In 2001, Chidimma Ekezie** was sexually assaulted in her father’s house by a relative who doubled as an afterschool caregiver and a family domestic staff. She attended an inclusive school downtown and was left in his care after school hours before the entire family returned.
Aunty Ogechi “AMA, AMA”, she said gesticulating and pointing at him. I turned and stared at the man, trying to figure out what was going on. Chi, “what is it”, I asked.
She repeated “Aunty Ogechi, AMA, AMA,”. AMA, the caregiver laughed, casually dismissing whatever she was saying with a wave of hand as her usual incoherent speech style. Never mind her he said, laughing to discredit her claims, he turned to focus on what he was doing.
It was sinister-looking at her distraught face, I bent down and asked again what she meant, she repeated his name and pointed at her private part.
At that moment, I knew something was amiss. I gently took her inside the room and inspected her.
It took a while, but just like only teary-eyed Chidimma could with her usual slow and fragmented speech, she succeeded in stuttering through broken Igbo syllables gesticulating her way through the pain and uncertainty of all that had transpired in her body that afternoon.
She mentioned in Igbo, the private part and fingers, communicating that, he grabbed her and thrust his fingers in between her legs several times and it hurt so bad, the blood stains on the pants said it all. Chidimma had been violated.
The Violated and Perpetrators
There are about 5 to 7 million children with disabilities in Nigeria, according to UNESCO. Chidimma Ekezie, a pretty fun-loving 7-year-old was one of them. She was born with Downs syndrome, a genetic disorder caused by a copy of an extra chromosome leading to a slow intellectual development.
She also had a speech defect and a congenital heart problem requiring surgery.
Mobility up and down her two-storey building to and fro school daily gulped over a dreaded 30 minutes, she was most times backed to save time.
The hole in her heart ensured she did not complete certain tasks at the expected time nor could she participate in other activities with her peers. Stooping, waiting and panting to catch her breath on such walks were her usual routine which made her dependent on external people for support.
Research by the Africa Polling Institute (API) suggests that About 28% of Nigerian women with disabilities suffer sexual abuse. This affirms that women with disabilities were more vulnerable to sexual abuse than women without disabilities despite their age. Most violators are usually a close or known person, owing to their dependency on an external figure for assistance.
“Most perpetrators are caregivers, relatives and parents. Their immediate primary caregivers, friends and some family members stigmatise, maltreat and abuse them the most and is not always easy for them to report these cases. Most times they decide to settle the matter in-house either using the members of the family or church pastors or Imam”, Florence Chima-Austin of Center for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD).
The fear that the family or caregiver may abandon them if they choose to take the case up themselves creates a culture of silence.
Stings of Stigma
I was awash with anger, seeing her tears and distraught helpless face, I couldn’t confront him because I had no convincing proof. It was silent fury till night when her parents returned and I narrated the whole experience. They believed me, but they didn’t want the matter to ‘escape’ the room due to relationship ties and stigma.
7, friendly and frail Chidimma Ekezie was familiar to cardiologists for often turning blue and purple due to the low supply of blood from her heart and this made the hospital her not-too-desired go-to spot. She was loved by her family, attended the best inclusive school in town and was often pampered with food and trips to the beauty salon, which was her happiest place.
Life was already a pain for her, to think of sexual abuse, a pain she didn’t choose.
Being exploited sexually is a human rights violation, but to be stifled into a spiral of silence is a worse violation.
Ejiro Okotie, a disability-rights advocate and founder of Hope Inspired Foundation for Women and Youth with Disabilities (HIFWYD), understands the challenging deterrent culture of silence poses at persons with disabilities in reporting violation cases.
Okotie said “several persons decline reporting due to inability to advocate or speak up for their rights, for fear of being ostracized from their families, communities, fear of not being believed or even given the opportunity to speak.
“This weapon of silence initiated by family serves a dual purpose, a family preservation and social defence mechanism against stigma. It unknowingly is destructive, shuts the first real access to justice and sets them up on a roller coaster of distrust and pain.”
Away from the physical pain is the multiple psychological stings of stigma she would have to live with. Silence, a crude violator of the human will that further enables the violator.
Accessing Justice for Chidimma
Nigeria has an estimated 19 million PWDs, representing approximately 10% of the population. The country has ratified international instruments, such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), and enacted domestic laws, including the Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act 2018. Despite these legal frameworks, accessing justice for PWDs is a tall order.
For Florence Austin, “the Disability Act provides for prosecution of violators however, violations are underreported due to Low self-esteem and feeling of alienation which is the immediate response of victims and sometimes, victims shy away or withdraw the case as a result of family decisions. Hence the reason for underreported violation stories.”
For Ejiro Okotie, “unwillingness of those responsible to provide justice is another kettle of fish. The inaccessibility of the system, poor attitude of law enforcement agents, lack of proper implementation of existing disability legislations, and absence of disability laws in some states and most importantly, absence of disability legal frameworks or disability inclusion at the local government level which is where a large proportion of persons with disabilities reside should be curbed.”
Nigeria is a country blessed with beautiful laws but comatose with a congenital problem of access and slow dispensation to justice traceable to plethora of aforementioned elements.
Extracting trust at this level for the victim is the first justice for all. The lack of trust in her immediate support system and the social system she belongs to is a major betrayal.
Accessing justice starts from the home front by confronting the truth unbiasedly before approaching the legal arm of justice, which is secondary. If the process is compromised at the first level, all is botched and needless.
Accessing justice for Chidimma is accessing justice for all persons with disabilities, it requires rigorous implementation at two clusters of family and social justice stages. Victims of sexual gender-based violence most often experience psychological annihilation and disconnect between self and people. Making it a vicious cycle of violation.
Justice for Chidimma means processing the multiple stings and impacts of the violator’s sting, the sting of silence and stigma from family, the sting of the social justice system, and the sting of self-violation and developing the willpower to effect quick and accessible justice for the next SGBV victim.
Lots of advocacy, and enlightenment should be done at the family level to crack the silence culture which is the major violator before reaching the structured social system.
Political Will
As opposed to its definition in Nigeria, where political will exists in tabloids, public discourse, shown on television and newspapers. It is a sheer determination and commitment by stakeholders to take action over a just cause.
In this case, stakeholders from law enforcement, civil society organizations, families, individuals and all to expedite action over this cause, working out a statement of purpose over the stigma and I dare say.
I held her blood-stained panties for days, helpless at the devastating power of self-perseveration over truth and justice.
Helpless at my inability to effect change that day, I nursed the pain till date.
Could the truth be placed over self-preservation, she like others wouldn’t have been silently violated ignorantly and stung into silence by stigma?
But today, I hold my pen, bold and empowered, committed now more than ever to report disability till the stings of silence and stigma are silenced.
Chidimma Ekezie lived protected and loved by her family until the age of 18 but died of a hole in her heart in 2013 inside a beauty salon.
The name in asterisks is a pseudonym, to protect the identity of the child.
This article was written by Ogechukwu Ugwu, MSc Student of Mass Communication (2023/2024), University of Lagos, following the training on Disability Reporting facilitated by Blessing Oladunjoye, Publisher of BONews Service.