By Kemi Yesufu

Sexual harassment in tertiary institutions is a universal problem. A pointer to the universality of the challenge is the ban on sexual and romantic relationships between undergraduates and faculty members by Ivy League institutions like Harvard, Yale and Stanford.

Here in Nigeria, the government and the university authorities have played the ostrich when it comes to this ugly trend. As with sexual crimes in the larger society, government and university authorities have hidden under the culture of silence to watch as survivors are blamed and punished while offenders walk free. However, the situation is changing gradually with more survivors speaking up. In August 2023, female students of the Laws Faculty at the University of Calabar protested years of sexual harassment and in certain cases rape, with the angry students identifying the suspended Dean of the faculty, Prof Cyril Ndifon as the man who made their lives a misery.

As the system tried to cover up and protect the untouchable Dean, the Independent Corrupt. Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) sprang into action, just like it did with the case of a former lecturer at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Richard Akindele. The former lecturer who was eventually convicted and jailed for sexual harassment has been released from prison after serving a two-year term. The ICPC is currently prosecuting Ndifon’s case.

Sadly, the cases mentioned earlier are some of the very few instances where predatory lecturers and other vile characters in the university system faced the law for their heinous crimes against young women who walked into schools with the sole aim of acquiring an education. Many girls who couldn’t handle the pressure from lecherous lecturers dropped out of school while in May, a final-year student of the English Department of Ebonyi State took her life after repeatedly failing the course of a lecturer who had sexually harassed and intimidated her for years.

Undoubtedly, sexual harassment and the ugly culture of sex-for-grades in tertiary institutions have assumed epidemic proportions. Research by Joseph Adesoji et al (2023) puts the percentage of students who have experienced sexual harassment in higher institutions in the country at (49.7%). All of the respondents in the study were sexually harassed in school, while, (48.3%) were sexually harassed more than once. Also, a recent baseline study conducted by, an Owerri-based feminist NGO, Alliances For Africa (AfA) in two universities showed that about 70% of students have experienced a form of sexual harassment.

Read more @: https://frontlinenews.com.ng/opinion-combating-sexual-harassment-in-tertiary-institutions/