The fresh rape allegations against Pastor Abiodun Fatoyinbo of COZA has captured the nation, and generated conversations of rape and sexual harassment in the church and how victims continue to be silenced through victim-blaming.
Over the weekend, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) Pastor E. A Adeboye subtly waded into the course, pontificating that the way he had been able to stay away from sexual scandals was his principle of not employing a woman as his private secretary.
He also reduced the conversation of rape to ”temptation” and ”seduction,” implying that men lack the self-control and restraint to be around women. On social media, this became a hot debate ranging from men’s entitlement to women’s bodies and the male-dominated world wherein women are still disadvantaged when it comes to job and opportunities.
Ese Walter, who in 2013 claimed that Pastor Fatoyinbo manipulated her into having a sexual affair with him, recently said via a Facebook post that women are blamed for everything and men aren’t taught accountability.
See her posts below:
Men are socialised into feeling entitled to women’s bodies. In contrast, women are taught sexual shame, sexual consequences and sexual limitations. Men are always shielded from talking responsibility and from being accountable, using the ”boys will be boys” rhetoric, which is why the menace of street harassment and the violation of women’s spaces continue to occur.
