I always have a knife, pepper spray in my bag anytime I visit a guy in his house —unilag ststudent

The Faculty of Business Administration at the University of Lagos was rather quiet – even grim and cheerless – on Wednesday when Saturday Tribune visited. It was well past 2 pm, but only a few students were seen at the faculty, a cluster of three large buildings that stood a few metres away from the lagoon.

An attendant at one of the photocopy outlets had heard of the rape scandal at the faculty involving a certain Dr Akin Baruwa (whom the authorities have insisted is not a member of the university staff) and an eighteen-year-old prospective student. But he did not think the almost-deserted premises had anything to do with it.

 “Few people come to the Faculty these days,” he said. “It has been like that for some time now. But once the exams begin, you will see that everywhere will be crowded.”

Most of the lecturers were unwilling to talk about the rape. “I understand the matter is under investigation,” a lecturer (whom a student said was from the Department of Actuarial Science) bellowed, as he raced upstairs. “We are waiting for the official report.”

Fighting rape
If anything, the latest incident has created a massive awareness among the students, as virtually every student who spoke with Saturday Tribune on Wednesday said they were familiar with the case.

 “We have embarked on enlightenment campaigns via the social media,” Mr Abiodun Martins, the President of the University of Lagos Students’ Union told Saturday Tribune on Thursday. “In fact, we have always used our programmes to draw attention to issues like that. And we have set up a task force to move around especially at night. Apart from the social media, we plan to put up signboards around the campus to show students what constitute proper dressing and good behaviour. We believe these will reduce cases of sexual assault. We also have a panel for the trial of such cases.”
Asked what would happen if the culprit was a lecturer, Martins talked tough:
“He will face the same penalty”.

The girls speak
Saturday Tribune spoke with a number of female students at the University of Lagos on Wednesday. One of them was Chidimma Okafor of the Department of Guidance and Counselling.
“I have friends who have actually passed through such horrible experiences, some of them are even children aged between 13 and 15. So many people blame the devil for the tragedies that happen to them. But you see the devil cannot force you, he can only try; he speaks to your mind, so it is left for you as an individual to either fall or to overcome. Life is about choice. 

You choose to wear the right clothes or the wrong ones. Anything you do in life is because you have actually decided to do it. Most times, we, girls are the cause of it.”

However, she believes that recourse to what she calls “internal and physical strength” can offer a way out:

“But there is something called internal and physical strength which every girl needs in order to protect herself from external forces,” Miss Okafor who is also an actress said. 

“For example, for someone like me, nobody can rape me. For that to happen, they have to be three guys. I am talking about physical strength and internal strength. When I finished my secondary school, I enrolled for kung-fu training with a team at the National Stadium. One guy cannot rape me because I am a crazy person; I am very, very, crazy. I don’t appear to be smart, but within me I know that I am smart. But when I am with someone of the opposite sex, I don’t try to be smart, because if I show that I am smart, the guy will outsmart me. So what I do is that I present myself as someone who doesn’t know anything. When I go to a guy’s house, I always have my personal weapons; I go with my knife and my pepper spray. Also I don’t drink alcohol, and I always have my own drink in my bag. I don’t dress in a way that can seduce the guy.
Okafor however acknowledged that there is a category of girls that may not be helped, because they are “emotionally or mentally weak.”

“For such ones, we only have to pray for them. Some of them are going through emotional trauma; some of them might be raped, and then threatened, and they keep it to themselves; they live in fear.”

Modupe Adebanjo, a student at the Faculty of Education, said she was once close to a particular lecturer, but later ended the relationship the moment she sensed it was about to become intimate.

“I believe a female student who is an adult should know how she moves about; she should not go out at night; she should be careful of the kind of company she keeps; she should not attend night parties. Yes, I have been close to a particular lecturer before, but I got to know that it would not really help me out. I realised I don’t really need anything from him, so why should I just go closer? So I just had to stop it. I could even tempt him, you know? So I stopped it before it could get to another level.”

Another student, Olanike Olawo who said she had once had a “near rape experience” somewhere outside the school, noted that “decent dressing” was key to escaping rape because men are “very easily aroused”.

“Of course, it has everything to do with dressing. Sometimes, ladies dress so badly, in a way to arouse a man. And you know men are very easily aroused. Again, one should read the signs. Once you are with a man, you should be able to know what the man is trying to do. The man will not immediately pounce on you and begin to rape you. But from the signs, you should know how to excuse yourself from that place, so that such a thing will not happen.”

For Muili Zainab Tinuke, also from the Faculty of Education, a girl should never walk alone:
“What I’d say to every female student is this: any time you have to see a male lecturer or a male member of staff, I think first of all you shouldn’t go alone. But if you must, then you should be sure to be properly dressed; the way you’d want to be addressed. Again, if you have to go alone, inform some of your friends. Let them hang around and pay attention. And while you are in the office or wherever it is, you should also pay attention; if you suspect anything; if you sense anything, you should quietly look for a way to escape. You shouldn’t let the man know; you should play along a little and then run at the earliest opportunity.”