Post by Imma Nana (@Nana1)

We need to talk about our girls. Right now.

Forget this idea that evil looks like a stranger in the bush. The real danger now wears a smile and calls himself helper.

He finds the girl whose parents are hustling morning to night. He finds the girl living with a strict aunty. He finds the girl who gets shouted at more than she gets hugged. Then he shows up with money.

Not small change. Real money. 5000 naira today. 5000 naira tomorrow. To a child in JSS one. What kind of adult gives a child that kind of cash every day and says it is just pity.

It is not pity. It is payment. It is bait. It is the first step in buying her silence while he steals her childhood.

Parents, you think you are protecting your child because you pay school fees. But who is protecting her between 2 thirty when school ends and 7 when she finally enters your house.

You ask where she was and she says sports practice. She says she was sweeping the class. You nod and continue cooking. Meanwhile a grown man is somewhere destroying her life one lie at a time.

Wake up.

Search that school bag like you are searching for your own life. Because you are. If you see money you did not give, burn the house down with questions until you know who gave it.

Time your child. School closes by 2 thirty. If she is not home by 3, your phone should be ringing. Call her teacher. Call her classmate. Show up at that school gate unannounced. Let her know you are watching. Let every adult around her know you are watching.

And you men who do this thing. You that cannot face a grown woman so you go and confuse a child with money. You are not a man. You are a disgrace. You think because she is not shouting, she likes it. She is a child. She does not even have the words for what you are doing to her. But her body will remember. Her mind will remember. And one day the world will remember your name for the filth that you are.

Your secret will not die with her. Children grow up. Children talk. And when they do, the law will be waiting and the community will be waiting.

Mothers and fathers, stop making your home a place your daughter wants to escape from. If she cannot talk to you, she will talk to the devil who gives her 5000 naira and calls it love.

Be the safe place. Be the one who checks. Be the one who believes her when something feels off.

We are losing too many girls to silence and to grown men who should be in jail.

If you read this and the first thing you want to do is argue, then you are part of the problem. And the rest of us will drag you by name.

Protect these children like your life depends on it. Because theirs does.

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