Statutory Rape Vs Paedophilia

Hi guys,

Hope you're good and your day is going well? Good. My day and week has been super busy, but I can't complain. It's what I signed up for, hehhehe...

You know how I always say that the Nigerian cyber space is always up to something? Well, we're at it again. Some days ago, a teacher in a secondary school in my own Awka, Anambra state sat down in his house or wherever and composed a post which in summary encourages men to date and marry teenagers, preferably those in secondary schools or who has just completed their secondary education. According to him, they are young, naive and easy to control, unlike the girls who are in the university or more mature women. 

Hmmmm... That post/line of thought is not only disturbing on so many levels, but the fact that this came from a teacher who is in constant contact with these teenage girls makes it even more worrisome. He has since deleted the post and apologised, but that's medicine after death, as far as I and a lot of others are concerned. There have been phone calls to the school calling for his removal and possible investigation to find out  if he has had sexual relations with his students. 

Courtesy: inquisitr.com

The truth is, in as much people are calling him a paedophile, unless he made a post confessing sexual attraction towards prepubescent children, he cannot be labelled a paedophile.  Prepubescent children refer to those who have not reached puberty. So, calling him a paedophile does not really suit the crime now, does it? On the other hand, he could be guilty of statutory rape, which is sexual relations with a minor below the age of consent, which is 18 in Nigeria. I really do not know what our law says on statutory rape here, but that has be proven though. It doesn't matter if a girl below the age of 18 begged you, an adult, to have sex with her. As far as the law is concerned, she is not legally of age to give consent on that kind of issue yet. However, with parts of some culture and religions in Nigeria advocating for early marriages, I doubt if that can take effect here anyway. Sad...

Courtesy:google.

The bottomline is that a teacher feels this way about our daughters under his care. Honestly, if that was my daughter's teacher, I'd be extremely disturbed, and I'm more worried and scared that a lot of guys do not find anything wrong with what he said. It just goes to show that a lot of seemingly-sane young men like to have sex with teenagers! Sad. I noticed that most of these people who think it is okay are bachelors, maybe when they have a daughter and imagine their daughter's teacher saying or doing something like this to them, then they'd feel the fear and anger parents feel right now. 

Parents, apparently it is on us to educate these children, since not even the teacher can be trusted. I must confess I became extra wary with my daughter when I found out that her new teacher was a man. It is that bad! We hear stories like this often, and we just have to make sure our kids do not form a part of the statistics.