RAPE, PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PSYCHOSOMATIC EFFECT OF THE LOCK DOWN: THE WAY OUT
WRITTEN AND SENT TO AJM NEWS BY IBELEGBU, JUSTICE CHINECHEREM
E-mail: necherejustice@gmail.com
The present global rate of rape is so alarming and disturbing. In recent time, no day will pass without news of one incident of rape or the other. For instance in Nigeria, precisely on May 30th 2020 in Dutse LGA of Jigawa state, eleven suspects were arrested for raping a 12 year old girl. The rape case of late Vera Uwaila Omozuwa, a 22 year old microbiology student from Benin city, who was raped and murdered in church is still fresh in our memory. Another girl was recently raped and killed in a church in Oyo state. Man raped and murdered his brothers wife last week in Zamfara. The list goes on without end.
Saddened by the high rate of rape in Nigeria, the Nigerian governors in their meeting held on Thursday 6th June 2020 in Abuja, declared a state of emergency on rape; however, this move by the governors and other stakeholders have yielded no satisfactory result, rather, there is daily increase in number of rape cases in Nigeria.
Rape is a forceful sexual intercourse or other sexual activity upon another person, without their consent. It is sexual abuse in an extreme manner. The issue of rape has been here with us for ages but there seems to be a hike since march this year, that is, since the period of lockdown in Nigeria due to the dreaded coronavirus pandemic.
The Federal government of Nigeria announced a national interstate lockdown in March 2020, due to the gradual increase in the number of patients infected with coronavirus, which was first reported in Nigeria in February 2020 after an infected Italian man visited Lagos state. The lockdown in Nigeria affected schools, government offices, private sectors, the airways and railway, land borders etc. As a result, Nigerians are now forced to stay at home to curtail the spread of the virus. It is glaringly clear that the hike in rape came during this lockdown. The question is: what is the relationship between the lockdown and rape? To a layman, there is none but to a psychologist, there is.
It is obvious that the lockdown is meant to prevent negative medical implication of the dreaded coronavirus pandemic on Nigerians but the truth remains that anything with medical implication also have psychological implication. But often times, we overlook the psychological aspect and focus only on the medical aspect. This act has always resulted in improvement in the medical, while the psychological suffers. There is no gainsaying the fact that psychological aspect needs more attention than the medical (though both of them are paramount).
Psychological means the ‘psyche’ as it relates to behaviour. Psyche talks about the mind, the thought etc. The mind is very much important in every human being, no wonder the holy writ noted that it is where ALL issues of life emanate (Proverbs 4:23). The mind does not work in a vacuum, rather it gives back what is given to it. The mind (psyche) works by information given to it. The mind receives information from the world around through the sense organs (the eyes, nose, skin, tongue and ears). The information received are interpreted in the brain (The Central Nervous System), then is pushed out to reflect as behaviours we exhibit.
Rape is a behavioural problem which must have passed through the processes mentioned above. Rape to me, is a behavioural manifestation of negative sexual impulses given to the psyche (mind) through the sense organs. These negative sexual impulses are recorded in the mind when the mind is idle and less busy with relevant issues but irrelevancies.
This period of lockdown is characterized by idleness, no school assignment to engage the mind, no job task for the working class to engage their mind. Most persons leave their mind idle (which is dangerous), whereas others feed it with irrelevancies like ponographic pictures and videos, thoughts of previous sexual experience, and other negative thoughts which could lead to psychosomatic disturbances.
Psychosomatic disturbance is a physical disturbance or disease which have a mental cause. For instance, the individual may start having uncontrollable erection and uncontrollable sexual impulses and disturbances, which pushes him into the street in search of prey.
Conclusively, Rape is a disease. It has a psychological origin and is a psychosomatic disorder (physical reaction as a result of mental causes). It does more harm than good to both the rapist and his/her victim.
THE WAY OUT
Since rape is a behavioural manifestation of what we gave to our mind, we should:
1. Be careful what we allow into our minds
2. Parents should discourage their children/wards from watching ponographics, their phones and other electronic gadgets should be constantly checked and sanitized of any form of ponography
3. Parents should try to meaningfully engage their children/wards in mental activities during this lockdown.
4. Evil association they say, corrupt good manners, parents should guide their children/wards in their choice of friends.
5.Parents and other adults should also engage their minds meaningfully during this period as rape has no age barrier
6. The services of a professional counselor could be sought who will use techniques like cognitive restructuring and other counselling techniques to sanitize the mind of the rapist.
7. The Government should engage psychologist and trained counselors at this time, the same way medical doctors are engaged
8. There should be radio/television programs, seminars in every town and cities in Nigeria (compliance with covid 19 prevention rules), Psychologists and trained counselors will be engaged by the government to assist in restructuring the cognition of the Nigerian populace.
#saynotorape
#no more neglect of the psychological aspect
Thanks
IBELEGBU, JUSTICE C.
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