Earlier this week, an audio clip which allegedly recorded a lecturer from Obafemi Awolowo University, Professor Akindele (who is also a pastor) demanding sex from an unknown female student went viral. Since then, the university management has been very vocal about its “support” for the investigation into the matter.
Going further, the management of the university “advised” the student to waive anonymity and “assist” the probe panel committee in its findings.
Never mind that all that has been done by them is issuing a query to the lecturer, while patiently waiting for his response. Also never mind that this student has very good reasons to stay anonymous – I will refer you to how Nigeria has historically treated sexual assault/harassment victims. Also, there’s an audio clip, you don’t really need to know who he’s trying to harass, just that he’s trying to harass someone!
According to the spokesperson for the university, Mr Biodun Olanrewaju:
“The committee may find its work difficult if the female student refused to come out and assist the panel in its investigations. This is not the first time we are faced with this kind of problem when female victims go around making allegations but refused to submit themselves to the panel set up by the management to investigate the issue.”
LOL, “when female victims go around making allegations”. The vice chancellor, Prof. Eyitope Ogunbodede, has also made some statements, and you can read them here.
In 2016, the Nigerian senate introduced a sexual harassment bill seeking to criminalise sexual harassment in tertiary institutions and among other things, proposing a five-year jail term for lecturers found guilty of sexual harassment of students. But the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), led by Biodun Ogunyemi, president of the union at the time, said that the bill will undermine the autonomy of universities.
Mr Ogunyemi said that universities were established by law as autonomous bodies, adding that there were laws that clearly articulated redress procedures:
“As a global norm, universities and other tertiary institutions are established by law as autonomous bodies and have their own laws regulating their affairs. This includes misconduct generally among both staff and students, with clearly articulated appropriate redress mechanism.
[…]The bill is discriminatory, selective, spiteful, and impulsive and lacks logic and any intellectual base by attacking the character and persons of those in tertiary institutions rather than addressing the issue holistically.
Furthermore, the bill is dangerous and inimical to the institutions as it contains several loose and ambiguous words and terms which could also be used to harass, intimidate, victimise and persecute, especially lecturers, through false accusation.”
He went on to say that the bill was unfair and discriminatory because it was targeted at educators; and sexual harassment is a societal problem and not peculiar to tertiary institutions. He also said that the bill was a violation of section 42(1) of the 1999 constitution, adding that it was embarrassing that the legislative arm could seek to make such law that would violate the constitution.
The union said that the bill failed to provide convincing evidence to show that sexual harassment in tertiary institutions had attained a higher magnitude than other spheres of the society, even though a casual Google search would show that the sexual harassment of girls and women at places of education is on the increase.
But how could they Google search? Many Nigerian lecturers cannot use the internet.
The National Universities Commission (NUC), on the other hand, supported the introduction of the bill “in view of its relevance” and called for its passage, and called on the senate to extend the scope of the bill to cover primary and secondary schools.
And the worst part? It’s 2018 and this bill is still in front of the senate, because Nigerian lecturers are still opposing it. If you need further evidence that Nigeria does not value or respect its women it’s right here. You see, women, we have to fight for ourselves, because clearly, no one else is going to do it.
