I just got back from work knackered. Picked up my phone and was appalled by these four words
“JOEY I WAS RAPEDâ€. Hmmm….
I put a call through to her, I wanted to know what happened, how it happened, where, when, etc.
That awkward moment when you dial a number and your heart beat races twice faster than the dial tone.
She was my bestie, she was on the fat side, all she wanted was to shed some weight. Maybe, just maybe shed enough to get that hour glass figure. Her plan was, every day after work she’ll jog 2 laps on the side tracks of the National Stadium Surulere. On that very wrong day, the field was empty and deserted, so was the race tracks. All that could be heard was the music stemming from the speakers of the popular Ojez Night Club behind.
As she completed her third lap with so much enervation and weakness, she sensed movement right around her, before she could react or comprehend, two gangling looking men dashed out from one of the passages close to the race track, one of them brandishing a small knife wrapped half way with a rag, while the other hastened towards her before she could attempt running. He barred he mouth with his hard palms.
“They took me to a corner by the passage,†she said. “They told me to lay on the dusty dirt filled ground, I was going to, but one of them picked me up and threw me right to the ground. I felt a sharp pain on my back as they hurried ripped the side of my track suit, while the other had the knife blade against my neck. My tears and plea didn’t strike a chord of emotion in them as they forcefully gained entry, taking turns and making death threats if I scream. I tried to reach their human side, but theses weren’t humans, these were animals.â€
Phew.. I asked myself, ‘could humans be this callous?†…the veneer of irony fell away as I replied my supposed rhetoric. “Indeed humans are callous.â€
I understood then the hush that surrounds rape in Nigeria, why most ladies, young girls and children keep mute and die in silence for fear of being ostracized. Lest you forget, even married women are victims of rape by their husbands, girls are victims of rape from their fathers. Society makes you look not accepted, not liked and out of favour once you make your plight public.
Rapes ugly psychological drama works because it plays on the emotions and self-esteem of its victims
She said …… “Joey,
I have internal injuries from Friday.
I pray the bite on the bridge of my nose will heal.
I need an ultra sound scan to make sure nothing is worse than it seems.
A swab test will tell us a few things.
But I need counselling, better off, Therapy.â€
It goes on and on like that.
The point is Over 90% of predatory sex is perpetrated by males against females. To some extent, rape reflects the ambivalence, moral decadence, ethical bankruptcy, materialism, corrupt soul, widespread promiscuity and hypocrisy that have characterized Nigerians especially youths over the years.
… My greatest sadness is that she will never forget.