Rape Victims Knock Legal System Delays, Seek Justice

By Ifeoma Ikem

Mrs Kafayat Ade, the mother of a rape victim, Bose (not her real name), has opened up on the harrowing experience of her family’s six-year wait for justice.

Bose, 13, was raped one afternoon by a neighbor while at home alone as her parents were at work.

According to Mrs Ade, despite the initial hope that justice would be served and the culprits brought to book, delays in the legal system dashed the family’s hopes.

She noted that the family was forced to confront the harsh reality of a system designed to blame the victims rather than hold perpetrators accountable.

The mother, who spoke anonymously, revealed that the family’s inability to afford the costs of pursuing the case led to immense pressure from the suspect’s family to settle out of court.

“We have been living on perpetual humiliation and threats,” she lamented, adding that the case’s prolonged duration has exposed her family to further trauma.

Data from the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) and the Advocates for Children and Vulnerable Persons Network (ACVPN) paint a grim picture of the challenges faced by rape victims in seeking justice.

According to ACVPN convener, Ebenezer

M. Omejalile, who has spent over two decades advocating for victims of rape, says the reasons for withdrawal of cases are multifaceted, including lengthy delays by law enforcement agencies, poor treatment of victims, fear of the criminal justice process, intimidation by alleged suspects, and cultural and societal norms that perpetuate silence.

The plight of rape victims highlights the need for a more responsive and supportive legal system that prioritizes justice and accountability.

As the mother of the rape victim poignantly stated, “Adjourned and adjourned is enough.” The cry for justice is clear; it’s time for the system to deliver.

The Real Terrorists Wear Agbada: Tinubu Doctrine of Economic Terrorism

By George Omagbemi Sylvester

In a nation as bruised and battered as Nigeria, silence is complicity. Since 2015, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has orchestrated one of the most disastrous chapters in our democratic history. Under the current leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the country is not just experiencing misgovernance, it is under siege by a form of political and economic terrorism perpetrated by those sworn to protect it.

This is not hyperbole. It is a data-backed, morally urgent diagnosis of Nigeria’s grim descent into state-enabled poverty, repression and collapse. The defenders and enablers of this administration, whether in government, media, religious institutions or the business elite are not innocent. They are co-conspirators in the slow suffocation of over 200 million people.

A Nation in Freefall

When the APC assumed power in 2015, Nigerians hoped for a clean break from corruption, economic decay and insecurity. Instead, what they got was worse than a broken promise; they got betrayal on a national scale.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), over 133 million Nigerians are now trapped in multidimensional poverty. This staggering figure includes lack of access to education, healthcare, clean water and decent living conditions. In less than a decade, the APC has presided over the largest expansion of poverty in Nigeria’s history.

Inflation is now at 33.69% as of April 2025, while food inflation soars at over 40%, making even basic meals unaffordable for the average family. The naira has crumbled to ₦1,500 to the dollar, leaving importers, businesses and households in economic quicksand. Meanwhile, the federal government continues to spend lavishly ₦10 billion on solar panels for the presidential villa, ₦15 billion to renovate the vice president’s residence and millions on globe-trotting trips while citizens sleep hungry.

If this is not a coordinated attack on the livelihood and dignity of Nigerians, what is?

Political Terrorism by Other Means
Terrorism is often defined as the use of violence and coercion for political purposes. But what do you call it when government policies systematically impoverish citizens, suppress dissent, rig elections, ignore rule of law and promote a culture of impunity?

Welcome to Nigeria under APC rule.

From the reckless removal of fuel subsidies without a safety net to the bungled naira redesign policy that froze the informal economy, every major policy has left behind a trail of economic destruction. These actions are not mistakes and they are calculated and the impact is nothing short of terroristic in scope and effect.

The late Dr. Obadiah Mailafia, former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, said it best:

“What is happening in Nigeria is not normal governance. It is a form of political and economic warfare against the Nigerian people.”

This war is being waged through budgets, policies/silence and it is killing more dreams than bullets ever could.

