How far should punishment go for a child?
The headlines are unsparing! They tell the stories of how
people punish their children and wards — especially the underage ones —
for any misdeed, ranging from the child’s inability to properly carry
out an instruction, to theft, failure in exams, etc.
The punishments involved here are not only shocking, they
jeopardise the victims’ lives, while they also reveal the beasts in many
parents or guardians.
Case Number 1: The wife of one Mr. Odia Okoro reported him
to the police when she allegedly caught him putting ground pepper in
his 10-year-old daughter’s private part. The poor child’s offence? She
had failed an examination!
At another time, the same father had tied the child to the
ceiling fan because she forgot to submit his lotto ticket to the
lottery agent! A Lagos Magistrates’ Court is currently handling the
case.
Case Number 2: A 40-year-old trader, one Mrs. Deborah
Gabriel, brutalised her housemaid, eight-year-old Glory Ugbon, and then
put pepper in the girl’s eyes and private part. This was Deborah’s
punishment for Glory’s alleged theft of a plate of rice. The poor girl
narrates that she was brought to Lagos from Akwa Ibom State to live with
Deborah, who had promised but failed to put her in school.
Since her arrival in Deborah’s household, however, Glory
has suffered various forms of maltreatment, ranging from severe beating,
to sleep deprivation and hunger.
Here’s Glory’s testimony about her suffering, “The woman
(Deborah) is not related to us. I work at home all the time, but
sometimes when she is not happy with me, she beats me till I cannot
walk, and leaves scars all over my body.”
Deborah is currently being held at Aguda Police Division
in Surulere and would soon be charged to court; while plans are being
made to return Glory to her parents in Akwa Ibom State.
Questions
· How far should anyone go in punishing a minor?
· Why should anyone inflict injury on a child’s private part?
· In Nigeria, assaulting the private part is a common
form of punishment for females generally; and it’s done by both male
and female alike. Does that mean we are so contemptuous of the female
body that the only way we can say so is to traumatise a woman’s private
part as punishment?
Source: Punchng.com
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