Eradicating sexual abuse on our campuses
Last week the Obafemi Awolowo University Ife, announced the dismissal of Prof Richard Akindele of the Department of Accounting of the University, for demanding sex to upgrade the mark of a female postgraduate student, Ms Monica Osagie. The Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof Eyitope Ogunbodede announced the verdict of the council at a press conference at the university. He said the Senate, as well as the Governing Council of the University found the lecturer liable of all the allegations levelled against him and subsequently ordered his sacking.
According to the Vice Chancellor, “Professor Akindele had an inappropriate relationship with his student, Miss Osagie. This was established through their conversation in an audio recording; his reply to the query; oral evidence and the printed WhatsApp conversation tendered before the committee. He had acted in a manner that is seen to have compromised his position as a teacher and examiner, in that his conversation with Miss Osagie was about examination scores and inducement of favour for the alteration of examination scores. He offered to change Miss Osagie’s purported 33 percent result to a pass mark in consideration for sexual favours; this was established in the audio recording which he admitted.”
The university rightly surmised that “Professor Akindele operated in a position of power and authority over Miss Osagie and as such sexually harassed her.”
We commend the university for promptly and transparently investigating the matter and applying the appropriate sanctions prescribed by the laws of the university. That is the least it could do to salvage its image that was on the line over the scandal.
But the university had little option in the matter anyway. The power and ubiquity of social media has ensured that such matters can no longer be swept under the carpet as was previously the case. Make no mistake about it, sexual harassment in our universities is more widespread than the authorities would admit and they have failed to tackle the problem or lay down stringent rules to prevent its occurrence.
In 2012, a pilot ICPC/NUC University System Study and Review (USSR) of corruption in the university system was undertaken and the review identified a series of infractions including admissions racketeering, misapplication and embezzlement of funds, sale of examination questions, inducement to manipulate awards of degrees, direct cheating during examinations, deliberate delays in the release of results, victimization of students by officials, lack of commitment to work by lecturers, and above all, sexual harassment and exploitation of students by lecturers. At the presentation of the report in 2012, the ICPC Chairman, Mr Ekpo Nta, was quoted as saying: “we have uncovered many corrupt practices in our universities. Sexual harassment seems to rank extremely very high among corrupt practices in our universities. Our report is based on the quantum of petitions we have received on this corrupt practice. We’re emphasizing this because sexual harassment has to do with the immediate challenge we need to address.”
In fact, the rampant cases of reported cases of sexual harassment in our tertiary institution forced the Senate in 2016, to propose a bill, known as the Sexual Harassment in Tertiary Education Institution Bill, which prescribes a 5 year jail term for lecturers and educators convicted of sexual harassment of either their male or female students and also ban lecturer-student relationships altogether.
According to the sponsor of the Bill, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, there was virtually no family in Nigeria that does not have someone who had been harassed or approached by a lecturer in an institution of higher learning in Nigeria. As he puts it: “Indeed there is no family in Nigeria where you don’t find a victim of sexual harassment…It is either your wife when she was younger or your daughter, your sister or even a niece who has gone through the tertiary education system at one point or the other…You will find out that they have had this brush with these lecturers who continue to see these young women as perquisite of their office as lecturers. We feel that is unacceptable. We have to put a stop to it.”
In the case of Professor Akindele, a perennial sexual predator on campus, Miss Osagie was reported to have reported him severally to the department and his colleagues, but neither the department nor any of his colleagues could do anything to help me until she decided to take her fate in her own hands. It shows the practice is widespread and the university may just be acting because of the negative publicity that followed the release of the tape.
We call on the government and university authorities to do much more than they are currently doing to tackle the menace. A way to begin is to outlaw any form of sexual or romantic relationships between students and teachers in the university and lay down comprehensive sexual harassment codes.
We also call on students who are often powerless and victims of these predators to employ more the instrumentality of social media to expose those sexual predators and rapists masquerading as academics in our universities.