Millions of Nigerian men would be jailed if the Nigerian legal age of sexual consent was raised from 13 to 16. Recently, a 41-year-old man who plied a 12-year old girl with alcohol and then raped her was released from an Irish prison and as expected this caused an uproar in the country leading to public protests. The man at the center of the sex fiasco who was 38 at the time of the offence and simply referred to as Mr. A for legal reasons had been jailed for three years in November 2004 under the statutory rape legislation whereby having sex with a girl under the age of 17 (the legal age of sexual consent in Ireland) was a criminal offence. Under the statutory rape legislation, it didn’t matter whether the girl lied about her age. Having sex with any girl under the age of 17 is illegal, period. However, last month, a Judge ruled that this provision was flawed and consequently illegal. Therefore, Mr. A, who had been serving a three year jail term under the provisions of the statutory rape legislation walked free from jail only to be rearrested later because of the huge public outcry and the quick move by the Irish Government to block the loophole by rolling out a legislation.

Some people might wonder why all these stories about statutory rape in Ireland? Well, I had to give a brief introduction into the relationship between or rather the implication of this to the Nigerian situation whereby early marriages between old men and young girls are still the order of the day. I believe the Nigerian legal age of sexual consent is 13. However, gaining carnal knowledge of a very young girl sometimes as young as 10 or 11 within or outside marriage is not seen as a criminal offence in many arenas.

Till date, early and arranged marriages are still very rampant in the Nigerian society. It is still believed in many quarters that a virgin is a pride to her family and her husband so young girls are married out early in order to prevent them from being promiscuous thereby destroying that pride before marriage. Sadly, this is one of the reasons advanced for carrying out the dastardly act of female genital mutilation as well. Chop off a girl’s genitals to prevent her from promiscuity. Although not a victim of female genital mutilation, I was a victim of an arranged early marriage and can say with confidence that the experience was not a pleasant one. My case was that of a child becoming a mum. A child who was snatched from the cradle, cajoled and introduced to adulthood against my wish. I got out of the slavery because of my willingness and determination to live a full and normal life and to provide my children with a better life, totally different from the one my father chose for me. Many young girls are not so lucky. Once that first opportunity is denied, life seems to come to a standstill for them.

There are several reasons why African men go after younger girls and I believe the principal one is greed. Catch them young so that the man can be in absolute control. These older men remote control these young girls and treat them like robots, always having the final say either because of their wealth or as a result of their age. How else can one explain my situation whereby the man I was betrothed to was 25 years older than I? The generational gap meant I was at his beck and call. Do this or that, and my answer was, yes sir! How dare you oppose him? He would beat the child-wife blue black and tell her the history of her poor family.

Another reason why I think older men go for younger girls is the belief that a young girl refreshes the blood of an older man. These girls have not been ‘corrupted sexually by other men’; therefore they are rich down below if you get my point. They are really tight (please excuse my language) as well but as one of my friend’s would say, ‘who cares about virgins; we are not in the era of virgins’. He goes further to say, at the end of the exercise, the man suffers bruises, so what is the point of it all? What is the joy of it all when all you can do is the traditional style devoid of the expertise of modern girls he further queries? (Please do not ask me what that means). Ego is my short and simple answer. Pride. The old man was there first as if possessing a young girl’s body is a competition.

Another reason is the fact that there is this belief in local parlance that a male AIDS sufferer is likely to be cured by a virgin. No wonder 15 to 29 year olds accounted for 63% of all AIDS cases between 1986 and 1995 in Nigeria! I am not sure about the statistics of older men with the disease but my guess is that they did not present themselves for medical examination.

Early sexual relationships between older men and young girls is largely responsible for the 80% drop out rate from school among teenage girls and I believe the Nigerian legal age of consent should be reviewed upwards to 17. This will make it really glaring if an older man decides to sleep with a child 5 or 6 years younger than the legal age of consent. At the moment, most of them get away with sleeping with a girl as young as 12 because of the closeness to the age of consent. Every child, male or female deserves a chance in life and Nigerian men (most of the time with pot bellies and bald heads) who go about sleeping with children must be made to answer for their actions. They are nothing but pedophiles robbing our daughters of their youth! In the same vein, parents who mortgage their daughters’ happiness by threatening and cajoling them into early marriages or sexual relationships should face a similar punishment (life in jail with hard labour).