The Insight by Lateef Adewole
Like I often said, Nigeria is a country full of dramas. There is hardly a week that passes without issues that will break the Internet. In the past one week, many have happened. The ending of the Big Brother Naija (BBN) on Sunday, with Mercy winning the grand price. The news there was the humongous number of votes recorded during the show. It was record-breaking. Despite that voting by SMS costs 30 naira per vote, the chunk of the total votes came through that means, the show recorded over 240 million votes! It was incredible.
This is a country where the total number of votes cast during the last general election to choose who leads Nigeria (president), was less than 30 million. This should be a source of concern for both the leadership and the citizens of Nigeria, as well as the electoral body, INEC. Something is wrong in the way things are done in our electoral processes.
The other news was the rumoured planned marriage of our dear President Buhari to one of his ministers, Hajia Sadiya Umar Farouk, the current Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, which was expected to take place yesterday, Friday. It turned out to be a fluke after all.
The one that has been trending for days now is the “bombshell” released on Monday. It was a video documentary reported by BBC. It involved an undercover investigative journalist, Kiki Mordi, who posed as a 17 year old admission seeker into the University of Lagos (UNILAG). It was the climax of about two years of investigation into sexual abuse/harassment of students by some lecturers.
This found her being sexually harassed in what has been trending as #SexForGrades. The video vividly shows a lecturer in the department of European Languages and Integrated Studies, Dr. Boniface Igbeneghu demanding for sex from Kiki, in exchange for helping her to secure admission into the university. This man is a former sub-dean of the faculty and a Senior Pastor of Foursquare Church. He even engaged Kiki in prayer before beginning his “preying” on her. What a blasphemy!
In the process, many other atrocities being perpetrated within the school by other lecturers have been coming out. The “abattoir”, where females students are “slaughtered” (sexually) by the lecturers, in the Staff Guest house called “cold room”, was exposed. It has now been shut down by the school authority.
Another lecturer, Dr. Samuel Oladipo of the department of Economics, was also indicted in the scandal. The two lecturers have been suspended from the university, while the authority carries out further investigation. Many former students have since been narrating their odious experience while in the school. Likewise, many other stories from various schools across the country have bombarded the internet. It is such a huge mess.
The BBC investigation was not only in Nigeria but in the higher institutions in West Africa. University of Ghana was the focus in Ghana. Two lecturers were also exposed there. Dr. Paul Kwame of the College of Education is one of them, according to the report.
The wife of the governor of Ekiti state, Erelu Bisi Fayemi even corroborated such stories. She said she was also sexually harassed while in the university. She did not give further details about the incident. This only showed how endemic the situation is and the monstrous nature of what we are dealing with.
We can all recall the incident with Professor Richard Akindele of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) and Monica Osagie. He is serving 6 year jail term as I write now. Just last week, it was in the news that the management of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, sacked 15 lecturers for the same offence. That followed months of investigation. Sadly, the situation is the same all over the country.
In choosing what title to give this article, I had a hectic time. This was because, while it is #SexForGrade that has been trending, the story was precisely about #SexForAdmission. Also, I did not want to narrow the write-up to that singular incident. Or where would we classify; sex for employment, sex for promotion, sex for position, sex for anointing, sex for spiritual deliverance, and all kind of ways sex is used in “exchange” for one thing or another?
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I deliberately choose the word “exchange”. This is to highlight the flip side of the sexual assault too. All the hashtags, as listed above depict situations where someone in a position of advantage uses such position to sexually harass the person in need of something within is circle of influence.
There are many cases where it is also the other way round. In such situations, it is the person seeking help who would actually present the “helper” with the offer of sex in exchange for what they need. They can go to any length to seduce such helper. That is still sexual assault, though, it does not gain prominence, since the help seeker is seen from the point of disadvantage.
Similarly, sexual harassment is not exclusive to a man harassing a woman. It can be the other way round as well. After this incident blew up, a man, who was a former student in a school, posted that he dropped out of that school due to the serious sexual harassment he faced from female lecturer.
In my considerations, I simply limited the scope to interpret as sexual harassment in Nigeria and Africa. If the scale used in the Western world is to be applied, where amorous gestures like blowing a distance kiss to a stranger, winking, inappropriate physical contacts, etc, with the opposite sex, can be considered sexual harassment, then, over 90 percent of men in Nigeria may be guilty of it, at one time or another. Let us all search our minds. There lies the truth.
Or, how many male bosses slap the buttocks of their female subordinates? How many male colleagues or friends prefer “chest-to-chest” hugging of their female counterparts, especially when such ladies are busty, just to “tap current” (as they say in local parlance)? How many “ogas” sleep with their female house helps? How many “madams” sleep with their gate men or drivers? How many employers demand sex from applicants before they can give them jobs? How many filmmakers ask for sex to get roles in movies?
