Who is sexualising our children?

The sex scandal involving a 10-year old girl and a boy, both students of Chrisland Schools, Victoria Garden, Lekki, Lagos during the recently-concluded World School Games in Dubai, has once again brought to the fore the vexed issue of sexualization of Nigerian pre-teens, teens, teenagers and young school pupils especially pupils in primary and secondary schools. The striking lamentable aspect of the Chrisland Schools sex scandal is that while the 10-year old girl and the boy were busy engaging in immoral sex, the onlookers who happened to be their school mates where busy videoing the sexual perversity and posting it on social media. You see, we now live in an age in which public shame and sense of guilt have completely evaporated from the being of so many people including pre-teens and teens.

It is important to note however that sexual perversity is not the exclusive preserve of Chrisland Schools: it also occurs in other secondary schools in Nigeria. Other Nigerian secondary school students are also implicated in sexual perversity. So, no need making Chrisland schools a scapegoat. You will recall that in 2017 some senior students of Ireti Grammar School, Falomo, South-West Ikoyi, Lagos, who had finished their exams decided that the best to celebrate it was to gang rape the girls from a nearby school called Falomo Senior High School, Ikoyi, Lagos. One of the eye-witnesses stated that after chasing the girls and successfully catching up with them, the Ireti Grammar School boys forcefully used scissors to rip off the girls’ skirts before commencing their gang-rape. What further shocked the eye-witness was that as the different gang rapes were simultaneously going on in broad day light of course, the passers-by and onlookers who had gathered and besieged the rapists and their girl-victims did not deem it fit to rescue the girl-victims from the rapists. Instead they were busy laughing and applauding the rapists and videoing the rape incident.

In the past, the friendly relationship between boyfriends and girlfriends could attain maturity with the exchange of love letters. A boyfriend or a girlfriend engaging in sexual promiscuity hid away from their parents, the public and the law. Today things have fallen apart. All the sexual mores’ boundaries have been obliterated to the extent that sexual promiscuity is now glamourized even in front of the camera as the animals in the TV Reality Show called BBNaija do. In today’s Nigeria, adults including governments and parents bombard Nigerian pre-teens, teenagers and young adults with “safe-sex” or “condom-safe-sex” adverts with the tragically misguided belief that sexual promiscuity makes them good and that the resultant pregnancy could be aborted.

The ample evidence of sexualization of our children could be gathered on TV, in music videos, in movies, on mobile phones and on the internet. At every turn — TV, music, movies, mobile phones, internet, public education — young people are encouraged to indulge in sexual perversity, in all of its barbaric forms, with no fear of pregnancy because if a pregnancy does occur, abortion is sold as a safe, easy and painless way to rid them of the unwanted “product of conception.” You see, every one gets morality right when it concerns stealing of government money, the official corruption reigning supreme in Buhari government, fighting insecurity by arresting and prosecution of terrorists, bandits and kidnappers and so forth, but when it comes to sexual matters or watching of BBNaija porn where our human flesh is weak, we tend to remove our moral thinking cap and replace it with our immoral thinking cap in order to give free rein to the demands of our sinful bodies.

Lest I forget, the lawsuit instituted by some NGOs against the Federal government, National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Multi-Choice and others in order to stop the airing of BBNaija porn came up for hearing at the Federal High Court, Lagos recently. What was astonishing during the hearing, with due respect, was the inability of the counsel representing the Federal government and Multi-Choice to properly articulate and argue their respective defences to the suit. At a time in the course of the hearing, the presiding judge turned and addressed the counsel to one of the defendants: “Are you not a lawyer. So, you don’t know how to adopt your brief of argument?”

It is not surprising that some of us try to rationalize BBNaija porn and sexualization of our children. Man is weak. Sex sells. Since the Fall, man has been inclined to sexual promiscuity. Besides, we live in a perverse world that lays claim to the soul of our children. We live in a sexual State. The State which ought to be the guardian of the morals of children now sexualizes our children. Why? Because the State argues that pre-marital sex or casual sex makes children feel good and consequently any parent or anybody depriving children of casual sex is infringing on their “right” to have casual sex. In order to facilitate the quick sexualisation of our children and school pupils, the State has introduced into the school curricula textbooks and Literature in English books containing lewd subject-matters to give the unsuspecting young school pupils the wrong impression that self-control is unnecessary, repressive and an impossibility; that casual sex makes them feel good; that they should engage in casual sex before marriage; that ‘safe sex’ is what to aim for in life provided that they don’t get pregnant. And if they do get pregnant they should procure abortion as soon as possible.

Acting on a tip-off two years ago, the Police raided an abortion Clinic situate at Itire Road, Lawanson, Surulere, Lagos for aborting under-aged Nigerian girls (aged between 13-18) and injecting them with dangerous abortificients without the consent of their parents. During the raid, the police arrested and handcuffed the medical doctor on duty at the material time. The police also arrested and quizzed one female who was on duty as well. The police recovered some injections and medical equipment used in aborting girls which included Manual Vacuum Aspirator. Unfortunately today, the clinic has bribed its way and has reopened to continue to abort Nigerian under-aged girls.

To be continued tomorrow

Ekwowusi is a legal practitioner.