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” (The Guardian, Nov 27).
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-terrestial, meta-physical
animus which led to Audu’s sudden death. Howbeit, Sugabelly’s
allegation is that of rape. 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 rape 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 a honest thinker nor 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 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
inferiorization 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 fully 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.
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