Shout Out to a Survivor By Ejura Salihu

I should have written this a few weeks ago but circumstances delayed this article, I hope its not late to pay tribute to an icon of strength, the survivor we all know too well, Late Maya Angelou. I would not claim to be an avid reader of her poems and her works but I love all the ones I have read and I can't deny the sheer strength that oozes through each masterpiece. I feel a sense of pride reading her struggles and survival. Raped at a tender age of 8, she lost her voice for a while but when she found her voice and spoke, the world listened till the end of her life and we are all still listening. 

Not all victims of rape find their voice immediately, most need time to heal internally before speaking out. I use this medium to encourage all victims of abuse wherever they may be, please heal, take your time, but when your find your strength and voice, don't let it be bullied into silence. You deserve justice, you deserve to be heard. The culture of rape can only be broken if the culture of silence is broken.

Within Five Months, Sexual Assault Centre Treats 124 Cases in #Lagos

According to Vanguard, a total of 124 victims of sexual assault and domestic violence were attended to in the first five months of operation of the Mirabel Centre for Rape Victims, the first sexual violence and referral centre in Nigeria, located at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, Lagos.

Disclosing this, yesterday, in Lagos during the official opening of the centre, Executive Director/Managing Partner, Partnership for Justice, Mrs. Itoro Eze-Anaba, said Oshodi, Mafoluku, Ikeja, Mile 12, Ketu and Ojodu areas of Lagos, were flashpoints for assault and sexual violence because the highest number of incidents reported at the centre, were recorded at these places.

Rape: How Society Encourages Rather Than Limits It by Manuel Adesola

As a nation, one of the growing menaces to human co-existence, and at large peaceful relationship is the issue of RAPE. Nigeria as a country is not in isolation to this menace and no single person or family is. If you are not the victim, you will know one; maybe because the victim is a family or a friend. Perhaps maybe not so closely, but on the pages of papers and on tabloids you would read about such cases. Directly or indirectly, every issue of rape affects everyone. The trauma victims go through most times tend to make them unworthy of life. Thus, every potential in them, if care is not taken, tend to remain untapped and underused. Under-utilization of potential isn’t a loss of the victim or her family alone, but also of the entire world. The thought of a possible under-utilization of potentials and loss self dignity by victim becomes so painful knowing that perpetrators are not the serpent we saw in the book of Genesis in the bible, neither are they aliens from outer space, but people like you and I. So rape victims are humans and rape perpetrators are humans; both of whom live within a society. Who then is worthy to comfort a victim since those inflicting pains live in the same society with them and who should bring perpetrators to book?