Some weeks back I had stumbled upon a news item online that shocked me beyond belief. Elombah.com had reported that a 5-year old young girl was abominably raped and impregnated somewhere in Kanke local government area of Plateau state. According to the news report the parents of the girl had told newsmen that few months ago the little girl had begun complaining regularly of excruciating pains in her groin but her case was dismissed by her parents as symptoms of overfeeding or childhood worms. However, when it became obvious that her breasts were developing abnormally coupled with a protuberant tummy a pregnancy test was done and it came out positive!
This story was heinous indeed. Even though as Nigerians we know that our country is unpredictable, a big jungle where nothing is impossible, it is too difficult to accept such sexual cruelty on a toddler. Whereas our nation is one where bizzare weird things happen daily, where a notorious but elusive scammer could cause economic paralysis in a foreign country through his IT ingenuity, where a drug peddler could ‘eat’ hundreds of kilos of hard drugs and carry same in his stomach for hours-long trip abroad. And upon reaching his destination safe and sound he would begin the gradual process of excretion of the narcotic substances ‘buried’ deep inside his abdomen!
In our country a narco she-peddler (or a she-bird) could equally pack her private parts full of cocaine and smuggle same abroad for some big pay. And a woman could feign pregnancy with her protruding belly having been ‘loaded’ with drug destined for sales abroad. In a nation where one could be killed by hired assassins for just one thousand Naira it goes without saying that ours is a society where life is worth absolutely nothing. That is why baby-making factories exist where babies are made, bought and sold depending on the gender!
A nation ranked globally as the richest in the continent with the richest black man among her population Nigeria is great in many ways unimaginable and unthinkable. Recently three of her nationals were among the drug purveyors executed by firing squad in far away Jakarta Indonesia. But whoever tells you that such bad news could dissuade those engaged in such money-spinning intercontinental business must be a novice. Among the thousands of black boys and girls seeking to reach Europe by road via Libya or Morrocco many are our compatriots. Whilst many have succeeded in reaching their European destinations many more had died on the way while many others are still missing or hiding somewhere. Yet the road to Libya, Algeria or Morrocco are daily flooded with those involved in adventures or misadventures.
As a father of a 5-year old little girl I felt instant revulsion as I finished reading this bizzare out-of-this-world tale of a deliberate sexual destruction of a minor. And as a proud dad of the beautiful Stella I was simply incensed contemplating what must be going through the little mind of this victim of criminal sexual abuse that has no camparison anywhere in the world! What could have gone through the anguished mind of the agonizing father of this little girl whose sexual innocence was defiled? What did she do wrong to warrant such brutal introduction into the ‘original sin’ for which we all stand condemned before the Supreme Being?
Some probing questions must be asked here: are we now living in a jungle where the conscience of animals exist only in their wild imaginations? Has it become a wild-life kingdom where he-goats could impregnate even their mothers without any pang of moral guilt? Why has it become too difficult to tame our manhood and use same for decent reproduction in accordance with the divine natural law? Has it gotten to the dangerous stage where carnal knowledge can no longer be said to have a red-line or boundary?
The law enforcement agents in Plateau state must fish out the perpetrator(s) of this abnormal child abuse and bring them to justice. And as the police are at it the parents must consider terminating the pregnancy forthwith to give the little kid her life back. It would be a double tragedy to allow this toddler carry this ‘cross’ for much longer. I hold that God would accept this abortion given the circumstances.
In the middle of June this year the American Ambassador to Nigeria, James Entwistle, had officially written to the Speaker of the House, Yakubu Dogara, intimating him of how three representatives who went to the United States for the International Visitor Leadership Programme on good governance held in Cleveland, Ohio, namely Mohammed Garba Gololo (APC – Bauchi), Samuel Ikon (PDP – Akwa Ibom), and Mark Gbillah (APC – Benue) had misbehaved themselves sexually during the programme. Specifically he had indicated that; “Mohammed Garba Gololo allegedly grabbed a housekeeper in his hotel room and solicited her for sex. While the housekeeper reported this to her management, this incident could have involved local law enforcement and resulted in legal consequences for Representative Gololo”. Continuing the letter made it clear that; “Mark Terseer Gbillah and Samuel Ikon allegedly requested hotel parking attendants assist them to solicit prostitutes”.
So he went about the task with the mindset of a man possessed! On that fateful day on Upper S and T Barracks Street, Off Uselu-Lagos Road in Benin city he first made her unconscious through an unindentified substance before committing the crime punishable under the laws of the land. The victim had told the police that her father threatened to deal with her if she ever told anyone about the rape. While pleading guilty to the offence Idahosa said he was under a ‘spell’ to rape his daughter for money ritual! Poor man, big problem! Poverty can do many things (including hatching evil plans) in the life of any man desperate for ‘freedom’ from same. But the truth remains that there are decent ways of making good money.
(Dis)honourables Gololo, Ikon and Gbillah ought to own up to their deeds (and rather blame it on bibulousness or tipsiness or the work of the devil). As it stands today they stand condemned until proven eventually guilty. Their innocence in this sensationally salacious issue is not plausible in our reckoning and that of the Americans. The American authorities are not known to be flippant; they never accused anyone wrongly for whatever reasons. The system they operate in all transparency is not a respecter of anyone (in terms of commission of crime and the consequent penalty) no matter how highly placed in any society. That was why the former FIFA President, Sepp Blatter and his corrupt executive members were brought down in a spectacular fiscal scandal. That was why the rabid Frenchman, former IMF boss, Dominique Strauss-Kahn was booked without compromise in the Nafissatou Diallo Sofitel New York Hotel rape saga.
