Ms Lillian Okoro graduated from secondary school in 2013 at the age of 15. The teenager who hails from Imo State was a virgin and was more interested in attending a tertiary institution after her secondary school education.
Due to her determination to study medicine, Okoro occupied her day studying medical books at home while awaiting the result of her JAMB examination.
Lillian’s father is a full time business man while her mother secured a job in one of the government Ministries.
While her four siblings lived in different boarding schools across the state, Lillian stayed at home with her parents and house help in a two-bedroom-apartment in a block of flats.
Narrating her ordeal to LEADERSHIP Sunday, Lillian said, “One fateful day, after my parents had left for work, the house help went to the market to pick up some household items. As the compound became virtually quiet and empty, my cousin who lives in a separate apartment within the compound called out to me to open our door and pick up a magazine.
Innocently, she opened the door and picked the magazine.
Apart from being engrossed with her studies, Lillian was fully dedicated to God’s work and the church at that young age. As she flipped through the magazine, it was filled with sensational naked pictures of men and women having sex.
She confided in LEADERSHIP Sunday that on noticing the horrible images, she quickly closed it and did a sign of the cross.
According to her, “Few minutes later, my uncle was calling me to come to his room but when I asked him what I was coming to do, he said I should just come.
Lillian said that she refused to go to the uncle’s room despite repeated call.
“He later came out from his room and told me to give him back the magazine but warned me not to tell my parents what transpired between us.
Though I have not summoned courage to tell my parents for fear of being beaten but the entire incident will remain in my memory,” she added.
She enjoined parents to avoid leaving their female children alone in the house saying that she was able to escape being raped by her uncle due to moral lessons she learnt at school and the church.
Lillian’s predicament is synonymous with those of hundreds of teenage girls that are sexually abused daily either by close relations, neighbours or family friends.
Though those accused are both adults and teenagers but the victims are most times minors and teenagers between the ages of 3 to 17 years, a situation that have led to many broken homes.
This spate of rape and sexual assault is not unconnected with rapid exposures to pornographic materials from social media, videos and magazines that are sold in the open markets.
LEADERSHIP Sunday investigations revealed that while major markets across the FCT as well as shopping malls discretely display their porn materials, others bring them out strictly on demand.
It is worrisome to also discover that teens are already addicted to porn materials as LEADERSHIP Sunday observed that a group of boys trooped to one of the popular shopping malls in the City Centre to buy porn videos.
Apart from the retail shops, porn videos are easily accessible through the social media especially Facebook due to insufficient regulation by the Facebook managers.
However, cross section of residents who spoke to LEADERSHIP Sunday blamed the NFVCB for their inability to regulate sale of porn materials even as they cautioned the dealers to avoid selling such materials to teenagers.
Master Henry Osagie, a 14-year-old secondary school student who said he was addicted to pornographic movies due to the influence of Westernisation said apart from facebook orientation that there are lots of porn sites that are also easily accessible through Google.
When asked how he became addicted to porn, he said, “I started watching pornographic movies when I was 13 years old during my junior secondary school days.
According to him, “After my friend reported me to our Sunday school teacher, I promised to change but after several attempts, it was difficult for me to stop it.
He advised parents to closely monitor the activities of children especially after the close of school adding that his parents belonged to the working class who never bothered about their kids activities outside the school.
A secondary school teacher who pleaded anonymity blamed parents for neglecting their children’s activities outside the school premises, which she believed was responsible for children’s sex obsession at an early stage.
She said teachers were trying their best to inculcate morals on the students but faulted parents that engage in heated arguments with teachers for flogging their wards over wrong doings.
Mr Gerald Ugwu, a civil servant in Abuja expressed worry at the increasing rate of sex addiction among teens even as he linked the dilemma to the impact of globalisation.
While blaming NFVCB for allegedly sleeping over their role, he tasked parents to monitor their children’s activities and acquaintances both at school and at home.
The Director of Operations, Nigeria Film and Video Censorship Board, Mr Cornel Agim said online distribution and monitoring was not within the purview of NFVCB but Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) and Nigeria Broadcasting Commission (NCC).
“We regulate when it comes to physical presentation of contents like DVD’s, videos and films but it’s unfortunate that the new media has gone haywire and made regulation nearly difficult.
He said Nigeria does not belong to neo-communist states like North Korea and China that operates dictatorial setting but belongs to the category of free society.
“Though we don’t have direct Censorship over the new media but we have a permanent Police Enforcement Squad from the IGP’s office that carry out monitoring in Abuja and other States.
Agim noted that NFVCB lacked the needed manpower to carry out enforcement stressing that the board works tirelessly to confiscate porn products since they are uncensored, unclassified and unwholesome.
He admitted that majority of porn materials were downloaded from Facebook and pirated back to the society adding there was need for the federal government to empower the board financially for effective regulation, monitoring, enforcement and compliance.
On ways of regulating open sales, he said, “We sensitise Nigerians on the need to shun Pornographic Materials because our cultural, moral or value system does not allow de-humanisation of human body.
While admitting that NFVCB was in the process of amending its Act to include new media, he said that the Board has 24 centres across the six geo-political zones of the country.
According to him, “Our monitoring teams go out in these zones at least twice in a week and through our literacy programme, we talk to school children on what to watch and if after our sensitisation they fail to listen, we raid and enforce.
He solicited with the FCT courts to restore the mobile court for ease of prosecution noting that the Board has about 6 to 10 cases pending in court.
Source:Leadership.ng
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