Sexual Offences Bill Simplified

Section 7 of  the  Sexual Offences Bill

In the picture above lies the part of the sexual offences Bill that directly deals with the general misconception.

 The media in the past few days has been all about the National Assembly making eleven years, the legal age to have sex. A number of people already share this view, including some elder statesmen and notable Nigerians.

Well, I believe nobody should be blamed for this wrong perception about the bill. A wise man once told me that in Nigeria, information is cheap but not accessible. This is the lacuna this blog actually intends to fill, to make information about every bill available in to all and sundry.

Not to bore you with the blog’s mission statement and vision, permit me to quickly proceed to the order of the day.

The bill does not say it is okay to have sex with anybody above eleven years, the bill simply says, sex with anybody below the age of nineteen years is not sex but defilement. The bill simply criminalizes any form of defilement with persons below nineteen years.

Since the bill seems to be self-explanatory, then why the controversies? I believe the controversy and the heated arguments on social media emanated from the word LIABLE. The bill read “offence of defilement with a child aged eleven years or less upon conviction will be sentenced to imprisonment for life” this clause simply means, any form of defilement with this age group, be it consensual defilement, false age declaration defilement or forced defilement attracts the same penalty.  Really, I doubt if there is any girl or boy from this age group that is mature enough to consent or make an accused believe they are years older. That will be the court’s stand no matter how good your lawyer is.

“A person who commits an offence of defilement with a child between the age of twelve and eighteen years is liable upon conviction to imprisonment for life”. This is where the word LIABLE crops in, the only difference between this clause and the last one is the word LIABLE. For easy understanding I’ll suggest we use the word LIABLE interchangeably with LIKELY. In simple terms, this clause is invariably saying any offence of defilement with this age group will definitely earn you a jail term, but you are likely to get a reduced sentencing depending on the following circumstances. Is it consensual? Is the accused genuinely made to believe a false age? Were steps taken by the accused to properly ascertain the defendant’s age? The list goes on.

 To fully understand this clause, we need to take look at the provisions of sub-section (7) which says that the above mentioned questions shall not apply if the accused person is related to such child within the prohibited degrees of blood affinity. That is, if the accused is a relative of a child aged twelve to eighteen years, s/he will surely get a sentence of imprisonment for life. As a relative, you are believed to have already ascertain the necessary facts before willfully going ahead to commit the crime of defilement.  I believe the bill is trying to be fair to those who genuinely thought the defendant is above eighteen years old.

To correct the wrong notion, I’ll like to remind us all that the bill refers to anybody below nineteen years of age as a child. Secondly, the bill regards any form of sexual interaction with a child as defilement and not sex. Thirdly, the bill does not legalize the offence of defilement with children from the ages twelve to eighteen years, rather the bill says accused people with this age group will be given a fair hearing, and might less than life sentence depending on the peculiarity of the case.

In conclusion, what the blog seeks to achieve is to present you with facts and unbiased analysis, for you to be the judge and the jury.

Babajide Olusola Omojola