The fundamental source of love is the family. It is the family that should first provide (not the society) her affiliates with fortification, esprit de corps, refuge and socialization, even though it varies from one culture to another culture.

The family should also be the testing ground for the building of a mortal character. Families are the bedrock of any nation whilst strong homes predict stronger nations, it is regrettably regrettable that many families in the twenty-first century have shirked their inherent and coherent responsibilities, thereby leaving it in the hands of a voyeuristic society.

This neglect in accountability on the part of the family and the government at large has had some grave consequences on the developing and developed society.

The hostile cases of gang-raping, illicit sex et.al. are evidences that the family needs to stand up and be counted, same as the government, so as to stem this immoral and nefarious tides.

Yet still, I conversely suppose that the family should be a lecture theatre where courses on masturbation, infatuation, love, lust, rape and so on that would benefit the twofold-being (male and female) will be adequately diagnosed, comprehensively explained and practically delivered.

Today however, career pursuit, money shoving, hood, wealth creation and ephemeral inducements among myriad others have made many families neglect their role in a larger, more civilized, and sadly Babylonian society. What a pity!

The Mumbai crime incident where one 15-year-old girl was reportedly raped for over 15 times over a period of eight months in Wadala, is a great reflection of the evil that pervades our mother earth. Likewise, the cases of girls aged two and five respectively who were raped in separate attacks in Delhi are pitiable to benevolent creatures.

Imagine the case of the two-year-old, she was diurnally abducted from a religious event in west Delhi by two men, she was thoroughly raped and later dumped in a park near her home.

The big question that pricks the mind is where was her mother? Perhaps if she doesn’t have a mother anymore, where was her guardian or caretaker? Correspondingly, there was another five-year-old who was lured to a neighbor’s house and then raped by three men. Again, the question is- where was the maternal care or paternal care?

Indeed, statistics had shown that for quite some years now, Delhi, the capital of India, has been grappling with a spate of sexual assaults against women which in several cases, had been children. Statistically likewise, Nigeria also has had serious concerns as regard all these moral felonies and background misdemeanors. Yet it doesn’t halt there.

On December 6^th 2015, a 16-year-old had been allegedly gang raped to stupor by a foursome secondary school students in Ebonyi state of Nigeria. The Punch newspaper on December 12^th 2015, reported that 30 children teenagers were rescued from traffickers in Enugu State.

The plan was to whisker away those well-heeled teenage children to neighboring countries. Possibly, to become sex slaves in another country. The slavery of the girl-child must be put to a stop, for they too are stakeholders in this country.

Above and beyond, in August 2015, Professor Cyril Ndifon, Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Calabar (UNICAL) was alleged to have sexually assaulted a 20-year-old, 400-level Law student of UNICAL. Earlier, another lecturer at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Dr Akin Baruwa had allegedly raped an 18-year-old female admission seeker.

In tandem with the above, the Nigerian Feminist Forum’s (NFF) call for sexual education amongst other incentives on various Nigerian campuses is one way too many in solving the moral debacle that behooves our female folk.

The Nigerian Senate in May 2015 had passed the Sexual offences bill which stipulated that anyone found guilty of rape or culpable of gang rape should be sentenced to life imprisonment, with incest and child pornography carrying 10 years sentence as penalty. However, despite the grave punishment, rape, a crime in the penal and criminal code of Nigeria is on the increase.

A while ago, Private Jesse Spielman (PJS), a United States (US) Soldier was charged and found guilty of the conspiracy to commit housebreaking with intent to commit rape and four counts of felony murder by the military jury.

After proven guilty, he was sentenced to 110 years in prison for his slapdash role in the rape and murder of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and the killing of her family. This should be the portion of chaotic rapists, psychological and emotional murderers, sex assaulters, chastity stealers among others starting from now in the Nigerian space.

Hence, it becomes so imperative that the case of Suga-belly (the girl raped by Audu’s sons without getting the required justice) and Audu’s sons should be investigated. If not for anything, for posterity sake.

The Nigerian Entertainment industry from the echelon music industry, the Nollywood industry to various cinema shows have not helped at all with their various show of nudeness, frivolity and insensitiveness.

The Nigerian music and Nollywood industries need to evolve, revolve and re-examine its statutory influence on our modern society and indirectly, the family. It is therefore worthy to note that the continue movies of poor dressing among female folks shown to their male counterparts is one major factor triggering the gun of rape in our society today. I believe this perennial issue is beyond the society. After all, the society is a detachment of the family.

The family must begin to help the society, it must begin with proper home training of its social climbers, it must start to invoke the Nigerian culture into its kith and kin, it must start to nurture the child in the way of his or her creator, it must no longer spare the spoilt brat.

Sparing the rod had spoiled the child, the child has now become a pity to humanity, divinity and even posterity. The family has a paternal and maternal role to play, charity must begin from home, the society is looking up to the smallest unit of the society, the family.

It is in view of this, that I urge the sleeping families to obey the clarion call, the call to serve and instill moral values, the call to proclaim the truth at a time of universal deceit.

This will be my last article for the year, I want to commend my avid readers for their sustained support all year long. To this very end, I am wishing all and sundry a prosperous and fulfilling Christmas and new year in advance. Catch me again in 201

—————–

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija

Orukotan, a recent graduate of Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the Federal University of Technology, Akure writes from Ondo State and can be reached at [email protected]