Against the background of the recent sting reportage of sexual
\nharassment in Nigerian universities, with special focus on the
\nUniversity of Lagos, I am surprised that many Nigerians are feigning
\nignorance of the ravaging scourge of sex-for-mark practice which infests
\nour tertiary institutions. There was nothing new or too salacious about
\nthe BBC report. There was nothing more fundamental revealed in the
\nreport than what we had all been noticing and what had been hitherto
\nreported in both the mainstream and social media for a long time now.
\nSexual harassment is as old as the university system itself and awarding
\ngrades for sexual gratification has been an age-old reality that had
\ndogged the university system in Nigeria. So there was nothing new
\nrevealed in the sting report by BBC. There was nothing to elicit the
\nkind of societal commotion the BBC report elicited.<\/p>\n
Lest we walk away with a fa\u00e7ade; sexual predation is not restricted to
\nthe university system alone. It is not a malaise that happens only in
\nthe tertiary institutions. In fact, increasing predilection to trade sex
\nfor one favour or the other traverse all human sectors. It is a disease
\nthat does not select its victims. It inflicts every sector, every age
\nrange, every gender, every strata of the society and it is not
\nrestricted to Nigeria alone. What becomes abhorrent and the reason why
\nits debilitating effects in the tertiary sector of the country\u2019
\neducational system is generating s much furore is that it goes to churn
\nout graduates that hawk what someone derisively calls sexually
\ntransmitted degrees and these hawkers go on to seize the critical
\nsectors of the country\u2019s life and permeate such decay and rot that
\nhave plagued the Nigerian society.<\/p>\n
But there are so many misnomers about our most recent concern about
\nsexual harassment in Nigeria\u2019s tertiary institutions. Apart from the
\nmistake we make by thinking that sexual harassment is restricted to our
\neducational sector, we are collectively misled into thinking that it is
\nabout male lecturers preying on female students. That is a gargantuan
\nmistake. Female lecturers also prey on male students and most
\nimportantly, with the upsurge of same-sex relationships sweeping through
\nthe country, female lecturers also prey on female students to curry
\nsexual favour in exchange for marks. Even at that, in many cases, it is
\nthe students that hawk sex to get grades from lecturers and this is very
\nimportant in trying to deal with this anomie. The tertiary institutions
\nin Nigeria are heavily padded with students who ought not be in the
\nuniversity but who, one way or the other, find their ways in our
\ninstitutions and depend on hawking sex for grades. So in most of the
\ncases, female students generously trade sex for marks and we should take
\nthis into cognizance in dealing with this issue.<\/p>\n
Again, it is surprising that, because the University of Lagos was
\nemployed for the sting reportage, many Nigerians wrongly feel it is a
\nscourge restricted to UNILAG. That is a na\u00efve reasoning. The malaise is
\nmuch more entrenched in universities that do not hug the kind of
\nexposure and limelight UNILAG enjoys. It is a widespread nuisance that
\nrequires a far-reaching solution to deal with. Also, it is wrong, as I
\nhave already stated, to believe that it is a recent and restricted
\nanomie. It is neither recent nor is it restricted to tertiary
\ninstitutions alone. It ravages every area of human endeavor. We also
\nnote that many parents are aware and encourage this dastardly act from
\ntheir wards as they share the noxious belief that the end justifies the
\nmeans.<\/p>\n
Then also, the sex-for-grade vice operates alongside cash-for-grade
\nmonster where students are equally required to trade cash for unearned
\ngrades. Both combine to deal ruthlessly with the quality of the academia
\nand the emergent products of tertiary schools in Nigeria. The attendant
\ncalamitous damage this deals with the society where these products are
\nunleashed is there for all to see.<\/p>\n
Having said these, we, as a nation, must take the challenge the BBC
\nsting reportage presented us to start putting down durable measures to
\ncurb the menace of sexual predation in our tertiary institutions, even
\nif it is for the purpose of safeguarding our degrees from being rightly
\nseen as sexually transmitted degrees with its attendant deleterious
\neffects on our educational system and the corrosive damage to our
\nnation. It is apt to say that sexual predation where lecturers prey on
