By Dr Nuraddeen Danjuma
Sexual harassment is any unwanted behavior of a sexual nature that makes you feel offended, uncomfortable, intimidated or humiliated.
In all societies and throughout history, sexual harassment is illegal.
It is an unwelcoming act that has been battled with a strong legal framework. Sexual harassment in tertiary institutions is not only happening in Nigerian universities.
Morley in an article titled “sex, grades, and power in higher education in Ghana and Tanzania” found that “sex-for-grades” is the most common form of harassment students faced on campuses.
As reported by CNN a male member of Makerere University (oldest in Uganda) was suspended on the 17th of April, 2018 after a female student accused him of sexual harassment.
Faced with rising cases of sexual harassment in the tertiary institutions, the National Assembly introduced a bill in 2016 with a view to combating sexual harassment and upholds ethics in the nation’s universities.
The bill has been baked on July, 7th 2020, and now awaiting the assent of Mr. President.
According to Nigeria’s Senate President, the proposal is “landmark legislation”.
Indeed I salute the NASS and wished that the proposal is genuine. I also do hope that the 14 years jail term for teaching staff having sexual relationships with their students is not provided out of selfish and dislike for that category of workers.
Indeed the bill is biased against the lecturer because such cases are common in all sectors of the country. However, ‘gwano baya jin warin jikinsa’ (bad eggs do not smell the unpleasant ooze).
While it is clear that in the last few years more lecturers are in the ugly habit of sex for grade, Johnson in Sexual Coercion among Young People also reported that about half of women in Nigerian workplaces have at least once experienced sexual harassment at workplace.
A study by Adejuwon on Attitudes, Norms, and Experiences of Sexual Coercion among Young People showed that 15% of young females reported forced penetrative sexual experience Ibadan, Nigeria.
Why did the law target university lecturers alone?. Didn’t we know of sex for a grade in secondary schools, colleges and polytechnics?. Without prejudice, aren’t we aware of sex for juicy appointments, transfers, and promotions (civil service, politicians and uniform jobs), sex for lucrative contracts (public or private tender institutions), sex for money deposits (bankers), sex for an acting role (media), buggery, etc.
Worryingly so, The law is only interested in ‘sex for grades offenses’ while all sins are sins irrespective of who committed them. Isn’t this nepotism?.
According to Daniel Alarcon, “nepotism is the lowest and least imaginative form of corruption.” Surprisingly, again, there is no explicit provision in the Nigerian Labour Act 2004 that prohibits sexual harassment or any other kind of harassment in the workplace.
The closest is the Labor Standards Bill that was submitted to the National Assembly in 2008 which made provision for sexual harassment. However, that has not been passed into law.
According to ASUU President “We do not agree because the bill is biased against lecturers”.
He added that the Anti-Sexual harassment bill addresses only universities and gives the impression that that is where the problem is, even though it is pervasive in all sectors – police, prison, civil service, private sector, etc.
In my opinion, Nigeria should have a law that holistically addresses sexual harassment because the following few pieces of evidence showed that the problem comparatively happened in other sectors.
The National Population Commission report of 2013 clearly showed that 23 percent of adolescent girls age 15 – 19 years became mothers or pregnant with their first child.
According to the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, there are about 2,279 sexual offenses including rape and indecent assault in 2017 in Nigeria.
In May 2018 four male secondary school students sexually assaulted some of their female peers at Falomo, Ikoyi, Lagos, here too in a secondary school to mark end-of-exams (Edeh, Institute of World Current Affairs January 24, 2018).
A survey published by NOIPolls in July 2019 suggested that up to one in every three girls living in Nigeria could have experienced at least one form of sexual assault by the time they reach 25 years.
The cankerworm is everywhere that even in the hospital sexual harassment is committed.
A friend conducting research on Stigma narrated an ugly story of a female HIV patient that was denied ARV drugs on the simple reason that she didn’t succumb to a pharmacist.
The cases below as reported by BBC on 5th June 2020 during the lockdown also buttresses my point: University student in Benin named Uwavera Omozuwa was allegedly raped and dies in a church after her head is smashed with a fire extinguisher; a 12-year-old girl is raped over two months in Jigawa State; Barakat Bello is allegedly gang-raped and murdered in south-west Oyo state; no arrest has been made; a 17-year-old girl is gang-raped in south-west Ekiti State. In an article published by Daily Trust (July 12, 2020),.
The National Population Commission warned that there is a spike in teen pregnancy in Nigeria in recent months owing to COVID 19 lockdown.
The NPC said there had been a noticeable increase in gender-based violence ranging from rape to physical and emotional assaults on girls, abortions, and possible early school dropouts.
Those are examples of reported cases of sexual harassment outside the universities but shockingly not trending because teachers are not involved. On Monday, July, 13th 2020 a former Acting MD of the NNDC while granting an interview on Arise TV mentioned that she slapped a serving minister over sexual harassment.
Nigeria requires a serious commitment to addressing this menace, not just a feeble law that is ‘a day late and a dollar short’. The law has so many flaws and indeed consists of skewed clauses that crucify university lecturers when the decay is evidently societal.
Evidently, the kangaroo-court law did not cover sexual harassment in the workplace but insisted on the universities.
In an interview with journalists, a figure in the NASS stated that “We have to protect our daughters from predators,” “We want our tertiary institutions to be a very safe environment for everyone, and this is legislation that will ensure that wish.
How female students in higher institutions suffer Sexual assault- report
As if the other category offenders are saints or the women battered in all sectors of Nigeria are dolls.
The law does not also do justice to both parties anyway. What the lawmakers did know or didn’t is that the plaintiffs also harass the dependents. Instead of justice for all, the feeble law provides the only suspension as punishment to students that falsely accused the lecturer of sexual misconduct.
It also stated that “any professor or teaching staff who sexually abuses student will be jailed for 14 years” as if it is a pre-designed trailed movie by an undercover reporter or a revelation. Indeed if any person is to be tailed, he/she will spill all places with water.
This is quite a good law. However, the NASS should be forward-thinking by passing ensembles of the law for all forms of sexual abuses and all manners of ‘convergence and divergence in all sectors.
Both the dependent and plaintiff should be treated equally. Criss Jami said, “when I look at a person, I see the person, not rank, not a class, not a title.” Please NASS “We are all equal in the fact that we are all different.” – C. Joybell C.
Nuraddeen Danjuma, PhD
Bayero University, Kano
