Security expert Tony warns against Pedophilia Orientation on Nigerian Culture

•Calls for Attention by Relevant Stakeholders

By Demebide Master Tony, NACSP. Criminologist and Security Expert

Pedophilia Orientation: A Potential Threat to Nigerian Culture and Moral Sanity/Security; An Urgent Call for Attention by Relevant Stakeholders.

Pedophilia/paedophilia in simple terms is the act of engaging in sexual relationships or developing sexual interest in children. While anyone who engages in such act is referred to as a pedophile.

In the recent, there have been increasing concerns by netizens after a video of Mirjam Heine defending and propagating her opinion about pedophilia before an audience at the University of Würzburg in Germany, was published by a blog account, ‘The Punisher (@PunishDem1776) on X (Twitter) after a long time. According to her , “pedophilia is a sexual orientation just like being straight, homosexual, bisexual (gay/lesbian) and should be accepted into the society”. And there have been different standpoints to her opinion such as some giving in and others kicking against it.

No doubt, the discourse took place not within the offline jurisdiction of the country Nigeria or the African Continent, however issues of such nature should not be taken lightly and should serve as a source of intelligence for potential risk assessment most especially in this technological era.

Though, there are existing legislation that criminalizes the nature of the act as rape (Sec. 357, 358, 359 of the criminal code, Sec. 281,282,283 of the penal code, Sec. 11, 31, 32 of Child rights Act, 2003, Sec. 23 of the Cyber Crime Prevention and Prohibition act, 2015, Same Sax marriage prohibition act, 2013, and other extant state laws) which is commendable. But the agitation to normalize this in europe makes it more alarming and threatening which may gradually creep in this jurisdiction or who knows , there may be a group who believe in the orientation too but are operating saliently.

Going by the PEW Internet and American Life Project (2014) report, about 75% of children and adolescents use the social media more from a total of 100 % users. Similarly , the Nigeria Communication Commission (2015) stated that more than 90 million people in Nigeria use social media with the majority being children and adolescents.

Pinpointing this threat from the above statistics, children are more likely to be victims of pedophilia because they may be groomed by other sexual exploiters and pedophiles which may even end up with the exploitation of child pornographic contents and subsequently blackmail.

Secondly, just as there have been several agitations for the recognition of LGBTQ+ communities in Nigeria ( lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer and others) which is strongly frowned at by the Anti Same Sex Marriage Act, if proactive measures are not taken, they may end up being agitations to legalize Pedophilia, who knows if we have a salient community of pedophiles who are yet to raise up their heads.

While , this is a call to relevant security agencies to be aware of this happening and to get all hands on deck by channelling intelligence protocols to this angle , this is also a call to polish parenthood. Parents should be more sensitive to Uncles and Aunties who come around children, nannies , pet mothers and fathers, School teachers and all sorts of persons that are not directly related to your wards.

Parents should also increase parental bond so children can freely discuss sensitive information with them.

Parents are also advised to report any suspicious activity to the nearest police station and also install all parental guidance protocols on technological devices.

Pedophilia is of concern but barely talked out. The religious institution is not left behind in this. Pastors and Imams should continuously appeal to the conscience of every congregant cause a pedophile may be listening to their preaching and teaching, who knows. Children and the teenage department in churches/mosques are not left out in this discourse.

The educational institution is not left out at all and all other stake holders.Nigeria is ours’ and we can only make it better ourselves. Let’s join hands to prevent and control this.

Writes by Demebide Master Tony, NACSP.Criminologist and Security Expert.