 17-year old and that Governor Audu used his
position as a big man to rubbish her, slammed her with a $2 million
libel suit, denied her from getting justice, with his lawyers insisting
that “14 years” is the age of consent under the Penal Code in the FCT,
and so there is no case.
For eight years, her life, she says, has
been a nightmare including contemplations of suicide and spells of manic
depression. Her frustration is well articulated in her twitter handle
and an extended commentary titled “Surviving Mustapha Audu and His Rape
Brigade”.
I have heard people proclaim loudly that a traditional
proverb says: “the witch cried last night and the child died in the
morning” and they have been wondering whether there was some kind of
extra-terrestrial, meta-physical animus which led to Audu’s sudden
death.
Howbeit, Sugabelly’s allegation is that of unlawful carnal
knowledge. Her protestation made the rounds for a few days largely
uncelebrated, but it caught fire last Friday. For days, rape was the
subject of discussion on Nigerian twitter. Opinion was divided with some
calling Sugabelly, “a whore” and a badly brought up child but soon, the
weight tilted heavily in her favour as the reactions panned out to
focus on the menace of sexual assault against women and the devastating
effect on persons, families, the victims and society.
One of the
sons of Abubakar Audu was soon fingered as the leader of the rape
brigade -by both Sugabelly and her staunchest supporter, @Echecrates.
What happened subsequently is better experienced. A lady tweeting as
Zahra – @oakleafbycg – jumped into the fray to defend him – hers was
quite a spirited fight that lasted for hours, defending the integrity of
her husband. She probably was defending herself too.
Her
father-in-law was so close to being governor and he lost it, only for
some twitter activists, and a sugabelly (what a name! by the way) to
start suggesting that her husband has a rape case to answer. She is a
good woman, isn’t she? I monitored the conversations, and it is
difficult to conclude that anyone was successfully convicted for there
were persons who raised questions about sugabelly’s identity, her
motives and whether she is not just a spoiler, playing a sponsored
political game.
The emergent consensus, however, focused on the
menace of rape in our society. Some male commentators seeking to
genderize the discussion also pointed out that they were once raped,
too, but the pervasive impression was that young girls are more often
the victims. I noted that there was very little talk about marital rape,
which is ordinarily a major issue in the West, but which will be
considered absurd by Africans.
There were some suggestions about
rapists being put to death in line with the still untested Violence
Against Persons Act, but as is the case with twitter, 140-word
interventions do not necessarily an honest thinker or an intellectual
make. It creates an illusion though, the illusion that someone whose
reasoning is below 140 words is a mega-man of knowledge and insights.
Nonetheless,
the matter between sugabelly and the Audu sons deserves a little more
probing. I am tempted to commend sugabelly for throwing up the subject,
but the real problem with rape in our society lies in the inadequacy of
both legal and social responses. Both the law and the society stigmatise
rape, and wrong-foot the victim. The relevant sections of the law in
Nigeria today more or less ridicule the victim, and usually, the victim
is female.
The biggest challenge for decades has been this manner
in which the law humiliates the female victim: the procedure requires
examination by a medical doctor and in open court, proving actual
penetration up to the labia majora. That is a tough call for victims and
families, and so, many cases end up unreported. Besides, the criminal
justice system peopled by phallocentric officials is wont to dismiss any
woman reporting rape: in Nigeria, it would be ridiculous indeed for a
married woman or a girlfriend to report being raped by her husband or
fiancée.
From the policeman at the station to the presiding judge,
if it gets to that stage, the case may die a natural death in the
vortex of misogyny.
Culture is a major barrier: the search for
virgins at the bridal chamber by African families is a long dead custom,
but few families can stand the stigma of taking as wife, a woman who
has been raped, and whose indignity has been broadcast.
Female
victims are, therefore, reluctant to seek legal redress, first because
of social stigma, and that is why there are very few convictions despite
the regular incidence of rape. Any woman that is labeled a rape victim
stands the risk of not getting a husband: families of prospective
suitors will latch on to that evidence as if it is a mark of leprosy,
and urge their sons to steer clear, creating for the woman’s family an
undeserved dilemma. Despite the wave of modernity in our land, tradition
remains resilient and marriage, going to a man’s house, is still, quite
sadly, considered a woman’s ultimate achievement.
This is
probably why, in due course, the accused also showed up in the
conversation releasing e-mail exchanges between him and Sugabelly, and
going as far as revealing her true identity and painting her as a
“whore,” a liar and an opportunist. Parents, keep an eye on your sons
and daughters! The family, the most important social unit, has a role to
play.
Both male and female children should be brought up to
respect ethical values and the rights of other human beings to dignity.
The inferiorisation of the female gender often begins in the home, and
there are too many cultural paradigms sustaining an objectionable model
of parenting, which must change. Too many parents, too busy trying to
make survival possible, have abdicated responsibility and it is society
that is hurt as a result.
The solution also lies in legal reform: the laws on rape must become more progressive and enlightened.
The
statutes have been in urgent need of review for long; they must provide
the necessary deterrence and not ridicule the victim; even the Violence
Against Persons Act (2015) does not fully correct the mischief in the
Criminal and Penal Codes.
There is also a trend now that must be
addressed; namely, the objectification of women for profit or other
purposes. The most recent illustration I find is the battle being waged
on twitter and instagram by @blossomnnodim, who has since changed to
@blossomozurumba (good luck to the man who is responsible for this
blossoming), as she takes on a TBWA power charger advert, which instead
of promoting the subject focuses on a woman’s biological gifts.
Blossom objects to this but she has since been accused of witch-hunting and idleness. Her critics miss the point.
The
objectification of women in popular culture erodes the dignity of
women. But the worse of it all is that women themselves promote this
negative effect. Nigeria has been lucky in locking into global trends on
all fronts, but in a global village, we have not been successful in
retaining local standards as a bulwark against negative, imperial
cultural influences.
Social media, for example, is dominated by
images of sexual libertinism; even our young ladies who are now role
models on the basis of concrete accomplishments help to foster this
image. I am making this point delicately; my concern is that we have too
many Nigerian female role models who are busy trying to be like Amber
Rose, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, Rita Ora,
Miles Cyrus, Blac Chyna – if you know what I mean, all those foreign
cultural icons whose lifestyles commodify women.
Our own
equivalents are all over social media: pretty girls who are perpetually
showing cleavages, wearing body tights that accentuate curves, some even
boast that they won’t wear bras and pants and that illicit sex is cool:
that is how this self-denigration has grown all the way down, creating a
sexual tension even among the uneducated wannabes. I am not victimizing
the victim, knowing full well that there is that human rights border of
freedom of choice and expression; still, new cultural realities should
command certain limits.
Sugabelly may not get the sugar of
contentment that she seeks, but let her be consoled that she has ignited
a debate that may shed more light on the dilemma of rape, and/or sex
with a minor (Penal Code or not), and the sad manner in which our
society continues to produce children and adults who behave badly. Let
us also hope that sooner or later, the sleeping Abubakar Audu will be
allowed to lie, by his sons and the girl they allegedly raped.
It
is not Audu that is on trial, it is his sons: sons of big men who go
overboard with their life of privilege, and of course, Sugabelly- the
overtly impressionable young girl- who are all still alive to be called
to account, if not in regular court, but now, in the court of public
opinion.
Reuben Abati was a Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to former President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria.
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