The most unthinkable crime is now stalking Nigerian homes with an audacity that chills the conscience. Fathers, the very men ordained by culture, faith and nature to shield their daughters, are increasingly becoming the violators of the same innocence they swore to protect. The horror is no longer whispered in distant corners. It is unfolding in crowded compounds, rural huts and urban flats where the house becomes a crime scene and the child’s body becomes the unwilling archive of her father’s monstrosity. Yet the most brutal wound is not always the assault itself but the silence imposed on victims by a society that treats their pain as an inconvenience to family honour.
In many of these cases the law becomes a mirage that flickers and vanishes when the survivor reaches for it. Bribery, connections, family influence and the unholy networks of impunity suffocate any hope of justice. The daughter stands small before a system that bends to the highest bidder while her mother is bullied into paralysis by in-laws who weaponize tradition as a shield for male depravity. The very people who should rise in indignation become the gatekeepers of silence, warning the abused mother that reporting her husband’s atrocity would bring eternal shame on the family. The crime is then wrapped in darkness and escorted quietly toward the grave.
What is most frightening is that this pandemic of incest is no longer an aberration but a growing national tragedy. We are watching a generation of girls shackled by trauma long before they understand the vocabulary of violence. How does a child comprehend that the hands that rocked her cradle now disvirgin her? How does society reconcile its moral posturing with the cruelty it permits behind closed doors? The psychological carnage is immense. Many of these girls grow into adulthood carrying invisible fractures, internalizing guilt that is not theirs and suffering nightmares that the law refuses to confront.
Nigeria must confront this menace with a moral intensity that matches its brutality. Silence is complicity and every institution that delays justice becomes an accomplice to the crime. Faith communities, traditional leaders, human rights defenders and child protection agencies must form an unbreakable front. The police must be insulated from bribery. The judiciary must show the courage to jail even the most connected offenders. Social workers must be empowered to rescue victims without fear of reprisal. And mothers must no longer be coerced into defending predators who share their roofs.
By and large, Nigeria must establish special gender violence courts with accelerated procedures that prevent interference from powerful families. Mandatory psychological evaluations and life imprisonment should be imposed for confirmed cases of incest. Every community must adopt survivor-safe reporting channels that shield mothers and daughters from intimidation. Public awareness campaigns must dismantle the culture that prioritizes family honour over a child’s life. Above all, the nation must recover its moral spine and declare unequivocally that no tradition, no surname and no male ego is worth the soul of a child.
– Inah Boniface Ocholi writes from Ayah – Igalamela/Odolu LGA, Kogi state.
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