A popular actress joins a new church and decides to recommit herself to her faith. She takes it upon herself to perform a public ‘deliverance’ for a schoolgirl, who is still in her uniform. There are no teachers or parents in sight. Just the actress/pastor fiercely gripping the face of a teenager and performatively screeching at the top of her voice, with a media crew conveniently recording.
A General Overseer (GO) of a popular church has a number of young people living with disabilities who he adopted, since most of them were abandoned by their parents. One of these young people has Autism, the kind that is high on the spectrum. The GO approached his congregation and announced that his young ward has a high libido, according to him, he masturbates often. To prevent him from pouncing on any woman or girl in sight, the GO decided that he needed a volunteer to marry the young boy, for a generous financial reward. A widow who has three children volunteered, and the wedding was hastily arranged.
The GO is pleased with himself that he has ‘solved’ the problem of a young boy living with a severe disability. The boy looks quite young, and the ‘wife’ is a much older woman. When the GO was asked how old the boy is, he said he does not know, but he has seen his genitals and knows that they are ‘not the equipment of a small boy’. Let us note the ludicrousness of this statement, but since we have nothing else to go by, the GO has the last word on the question of age. The boy now has a carer, cook,cleaner and bedmate. The GO is so happy with this outcome that he is now offering up a ten-year-old girl, also living with a disability, for someone to take care of her. Considering the financial reward attached to this, someone will take this up soon.
A well-known female influencer announced that she has Stage 4 cancer. She shaved her hair and went online to appeal for financial support. Even though there were several skeptics, she received generous donations. Then it was revealed that she had used the medical report of a real cancer patient. She was invited to an interview on Arise TV, where she was grilled non-stop by Journalists, Doctors and Lawyers. Her story fell apart and she was revealed for the brazen scammer she was.
Somewhere in Ibadan, a private school organised an inter-house sports day for the students. Inter-house sports are for students to compete amongst themselves. The focus is on sporting events and students displaying their various talents. This inter-house sports in Ibadan was different. The parents showed up in Aso-Ebi and did a parade, as if they were at a cultural event. The headlines the next day screamed, ‘Parents hijack interhouse sports’, ‘Parents turn inter-house sports into cultural festival’. It was an inter-house sports day, meant for students.If there was to be any cultural display, it should have been by the non-competing students, not parents.
There was a video of another school event, where a female teenager was twerking sexily. She twerked on her own for a few minutes, then she danced on to a male adult nearby, perhaps one of the school administrators or teachers. She twerked and ground herself all over him. Whoever was recording did not stop, and the video was shared online. This happened in the presence of adults.
The five scenarios I have described have some things in common. They point to an obvious collapse in common decency and values, a lack of responsibility and accountability, poor judgement, abuse of power and ignorance of systems that are meant to be in place to protect the vulnerable, demand appropriate behaviour and provide sanctions when necessary.
Starting from the case of the actress/pastor. Grabbing a schoolgirl and performing a silly ‘deliverance’ session on her is in contravention of the 2003 Child Rights Act (CRA). One of the key provisions of the CRA is ‘Protection from Sexual/Physical Abuse’, which prohibits all forms of exploitation and abuse of children. What this child was subjected to at the hands of this actress was abuse in no uncertain terms. We have not heard of her being questioned by any government agencies or law enforcement. This means she is free to pounce on other school kids who might need ‘deliverance’.
The case of the young boy with Autism inspired a lot of debates back and forth. We live in a society that is decidedly cruel towards Persons Living with Disabilities (PLWD). Not only do the PLWD community have to deal with stigma and ostracism, we also ignore the policy, institutional, human and physical infrastructure that is supposed to be in place to fully respond to their needs. There is the Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act of 2018 and the subsequent National Disability Policy. We also have a National Commission for Persons with Disabilities. However, these provisions do not seem to be working effectively. This is why others such as the GO step in to provide what the governments should but cannot, and for this they should be commended. However, marrying off someone who is so severely disabled, he cannot give consent, raises serious ethical questions. I shudder to think of what will happen when the GO is successful with his attempts at finding a guardian for the ten-year-old girl. Can you imagine the fate of this child should she fall into the hands of people who will take advantage of her vulnerability? It is a disaster waiting to happen.
The influencer who declared herself a State 4 cancer patient, in my own opinion, is not just a case about scamming. This individual was arrested a few years ago for claiming to be the owner of a property that belonged to someone else. She was publicly humiliated and she apologised for her behaviour. That she has continued this way of life is therefore nothing new. What I found quite concerning was her total lack of awareness of the implications of what she was doing and what she was talking about. The criminality of her actions is one thing. There is also a dissonance about her that suggests that questions need to be asked and answered about her mental health. Again, our lack of resources and capacity in this area as a country is painful.
As for the parents who turned their children’s inter-house sports into a cultural show that featured them and not their children, they should have known better. This is a private school, which means the parents are middle-upper class. Their profile would include professionals, senior civil servants, politicians, and entrepreneurs. They are therefore decision-makers in many important spaces. These are the people who are supposed to implement government or corporate policies. Yet, they came together and decided that the best use of their time and resources on their children’s sporting day was to deck themselves out and go on parade. They could have asked for a Parents Day and used that for their parade, instead of centering themselves at an event for their children. There has been a lot in the news recently about the antics of parents of children in private schools. Organising elaborate graduation ceremonies. Buying expensive souvenirs to celebrate the birthdays of their children, thereby creating unhealthy competition amongst themselves and the kids. Then, we are surprised when the spoiled kids start acting out.
With regards to the teenager who twerked and ground herself all over an adult at a school event, this is what happens when discipline and timely correction become optional. The teenager who does this without being told it is wrong, is the same one who will show up at a public event years later, dressed in two yards of material, twerking for attention, while adults will helplessly watch in silent judgement.
We are all responsible for these systemic and systematic failures. The government has laws and policies in place which are hardly implemented, due to a lack of political will, adequate resources, clarity of mandates and effective leadership. This is why we need partnership frameworks that ensure accountability and responsibility. Faith based organisations, corporate bodies, schools, traditional institutions, and civil society organisations can support the efforts of the government, within agreed regulations and an understanding of roles and responsibilities.All these bodies, particularly places of worship and charities, should also understand when their activities are in breach of extant laws and policies.
It should not be possible for a child to be subjected to public abuse without intervention from the relevant authorities. We should not applaud when a young boy with a severe disability finds himself transacted into the arms of a much older ‘wife’, instead of appropriate therapy and rehabilitation. We should be alarmed when a vulnerable female child is offered up for guardianship for a financial reward. We should be concerned when privileged members of society make questionable choices that fuel the proliferation of poor values, and there needs to be a point at which we draw the line between entertainment and indiscipline.
As some young people say these days, Nigeria is one big ‘crime scene’. It does not have to be so. There are many things we do not have control over. We can, however, concern ourselves with making better decisions and speaking up when we should. Our silence, inaction and choices in the small things will matter when the big issues emerge.