\nstudents and students prey on lecturers has become an accepted norm in
\nNigerian tertiary schools because there had been literarily no measures,
\nlaws or statutes trusted to deal with this. With time, university
\nauthorities have come to accept this as normal and have been lax in
\ndealing with the very few cases that get reported. This has made this
\nvice to flower to the extent that a lecturer makes indecent proposition
\nto a someone he is meeting for the first time, as the BBC sting
\nreportage revealed. Denying that it is exists or that it is widespread
\nis the hypocritical way authorities and staff employ to trivialize the
\nissue.<\/p>\n
If we are desirous of dealing with this cankerworm, it is my honest
\nopinion that the government must come up and enforce stricter laws and
\nback it up with institutions, present n all campuses where cases could
\nbe reported, investigated and quickly prosecuted to ensure that
\nculprits; both lecturers and students are adequately punished with
\nstrict sentences that involve rustication and jailing. An agency should
\nbe created for the purpose of tracking such cases and this agency should
\nhave presence in all tertiary institutions.<\/p>\n
Also, there should be greater attention to the quality of academe that
\nprevail in our tertiary institutions. Both lecturers and students need
\nto go through rigorous examinations both at the point of entry and in
\nthe course of their duties to ensure that only those who qualify to be
\nat tertiary institutions both as lecturers and students find their ways
\nto these instructions. A situation where ill-qualified students and
\nlecturers predominate our schools makes trading sex for marks
\ninevitable.<\/p>\n
The nation\u2019s educational curriculum should be reviewed to ensure that
\neternal examiners feauture more regularly in the course of studentship
\nto ensure that a student\u2019s grades rhymes with his academic capacity.
\nLeaving single lecturers decide the fates of students have given room
\nfor such illicit acts that flower trading sex for marks\/ a student may
\nbe called in the course of his studentship to defend his performance or
\nre-graded. Similarly, students must have inalienable rights to call up
\nfor their papers and have them re-assessed where they feel victimized
\nfor reasons of refusing to trade sex for grades.<\/p>\n
To help deal with this scourge, unions and trade groups such as
\nStudents\u2019 Union Governments, ASUU, NASU, etc, should be firmed up,
\nencouraged to monitor this anomie in the various campuses and deploying
\nsuch multi-pronged measures will not only ensure that guilty lecturers
\nare tracked but also ensure innocent lecturers are not targeted by randy
\nstudents for persecution. The intra campus unions should also be
\nequipped with capacities to name and shame lecturers engaged in such
\npractices.<\/p>\n
It is my firm opinion that when the right and qualified students are
\nadmitted to the university and right and qualified lecturers recruited
\ninto the tertiary school system, the abhorrent practice of trading sex
\nfor marks will be greatly reduced so both the government and the various
\nschool authorities need to do more than they are doing at present to
\nensure that only the right and qualified people end up in our tertiary
\nschools.<\/p>\n
As I have said earlier, the tertiary institution is just one of the many
\nsectors ravaged by sexual predation. However, it is understandable why
\nthe issue of sex for grade in tertiary schools should generate concern
\nas it has the capacity to vitiate the quality of education and extend
\nvery corrosive effects on the larger society.<\/p>\n
My honest feeling is that sexual predation thrives in our tertiary
\nintuitions because the systems prevalent in these intuitions tolerate it
\nand have engraved it into the curriculum of these schools. Dealing with
\nthis malaise has ramained elusive because there is a guarded code
\nbinding staff and administrators to protect randy lecturers and not rock
\nthe boat. This has made it impossible to prosecute randy lecturers that
\ntrade sex for academic grades. Faced with the frustration that has been
\nengendered by this ingrained we-feeling by university staff, students
\nhave been made to resign to fate rather than pursue cases of sexual
\npredation by randy lecturers and vice versa. So, the present concern
\nsparked off by the BBC sting reportage offers the nation the best chance
\nto deal with this anomie and rid our educational system the lurid charge
\nof trading in sexually transmitted digress<\/p>\n
Peter ClaverOparah<\/p>\n
Ikeja, Lagos.<\/p>\n