We have heard cases of fathers sexually assaulting their own daughters. Doctors molesting patients. Warders assaulting prisoners. Police exploiting female accused. Political office holders intimidating their appointees or subordinates. Coaches assaulting their trainees. And so on. All sexually. It is all over the place.
Even in the religious houses. Do we even know how many innocent girls and female adults that Pastor Dr. Boniface could have sexually assaulted in his church, in the name of ministering to them and “saving” their souls? Worst still, such victims hardly come out because they may not be believed. The Busola Dakolo’s allegations against Pastor Biodun Fatoyinbo of COZA Church is still unresolved till now. Many other so-called “men of God” have been accused at one time or another.
Muslim clerics are also not exempted. The story that broke out about the 300 children “imprisoned” in Kaduna, in the name of teaching Islamic education and were being sexually abused, is an example. Likewise in many other corners where individual “alfas” practice their “personal” trades, (not in the name of Islam). Many do take advantage of the desperation and vulnerability of those who visit them for “spiritual assistance”.
What makes the issue of sexual harassment in schools critical, not only higher institutions but down to the primary schools, is the importance of the position that those who commit such atrocities occupy. They are teachers, the guidance to these children and are considered “locos parentis” to them.
Going to school to acquire education is not what is treated with levity. It is not as if a student can just run away from the school because of sexual harassment and simply enroll in another school, especially with higher education. The difficulty in gaining admission these days alone can frustrate any student to become desperate and vulnerable, thereby give-in to the sexual predator. It is unfortunate.
This is also something that has to do with their future, their entire life. What will happen to them if they drop out, is a typical question that will agitate their minds. Therefore, they simply succumbed and accept it as their fate. And move on. But do they truly move on? That is a scar that cannot be obliterated, no matter how long. It will remain on their minds, in their hearts.
Let us not forget the unfortunate parts that many female students do play in causing such problems too. Like a lecturer from University of Benin (UNIBEN), Professor Okwechime Emmanuel said in reaction to the UNILAG incident, he complained how female students sexually harass them too as lecturers, with their provocative mode of dressing. He stated that many of the girls wear clothes that hardly cover their nudity. Massive portion of their breasts popping out to the full glare of the lecturers, micro/mini skirts that barely cover their buttocks or very tight body-hugs that accentuate their “tempting” feminine shapes.
Lecturers are humans too. And that these female students do all this with reckless abandon. And sometimes, deliberately. He called that sexual harassment of lecturers by the female students too. He accused many of the girls of wanting “STD” (Sexually Transmitted Degree). While there are truths in what he said, that cannot be an excuse for sexual assaults of female students by the male lecturers. It is not acceptable.
We all have a share of the blame in this. Many parents do not know what lives their children live on campuses. They often assume, albeit wrongly, that their obligations as parents end with finance. They leave their children to their devices. This gives many girls the freedom to misbehave, dress anyhow on campus. Parents need to change such attitude. They need to monitor their children both at home and when they are in school.
The girls need to mend their ways where they fall short too. Dressing provocatively, exposing their bodies, and so on, will always make them targets for sexual harassment or even rape. They need to be cautious. They should also face their studies, read their books, and pass their exams by themselves, rather than looking for shortcuts to pass.
The society also complicate it. The possibility of shaming the victims, make them shy away from speaking out. Rather than the victims be assisted and given needed supports, they are subjected to ridicule. Some people can even begin to justify such actions by asking what the female student was doing with the man or why she dresses in a particular way. This needs to stop.
The school management at all levels must begin to take the issue of sexual harassment more seriously too. It has become one too many. There should be stricter measures taken to prevent it. And where it happens, it should not be treated with kid-gloves as we often seen. Whoever is found culpable should be dealt with accordingly, no matter how highly placed in such institution. This is how we can begin to curb this menace.
Also, the constitution is intricate when case of rape or sexual harassment is concerned. It is herculean task proving it. This thereby allows the culprits to escape punishment, and make him or her continues to prey on other victims. The law may need to be revisited, make rape or sexual assault to be more easily provable, so that appropriate punishment can be served to the culprits. That will serve as deterrent to others.
We must also begin to resurrect our own African cultures where they are “dead” or abandoned. We used to be a decent society, a decent people who do things with moderation, until we began to slavishly copy foreign cultures. Our modes of dressing, ways of lives were not previously like this. No better time to go back to our roots than now.
May God continue to guide us aright.
God Bless Nigeria.
Lateef Adewole is a political analyst and social commentator can be reached by email lateefadewole23@gmail.com or via WhatsApp +2348020989095
