In recent times, children from age two to eighteen have become victims of harassment, molestation and violation as a result of sexual abuse by their opposite sex.
From the records of the United Nations Children Education Fund, UNICEF Nigeria, six out of ten children in Nigeria experience emotional, physical or sexual abuse before the age of 18 while one in four girls and ten percent of boys have been victims of sexual violence.
Unfortunately, it has been proven that these sexual abuse offenders are usually persons close to their victims, either by virtue of being a friend, relative, neighbor, uncle, aunt, teacher and father as the case may be.
Many of these violators lured their victims and take advantage of them, perhaps because of their victims’ age, and their little or no knowledge about issues relating to sexuality and human sexual anatomy.
While some of these offenders get prosecuted, many of them escape punishment for some reasons that may include cultural and family factor, ignorance and parents’ inability to report such cases to authorities for financial constraints or fear of stigmatization.
With these ugly development, it has become imperative for relevant authorities to map out modalities of educating the children of their body safety rules and possible ways of responding to moves from prospective violators.
One of the ways to achieve this, is to inculcate the sexuality education into the curriculum of the Nigerian educational system right from the nursery school, which should be taught by only specially-trained teachers.
However, to get the desired result as a result of inculcating sexuality education in schools, the course should be taught as a subject on its own which should also focus on the importance of reporting to higher authorities either by the child or parents immediately there are advances from child violators.
Inculcating gender behavioral pattern into this scope of study will not only go a long way at establishing the right manner of behavior between boys and girls in the minds of the pupil, but expose them to understanding the contributions nature and environmental influence have on gender diversity.
Similarly, it is advisable that this teaching should be aided with songs, rhymes and instructional materials with pictorial display about the safety of their private parts, educating each child to know that sexual offenders initiate their immoral act through touching of the sensitive parts of their bodies.
The federal and state Ministries of Education should also mandate public and private nursery and primary schools, even to tertiary level to ensure they raise awareness among the pupils against pedophiles, especially their methods of perpetrating evil.
Sex education as a subject should not only be adopted in schools but should be widely embraced by religious organizations for children in mosques and churches in order to teach them more about sexuality.
Children should be made to understand that no one has the right to look at or make them look at someone else’s private part, they should not stay in isolated places with people and should not keep secret from their parents.
Parents also should endeavor to be friends with their children to encourage the children in talking to them about issue bothering them.
Above all, the protection of the minor from sexual abuse or molestation is a collective responsibility of the government, non-governmental organizations, religious and traditional leaders, parents and the society at large.
We must rise up to nip child sexual abuse in the bud by saying something whenever we see something.
Mosope Kehinde
