By Valentine Benjamin

In May 2017, Deborah David (not her real name) was raped by a gang of armed robbers who raided her residence in the dead of the night. It was a night that heralded her long-running battle with symptoms such as mood swings, depression, anxiety, post-traumatic disorders, and personality disruptions. 

While dealing with the trauma and undergoing therapy, she moved out of her apartment to avoid frequent exposure and upsetting reminders of her traumatic experience. So, David started taking shelter at her family friend's house in Lagos. However, what followed this decision was even more disturbing.

"My friend attempted to rape me around midnight. He tore my clothes and tried to have his way with me. I tried fighting him off and asking him to stop but he refused, I started screaming and calling for help, and luckily, one of his neighbours who heard my voice broke into the apartment and pushed him off me."

"It happened one month and a few weeks after my first experience," Deborah, who still remembers her traumatic experiences, tells AMAKA. 

A 2018 Rutgers-New Brunswick study found that women who have experienced sexual assault have more intense memories than women coping with the aftermath of other traumatic, life-altering events not associated with sexual violence. 

"Women who suffer the trauma of Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) have a general feeling of depression and anxiety because they remember what happened and spend their time thinking about it. They stay in isolation, feeling abandoned," said Bose Ironsi, founder and executive director of the Women's Rights and Health Project (Managers of IRETI Resource Centre), a non-profit providing free counselling services to survivors of SGBV across the country.

Bose says many of those in a depressive state have a high tendency for people not to understand them, especially when they are uncomfortable sharing their experiences. 

"They have recurrent flashes of their experience and are full of anxiety when they see or come across someone who resembles their abuser; some of them would have depression, some will have panic attacks," she adds.

Normalized But Not Normal

Sexual harassment, or SGBV causes fear, emotional stress, humiliation, anxiety, panic attacks, and depression, pushing women away from participating in public activities. Survivors often feel withdrawn from social gatherings, lose confidence and self-esteem, show physical symptoms of stress, and sometimes become less productive.

It has remained one of the most normalised and prevalent forms of violence affecting women and girls in countries around the world.

While several survivors of SGBV have come public with their experiences, many others still find it challenging to speak up for fear of being discriminated against or not being believed.

David's story is part of a broad pattern of sexual violence against women and girls in Africa and in Nigeria, where one in four girls has experienced one form of sexual violence or the other before the age of 18. A 2018 Thomson Reuters Foundation survey listed Nigeria as the world's ninth most dangerous country for women. 

The morning after her assault, David got help from Dorothy Njemanze, who has also experienced multiple counts of sexual violence from childhood to adulthood, including emotional, individual, and state-sponsored violence.

"She sent someone to get me and take me out of that place. She had somehow paid for a hotel which served as a safe place for me to stay and was providing food, even though I did not ask her for all that."

"She wanted to make sure that I was fine. I continued my therapy sessions, and the support I got from her was overwhelming." David says.

Since the event of 2017, which is now ingrained in her memory, David still deals with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which leaves her on the edge of a mental breakdown.

She says: "The robbery happened on May 14, 2017. So, the 14th day of May reminds me of that troubling experience".

David is one of the several women taking shelter at the Dorothy Njemanze Foundation (DNF). This SGBV survivor-run organisation provides free medical, economic, psychosocial, and legal services and real-time support to persons affected by SGBV in Abuja. The non-profit also has a shelter that provides free short-term housing for survivors of domestic violence. 

Through its dedicated helpline, DNF also provides psychosocial support and counselling services to victims who are distant from its Abuja location.

Rachel Louis, another survivor, was 15 when she began to struggle with feelings of sadness, tearfulness, angry outbursts, and frustration when she was sexually abused by one of her relatives who lured her into watching pornography on his mobile phone with him- it was her second experience of SGBV.

"I have had multiple counts of sexual abuse, and most of them are from people close to me. But my second experience was the major one that affected me so greatly. I was abused by a cousin of mine who constantly streamed pornography movies on his mobile phone, just to have his way with me. I was naive then and didn't really understand what it was."

After watching that video, Louis says she could not stop thinking about it. "It messed up my head and I had a lot of questions flashing through my mind, but I couldn't share with anyone."

Now grown into adulthood, Louis finds herself streaming it online on her own, "I feel disgusted each time I do so because it makes me have a horrible feeling about sex." 

"But when I got into the university, I became comfortable watching it with some of my friends." Louis told AMAKA.

Akinyelure Feyikemi, a mental health practitioner, says exposure to pornography tends to trigger feelings of dissatisfaction in viewers' bodies, which could lead to additional life problems, such as low self-esteem, depression, and hypersexual disorder.

"The most common mental illness that is associated with pornography addiction is depression and drug abuse. It's a neuropsychological disorder that triggers intense urge to engage in maladaptive behaviour, just to satisfy that sexual urge or hypersexual disorder immediately. 

"In addition, this hypersexual disorder may also cause mood disorders and even substance abuse challenges."

"That's why you see rapists introduce minors to pornography, just to give them an idea of sexual-related activities. 

"Furthermore, suppose that child refuses to engage in it. In that case, he or she will develop depression, and other disorders may come in because undiagnosed or untreated depression leads to psychiatric disorders like drug abuse, schizophrenia, and other mental health complications," Feyikemi notes.

Nevertheless, while events experienced by David and Louis trend hashtags on social media in the country ceaselessly, there is also an indication of a far greater crisis in Africa's most populous nation.

A Weak Justice System?

Nigeria launched its first national Sexual Offenders Register in 2019 to help members of the public and security agencies conduct background checks and identify sex offenders.

Although sexual harassment has become a complex crime to prosecute in Nigeria, it requires such evidence as eyewitness testimony, physical traces of the assault, and audio or video recordings before cases can be tried. In most cases, survivors do not come forward for fear of stigma or because they do not believe justice will prevail.

The main challenge can be described as cultural, as many survivors distrust both police and the nation's slow judicial process.

However, while Nigeria struggles with a slow and corrupt justice system, Ironsi says the importance of psychosocial support cannot be ove-remphasized. "Psychosocial support is an essential aspect of healing after the survivor has experienced some level of abuse and is traumatized."

"This will not only help the survivor to heal but also prevent future occurrence of such individuals becoming a perpetrator of SGBV in the future. It is like a vicious circle." She says.

Dorothy agrees with submissions made by Ironsi. She also blames the problem on the laxity of the police, which is saddled with the responsibility of investigating and prosecuting alleged perpetrators.

"The police often throw a deluge of unnecessary questions at survivors, discouraging them even more from speaking out about it. This is why we must unite to end violence against women and girls; we need to create a safer and better society free from violence against these vulnerable groups." Njemanze told AMAKA.