By Olumide Babalola
Yesterday, an Equatoguinean official – Baltasar Engonga – broke the Internet for many reasons. First, he reportedly had sexual affairs with over 300 women and secondly, in a somewhat inexplicable discovery, he recorded these escapades. Then, the World was stunned when these intimate videos were leaked to the public. Expectedly, these bizarre turns of events have been discussed from many standpoints: from male chauvinism and ego trips to gender guilt-tripping and then the moralistic condemnations and then the biased blame games, not leaving out the legalistic grandstanding. Regardless of the aptitude or otherwise of these views, these sour revelations present another opportunity to preach a higher value for privacy lest the lessons in its neglect may be lost on us all.
1. Recorded private moments are susceptible to privacy breaches
A person’s decision to record his intimate moments with another consenting adult is definitely within the confines of their privacy rights, but such an exercise of rights also comes with enormous risks of privacy breach. Where one of the parties is disgruntled, they have a ready-made tool for revenge porn; where a third party gains access, it becomes a potential bait for blackmail or extortion. What about hackers and other kinds of illegal or official intruders who are backed by law to search and seize assets as in Engonga’s case?. Hence, anyone who records sex tape should bear in mind the consequences of privacy breaches which are mostly intrusive, damning and destructive.
2. Privacy clothes dignity, once privacy is invaded, dignity is exposed
Historically, the right to privacy was conceived to protect the dignity of human interactions. Warren and Brandeis – fondly referred to as the “fathers of privacy” advocated for the right to privacy in their famous 1890 Harvard Law Review Article titled the ‘Right to Privacy’ by briefly locating dignity in their argument for the protection of privacy thus:
“It remains to consider what are the limitations of this right to privacy and what remedies may be granted for the enforcement of the right. To determine in advance of experience the exact line at which the dignity and convenience of the individual must yield to the demands of public welfare or of private justice would be a difficult task.”
Without going too theoretical, privacy undoubtedly covers the dignity of whatever vices idiosyncrasies or habits humans indulge in within their private confines. For context, the Yorubas would say “Ile eni la ti nje ekute onidodo” meaning, it is in the privacy of one’s home that one eats rats with navel.” I made this argument in a paper co-delivered at the University of Oxford titled ‘Translating universal rights into local practices: Privacy, technology, and postcoloniality in Nigeria’s legal regime for data governance’ in 2023, that irrespective of the omission of the right to privacy in the African Charter, provision on the right to dignity in the instrument potentially makes up for the error since privacy also serves the ends of dignity.
In Engonga and his co-travellers’ case, the public exposure of their ‘private’ videos have arguably stripped them of the measure of dignity they once enjoyed. The once respected anti-corruption czar is now a subject of ridicule, insults, abuses and worst of all, undignifying digital footprints, social media memes and gifs which may not leave the Internet for a very long time. He has been called many unprinted and undignifying names and is even now subject to prosecution. His dignity has suffered a huge blow from which he may never recover – all these because his privacy was invaded by the persons who gained access to his intimate moments on tape.
3. Privacy often transcends personal rights
Even though privacy is often discussed from an individualistic perspective in the West, it is practically communal in Africa. The effect of privacy violations usually touches the victims’ relatives and acquaintances in more measure. In Engonga’s case, even though it was his house that was searched but the effects of the revelations are even more damaging to the other supporting characters in the scenes than the main actor. His nuclear and perhaps, extended family are not also spared from the embarrassment of the incident. For context, the Nigerian Constitution describes privacy as the “right to private and family life”, hence where privacy is invaded, family life (encompassing other members of the victim’s family) are also impacted. The husbands and children of the other women involved in the series of sex scenes are also as embarrassed and scandalised as the actors of the scenes.
4. Privacy and (right to) life
Barely 24 hours after the leak, one of the women involved reportedly committed suicide as a result of shock or shame from the revealing videos. I have once argued in many fora that privacy is intrinsically linked to livelihood. Hence, where privacy is invaded, its effect may prejudice the victim’s right to life.
My Lord, Agim JCA (now JSC) had once pronounced in Paul Ojoma v. State (2014) LPELR–2294(CA) and Chika Enyinnaya v. The State (2014) LPELR–22924(CA) that: “Privacy at its most fundamental level is the right to be left alone. This suggests that a zone surrounds every individual within which he or she should be protected from intrusion by others. It is the most valuable of all rights.”
Probably, the deceased could not see any other reason to be alive upon the damaging publication of her very intimate secrets, hence her right to life succumbed to the invasion of her privacy. A similar scenario has played out in other climes where victims of privacy invasion committed suicide while groaning under the effect of the damaging nature of the intrusion.
One of the interests protected by privacy is the publication of embarrassing private facts and this is recognised under Nigerian law. Happily, we were able to move the High Court of Lagos State to recognise this interest in Suit No. LD/14893MFHR/2023 between Adewale and Timothy where Sule-Amzat, J. held that: “The right to privacy is one of the fundamental rights of an individual guaranteed under the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The right to privacy protects an individual from the invasion of his/her privacy by anyone, it protects an individual from the public disclosure of embarrassing facts and it prevents the appropriation of an individual’s name or likeness for commercial use.”
Conclusion
The release of private sex videos, particularly without consent, underscores the profound impact that violations of privacy can have on individuals’ dignity, mental well-being, and even their right to life. The tragic outcome in this case, where one of the women involved took her own life, highlights the extreme consequences of such breaches of privacy. These events reveal how recorded deeply personal moments, when shared, can devastate an individual’s sense of self-worth, security, and humanity.