Justice for Sekinat, Tina, Uwa is hope for the girl-child

Three girls, Sekinat Agbelade aged 15; Tina Ezekwe, 16, and Vera Uwaila, 22, must be sharing a thing in common — pity for the Nigerian girl-child. If her father is not exorcising his demons by toying with her sexual organs, a man is taking advantage of her outside. And then the system fails her, as it did Sekinat, Tina and Vera.

On March 20, men of the Nigerian Customs Service, NCS, ended Sekinat’s life in Ogun State. On May 26, policemen re-enacted the same abilities in Lagos. This time it was Tina. Both girls were preparing for the final exams as secondary school students. Then some killer-Customs officers and policemen in training, raped and then bashed in Vera’s face in Benin, Edo State, on May 27.

And then, up North in Zamfara State, 11 men found sexual release in a 12-year-old girl. Whether to wonder how full-grown adults find the space to bury their phalluses or what exactly happens in their brains when the rape victims cry “NO” is a dilemma for all the Sekinas, Tinas and Uwas will never resolve. They no longer bother. They rest.

Nay, they can’t be resting. They worry about the fate of Nigeria’s girl-child. She is not safe anywhere; whether in the arms of her father, neighbour, family friend, or teacher.

The social media is awash with campaigns for justice: #JusticeforTina, #JusticeforUwa, among others. But how do you get justice for dreams cut short by careless bullets and wandering phalluses? The dead won’t get any relief. It is the living that needs justice, read “protection”.

There are laws, regulations, and policies that seek to protect the girl-child. But leadership is not about spouting demagogue. So the system has failed her. And true love is when another person’s happiness is vital to one’s own. So at any point, she says “NO,” it must be assumed she means it.

                              Source

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2020/06/justice-for-sekinat-tina-uwa-is-hope-for-the-girl-child/