Sexual harassment, as an act, is as old
as man. But until recently, it was learnt, there was no law, in the
country, specifically targeted at tackling the menace, which has
remained a recurring decimal in virtually all universities’ campuses,
without exception.o
Alarmed at the rate of the menace on
campuses, the Senate recently, passed a Bill, which would in the
thinking of the Senate, helped stem the tide of the menace.
But some lecturers think that the issue
was being over-exaggerated, as such, they are asking the Nigerian
lawmakers to concentrate their energies on other worthy ventures, and
not mundane ones, like sexual harassment.
The Bill, known as the Sexual Harassment
in Tertiary Education Institution Bill, prescribes a 5-year jail term
for lecturers and educators convicted of sexual harassment of either
their male or female students, just as it made provisions for a fine of
N5 million, should the accused be convicted by a competent court of law.
And taking into cognisance, the fact
that some students may just take advantage of the law, to raise false
alarm, the Bill, it was further gathered, has also provided cover, for
this category of lecturers, but not without a caveat. The caveat is that
the lecturer, so falsely accused, must be acquitted by a competent
court of law. Once that happens, the Student, who raised the false alarm
“shall be expelled or suspended, as the University deems fit.”
According to the lecturer, Dr. Aniekan
Brown, who is a Senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology,
University of Uyo, the law was a case of vendetta from the Senate,
against the academic community, since the Senate has not told Nigerians
what constitutes sexual harassment.
“As we speak, officially, I don’t think
that we have up 150,000 people who lecture in the Nigerian universities.
And out of about 181 million Nigerians, the Senate, in the myriad of
laws available for them to evolve, will target academic staff, something
tells me there is something vendetta about that.
“Granted, it is their responsibility
to make laws; but I wished they had started with themselves, by
beginning to query how much of harassment they have offered to women as
Senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria before getting to deal with
some other Nigerians.
“I’m not saying that there may not be
harassment here and there. It happens in banks; it happens everywhere.
But it shouldn’t be particularised to any sub-sector of the Nigerian
economy; it should be full blown. But for them to zero in on the
Nigerian lecturers, it means there is something personal about it. So,
what happens if somebody doesn’t harass from the university, but begin
to harass from the bank point of view, from church, from Senate, from
mosque and every other place?
“So, when you sit back, you realise that
it was myopic for them to want to close in on lecturers. In any case, I
don’t expect any lecturer to fall prey to such a farce. And on the
whole, I think the Senators would have thought of better things, instead
of coming to deal with this minute issue,” Brown, said.
On her part, a female lecturer in the
Communication Arts Department, Dr Nevelyn Bata, said there was need to
be careful, because, some of the sexual harassment claims, students
make, are spurious.
“But if the claims are verifiable, I
think, there should be some restrictions to help bring down the
incidences, if at all it exists. I’m saying if at all it exists
because, all the time I had stayed in the University as a student, I
wasn’t harassed. So, when you hear of claims of lecturers harassing
students, it sounds strange to those who never had the experience,” she
added.
She said further that most of those who
raise the alarm are those “who have issues, who don’t sit down to read;
they have issues in their academics and when they fail they begin to
cook up all stories. Well, for lecturers, who would condescend to harass
students who they are old enough to be parents to, I think, the law
should catch up with them.”
Like his colleague, Dr. Aniedi Ikpang,
who is the Dean, Faculty of Law of the University of Uyo, also argued
that there were more pressing things in the country that the National
Assembly could have legislated on; since, by his own claim, he has never
received any report or experienced any sexual harassment since becoming
a lecturer more than 15 years ago.
Read More: The Sun News
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