Tinubu’s Regime: A Travesty of Leadership
President Tinubu’s emergence in the 2023 election remains deeply controversial. His victory was marred by irregularities, voter suppression and delayed results. Former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, John Campbell, noted that the elections were “deeply flawed” and did not meet the expectations of democratic transparency.

Since taking office, Tinubu has failed to provide a coherent plan to rescue the nation. Instead, his administration has prioritized cosmetic reforms, excessive foreign trips and elite comfort. The gap between presidential promises and lived realities has widened into an abyss.

Worse still, the president’s known past remains a source of global embarrassment. In 2024, a U.S. District Court ordered the release of FBI and DEA files linked to alleged drug trafficking associations from Tinubu’s Chicago days. These revelations further erode Nigeria’s image on the global stage and deepen the moral crisis at the heart of our democracy.

Defenders of Tyranny: Collaborators in Oppression
Those who continue to defend this administration, despite overwhelming evidence of failure are not neutral. They are enablers of oppression, cheerleaders of chaos and prophets of poverty. Whether they wear agbadas in parliament, cassocks in churches, or camouflage in barracks, their silence or worse, their praise is a betrayal of the Nigerian people.

As Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, once said:

“The worst form of oppression is when the oppressed become defenders of their oppressors.”

This psychological capture is perhaps the most dangerous legacy of the APC regime. They’ve normalized suffering, glamorized theft and demonized dissent.

Corruption as Policy, Poverty as Tool
The Auditor-General’s reports between 2015 and 2023 exposed over ₦20 trillion in unaccounted government expenditure. Yet no high-profile prosecutions or convictions followed. The Tinubu government continues to reward failure with appointments and punishes accountability with persecution.

Security agencies have been weaponized. The EFCC and DSS are used not to fight corruption, but to silence whistleblowers and opposition figures. Journalists are harassed, civic spaces are shrinking, and protests are brutally suppressed. This is not governance. It is dictatorship by stealth.

The Diaspora Question: Are We Not Nigerians?
Here lies an even deeper insult: If this government can allocate ₦10 billion for solar panels and billions more for luxury projects, why can’t they pass a bill to allow diaspora voting? Why must nearly 20 million Nigerians in the diaspora doctors, engineers, scholars, entrepreneurs remain disenfranchised?

Are we not Nigerians? Do we not send home over $23 billion annually in remittances? Don’t we have the same constitutional rights as those forced to vote under duress and propaganda?

Our exclusion is deliberate. It is political. It is unjust.

It is easier for the APC to manipulate domestic voting populations than to engage a diaspora community that is educated, exposed and uncompromising. By shutting us out, they silence voices that cannot be bought or bullied.

This is not democracy. It is strategic disenfranchisement.

A Global Embarrassment
Under the APC, Nigeria’s stature has plummeted globally. Once the “Giant of Africa,” Nigeria is now mocked for its leadership dysfunction. In 2024, Transparency International ranked Nigeria 150th out of 180 countries in its Corruption Perceptions Index. The World Bank’s Human Capital Index shows Nigeria near the bottom, as children suffer malnutrition and graduates flee the country in droves.

Meanwhile, the brain drain continues. Doctors, engineers, academics and everyone with a shred of hope is finding the exit door. The APC is not just losing the future, it is chasing it away.

As Prof. P.L.O. Lumumba warned:

“Any nation that entrusts criminals with leadership must prepare for the funeral of its democracy.”

A Call to Conscience
This is no longer a partisan issue. It is a humanitarian emergency. We are not dealing with bad governance; we are facing organized political and economic terrorism. And those who defend this administration are accomplices in a grand national tragedy.

They are not just misguided, they are dangerous.

If Nigeria must rise again, then this regime and its supporters must be held to account. There must be an end to this impunity. There must be a reckoning.

Let the world know: Nigerians are not silent because we agree. We are silent because we are bleeding.

And when a people bleed for too long, history teaches us that something eventually breaks.

