OLIC is well underway and we have a few questions.

We constantly complain that the Nigerian government doesn’t seem to care about the plight and complaints of Nigerians, but just as culpable in the ignorance and insensitivity are Nigerian entrepreneurs, especially in the Nigerian entertainment industry. They are notorious for putting their own personal prosperity over the well being of the people who make them rich. This was especially evident at the PhynoFest, the annual stadium concert organized by Enugu bred rapper Phyno, where afterwards there were several reports of women who attended the concert being openly sexually harassed. The reports suggest a number of women were outrightly raped on the grounds of the concert and many others forcefully stripped naked, in front of thousands of other concert goers who didn’t come to their rescue.

So I was talking about the cases of rape at Phynofest with my brother. He told me that his friend said that girls were actually molested there.

It got so bad that some girls had to be separated as a group from the guys so that the molesting could stop.

— Dr. Lucifer (@steppino45) December 16, 2017

That security men were running around hitting guys with what were said to be “sticks” and rescuing the women from these men.

Then at one point, a guy took a “stick” from a security man and the other guys started attacking the security men and running after the women.

— Dr. Lucifer (@steppino45) December 16, 2017

His friend decided things had gotten out of hand and she decided to leave with her friends.

Excuse me, I said “decided to leave”.

I meant to say SHE RAN FOR HER LIFE WITH HER FRIENDS.

— Dr. Lucifer (@steppino45) December 16, 2017

Above is only one of several witness reports about the serial assault that happened at the OLIC concert, only now surfacing on the strength of the #EndSars conversation on Twitter. The rapper Olamide has partnered with the Lagos State government to organize his annual music concert Olamide Live In Concert (OLIC)  at the Teslim Balogun stadium, lowering the ticket fees to ensure as many people as possible come to the event. Making this kind of gamble without ensuring that there will be adequate security for the female concert goers, or even any kind of filtering system or even a public service announcement to deter miscreants who think the numbers will insulate them from scrutiny and allow them to sexually assault women will most likely spell disaster.

We won’t even go into the fact that Olamide’s team thought it was a good idea, at the height of the noise around the Special Anti Robbery Squad and the calls to have them disbanded, to bring one of the most notorious members of the squad to headline his concert. How can anyone feel safe with such precedents.

We hope no one gets assaulted at OLIC today, but we wouldn’t be surprised if reports came out that assaults were perpetrated.

Will women ever be able to go public events in Nigeria without fear of being manhandled by strangers?

Featured Image credit: Lucas Ugo.