Rape is a growing troubling epidemic that receives very poor attention in Nigeria. I had conducted studies on adolescents’ sexual and reproductive health and highlighted how prevalent the problem of rape is: as high as 19% of adolescents had had a history of forced sexual initiation. 31% of sexually active adolescents had had their first sexual intercourse through rape. This experience does not exclude male adolescents though the number of cases is significantly higher for girls.
This epidemic sadly has severe negative consequences. My studies with colleagues showed that those that had had a history of forced sex were more likely to engage in behaviours that increase their risk for acquiring sexual transmitted infections. We did find that female adolescents with a history of forced sex were more likely to have HIV infection. And you know what, unlike other adolescents who use adaptive strategies to cope with stress, those who had a history of forced sex initiation – otherwise known as rape as reason for first sexual experience – tend to use avoidance strategies including the use of religion to cope with stress they face in their daily lives.
My concern about this epidemic was heightened last week when I went to the field to do some work with adolescents and use of contraception. As you may know, the incidence of unwanted pregnancy is high among adolescents yet there is currently no strategic intervention to increase their use of contraception to prevent it. What most resort too is to abort pregnancy. Abortion comes with a number of unwanted consequences. I guess I have to leave the discussion on adolescents and need to push for their public access to contraception to some other day. For today, the fact that some adolescents living in high density areas opt to take contraception not because they are sexually active but because they know their risk for rape is high and so they need to protect themselves from pregnancy was a great shocker for me.
This is the reality of the lives our adolescents live. Rape is now a norm. something to be expected. Girls now have to take up strategies to prevent unwanted consequences. Communities know this is a problem but the problem remains undiscussed. A rapist is caught and the public pleas for his release. The silence is breeding a generation of people who would be serious abusers of their spouse.
Problems like this needs to be dealt with proactively. Education about respect for persons and the reason why rape is a crime needs to be taught in schools, churches, mosques and other places where there are large gatherings of people and education can take place. Rapist needs to be publicly shamed all the time. Sadly, the public promulgation of male dominance continues despite the efforts of many small groups to stop this menace.
We need to do more collectively. I do not have the answer but my heart grieves. The heart of many women grieves. Rape is a growing silent epidemic in Nigeria. We have to collectively do more to abate this crime.
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