SELF HARM

The principle of violenti non fit injuria is a Common Law maxim which is used to describe a situation where someone befalls a harm upon himself by inviting and opening himself to such risk. Hence, where a person opens himself to risk by willingly inviting such ill fortune upon himself, he is not ordinarily expected to recover protection from the law. The law would deem him to have consented to the injurious act. This principle forms one of the basis of tortious liability, and it is a very good defence which can completely exonerate a defendant if pleaded successfully.

In Nigeria, we are fond of exposing ourselves to risks and harm which would make it very difficult for us to seek redress under the law. Imagine the carpenter who has no visible means of procuring a good life for himself who goes ahead to marry a wife and start a family. He doesn't just stop there. He also goes ahead to have at least seven children with his wife, and does so with such impunity suggestive of the fact that he has a divine mandate to replenish the earth. He thus confines his multifarious family to the assorted pleasures of poverty in a tiny one room apartment, where they are subject to all forms of malodorous sufferings. Many at times, he doesn't just stop there: he goes further to marry a second wife, and introduces the new wife and her children to a habitat of misery

Or imagine the undergraduate who walks the street of an off campus around 10 p.m at night, pinging nonchalantly with an iPad in his hands and Beats by Dre Headphones hanging from his shoulders. If and when he eventually gets assaulted and robbed by cultists patrolling the area, one can safely conclude that he invited or even hastened the calamity upon himself.

Then the classical case of the girl that is always forming classy chic also comes to mind. With her bump shorts (did I get the spelling correctly?) and skimpy pants that can barely cover the subject matter of what clothes are meant for. The girl that always exposes hideous portions of her mammary glands and displays her ailing merchandise to the world. Yet, she takes her time to refuse advances from the opposite sex. She refuses to give the cookie to men legitimately, and guess what? They will take it by force! Even the Holy Book enjoins us to use violence when we encounter resistance (no be me talk am oo).

In such circumstances, the principal characters act outside the protection of the law from the moment they begin to display behaviours of brash recklessness and uncouth impetuousness. It would be very farcical for such person to expect the aggressor to act in a different manner, and it wouldn’t be unfathomable for a by-stander to refuse to interfere or come to his/her aid.

A girl recently updated her Facebook status to read:

                Virginity isn't dignity, it is just lack of opportunity.

A detailed analysis of that statement would reveal that the girl is sending across two messages:

1.       There is no pride in being a virgin.

2.       She (the Facebook updater) would seize or effectively utilise any available opportunity to have sex.

Now, assuming a rational man or guy who has being trying repeatedly in the past to clinch an affair with this girl in the past, but has been constantly refused, he would no doubt rely on the strength of this statement to get what he wants by all means (including divine violence). One cannot blame the aggressor in this circumstance for acting upon such information in furtherance of his unholy purpose.

Many girls (and women) are in the habit of remarking that (all) men are dogs, but they forget that they were the handlers who held out the bone to them by their Jezebelistic acts of inducing the opposite sex into forming mental images about them through their skimpy apparel.

Another “Nigerian” aphorism seems to be gaining grounds on the Social Media. This is the saying that Clothes are expensive nowadays. Many persons, male and females alike, use it as an impetus to dress half naked before leaving their houses. They cannot of course afford longer garments which are more expensive. They would make one believe that the cost (in terms of yards of material used) of producing a G-String panty is infinitesimal in comparison to the cost of production of a pair of Grandma Panties (you know what I mean). We can also infer that Deeper Life Gowns (which are not unlike the robes worn by students of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the Harry Potter Series) are more expensive than skimpy jeans, bump shorts, armless tops and the other devices of temptation which youths of contemporary society prefer.

Everything that goes around comes around. One cannot sow mango seeds and expect to harvest oranges. You cannot roam the streets of a ‘danger-zone’ at night with your tush mobile devices in hand and expect not to get assaulted. Neither can one without substantive means of catering for himself decide to start a large family and expect manna to fall from heaven daily like the bags of rice shared by politicians during electoral campaigns. In the same vein, a girl cannot be sending out mixed messages through her dressing and SNS statuses and expect men (or boys like me) to treat her like a queen. Hian!!

                                                                                                                            

I am Oluwanonso_Esq on Twitter.