It seems the maxim: silence is golden was made for Nigeria as we’ve employed it always even when threats are around us.

The recently reported pimp of girls at Federal Government Girls College, Langtang, Plateau, by a security in charge of the school has once again brought to fore the culture of silence that has made its way into our lifestyle.

This incident which has been going on for years evaded public notice due to our penchant for keeping silent on every issue. The statement made on Facebook by a former student of the school to buttress the long-standing cases of sexual harassment in the school made our culture of silence a ruining one, the same way some former students of Queens college took to social media when the sexual harassment issue happened back in 2016.

These individuals that have maintained silence in the past are the reason why these actions go on for years undetected, as everyone believes in keeping their mouth shut for an unexisting fear of the unknown.

In Nigeria, when an individual is raped, the first thing we tell the victim is to keep quiet so that she won’t be rechristened a prostitute, parents will collide with their daughters to keep such shameful secret.

As a result, the scourge of rape is increasing in our society as previous victims have kept quiet and others won’t see anything bad in doing it and getting away with it.

When teenage girls are impregnated by their guardians or self-imposed “uncles”, the first message is, don’t tell anybody, some parents will take another step forward by aborting such pregnancies without resorting to the necessary security agencies. It’s all about keeping quiet.

These culture of silence has made it difficult to get to the root of happenings in our society as we always agitate for silence instead of exposing the evil ones among us. The unfortunate incident at FGGC Langtang is a direct effect of our culture of silence.

Let’s break the silence and speak out loud and clear.