We have reached that moment. Enough is enough.

Byline: George Omagbemi Sylvester is a political commentator, diaspora advocate and writer based in South Africa. He writes extensively on democracy, leadership and African development.

WHEN INDUSTRY MOVES LIKE NATION-BUILDERS
Otega Ogra & Tope Ajayi

There is a particular kind of silence that greets progress in Nigeria—when food prices fall, inflation slows, the country is positively recognised, debts paid, or things begin to work. It is the kind of silence that would rather a good story stay buried than be told. But make no mistake, what we are seeing in the market today is not magic. It is the outcome of vision from the Tinubu-Shettima administration, backed by execution.

When President Bola Tinubu signed off on a six-month waiver to allow the importation of select food items, it was not an act of political theater. Rather, it was visionary economic strategy at play. That singular decision broke a cartel of hoarders who had turned food insecurity into an immoral enterprise. But strategy alone does not and cannot lower the cost of rice. What does is when industry leaders respond not with hesitation but with urgency.

Last week at The Aso Villa, the seat of the Presidency in Abuja, Abdul Samad Rabiu did not just show up to thank President Bola Tinubu. He came prepared and showed up with results. He brought evidence—bag by bag, commodity by commodity—of how Mr President’s policy met action. Rice that once cost N110,000 now sells for less than 80,000. Flour is down. Maize is down. And for once, the loudest people in the room are the ones who used to profit from scarcity, not the ones breaking it.

What happened here was disruption. The BUA team as well as other major Nigerian manufacturers and industrialists who heeded President Tinubu’s call, understood the assignment. They flooded the market, shattered the economics of hoarding, and exposed a truth few want to say: sometimes, the real enemy is not the system. It is the silence and sabotage that follows reform.

But Alhaji Rabiu did not stop at food. He announced a second move upon the advice of fellow billionaire industrialist, Aliko Dangote which was just as consequential. In an economy reeling from FX volatility, energy price surges, and imported inflation, cement manufacturers have decided to freeze the price of cement, not for everyone, but for every contractor working under the government’s Renewed Hope infrastructure projects. This is not charity at play. This is alignment.

Cement isn’t just a product. It is the bloodline of infrastructure. By holding the price steady for public works under the Renewed Hope Agenda, BUA Cement, Dangote Cement, Lafarge and new entrants, Mangal Cement didn’t just make a corporate gesture. They bought the government fiscal room, time, and momentum. That is what nation-building looks like when it wears a private-sector face.

It gets deeper. Cement manufacturers are resuscitating the Cement Technology Institute of Nigeria, pledging up to N20 billion annually to train artisans, real human capacity, not PowerPoint plans. We live in a Nigeria where for the longest time, conversations about growth rarely touch skills. This novel move is therefore a bet on people because when people are trained, projects do not just get built but they endure.

President Tinubu alluded to something important during that meeting. He did not just commend BUA. He called the actions of the private sector who have taken a bet on Nigeria throughout this period, “economic patriotism.” Whilst many sit on the sidelines waiting for stability before they act, it matters when Nigerians step in to create it.

Nigeria does not just need big men. It needs bold moves. What Rabiu and his peers are doing from freezing prices, and disrupting hoarding, to funding technical skills is not corporate PR. It is policy execution by other means and, that is what separates firms that extract value from those that build it.

In this phase of Nigeria’s transformation, we will need more of the latter. Those who understand that the private sector is not a spectator sport. That stability is not gifted but engineered. And that to win the confidence of 250 million people, you must show, not tell, that the future of Nigeria is under construction.

And if we tell these positive stories loud and well, if we stop whispering good news while bad actors shout, we may just shift the national mood from despair to resolve.

We make bold this statement because, when industry starts to move like this, it is more than just a market correction. It is a clear signal that the tide is turning positively.

As President Bola Tinubu says, the future of Nigeria will be a future built by Nigerians, for Nigeria, and indeed, Africa. No one will build our Nigeria or Africa for us but ourselves. The time is now.