THERE is hardly any sign that the repulsive sex-for-marks culture in Nigeria’s tertiary education system will abate anytime soon. Rather, another scandal has just become public knowledge at the University of Lagos, Akoka, courtesy of a documentary by the BBC. It is very shocking – and messy. At the centre of it are Boniface Igbeneghu, a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Arts, and Samuel Oladipo of the Department of Economics. Both were caught in the BBC sting operation allegedly seducing an admission seeker.
In a video that has gone viral, the sordid revelation hints at the prevalence of sexual molestation of female undergraduates in our universities and polytechnics. The lecturer, who is also a pastor in a popular Pentecostal church, used various methods to solicit sex from the BBC undercover reporter, Kiki Mordi. Not minding that Mordi, who posed as an admission seeker, claimed to be 17 years old, Igbeneghu reportedly invited her to a series of meetings and proposed sex to her. Among other salacious tips, Igbeneghu allegedly unravelled UNILAG Senior Staff Club’s “cold room,” where innocent undergraduates are sexually abused by callous predators old enough to be the parents of these traumatised souls. Here, sexually explicit expressions are rampant. This sounds brutish. Rightly, the school authorities have suspended both Igbeneghu and Oladipo, pending the outcome of investigations, and summarily closed down the “cold room” – the nest of illegal sex on the campus.
Indeed, UNILAG’s decision may look good on paper, but is cold comfort to many female undergraduates that suffer in silence from the lecherous activities of randy teachers. In 2018, the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, dismissed a professor, Richard Akindele, for sexual offences. His former student, Monica Osagie, accused him of demanding five sex sessions to pass her. She recorded their conversations, the audio of which shocked the nation. An Osogbo high court later sentenced Akindele to a two-year jail term.
In 2018, an associate professor of Economics at the Lagos State University, Ojo, was entrapped with the help of an NGO, demanding sexual favours from a female student. Fellow students also caught an accounting lecturer at the Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti, literally pants down as he attempted to harass a female student. In October 2011, the then provost of the Ebonyi State College of Education, Ikwo, Silas Omebe, announced the suspension of five lecturers for extortion and sexually abusing students. A dean at the University of Abuja was also uncovered in a sting operation demanding sex in exchange for marks from yet another female student. There is hardly any higher institution where this pandemic has not caught on. The then head of the English Department, University of Ilorin, allegedly resigned after a video surfaced in which he appeared to have harassed a 200-level female student.
Universities are not only learning environments, but places where students socialise, develop relationships and live. So, sexual harassment can permeate a female student’s entire environment. Unlike sexual harassment outside the campus, women who experience sexual harassment on the campus may well live and study in close proximity to the perpetrator. Studies conducted under the auspices of UNESCO reveal that sexual harassment of female students result in outcomes ranging from shame, loss of self-esteem, unwanted pregnancies, poor academic performance and, in some extreme cases, suicide. These are borne out in a United Kingdom parliamentary report that said sexual harassment experienced at university can lead to psychological, emotional and physical harm, as well as negatively impacting victims’ studies. “In one study, of those students who had experienced sexual violence, 27 per cent contemplated suicide or self-harm, 15 per cent developed an eating disorder and 15 per cent abused alcohol or drugs. Fifty per cent experienced a negative impact on their academic performance and 11 per cent indicated that the progress of their studies was delayed.”
Tackling female sexual harassment head-on requires more than the suspension or dismissal of culprits. Sexual assault is a criminal act and should be treated as such. In the United States, the approach is much more radical. Universities are, by law, required to protect students against sexual harassment. The critical requirement is creating many uninhibited and non-bureaucratic accesses for students to report sexual harassment to university authorities. It is, therefore, incumbent on governing councils and vice-chancellors to institute mechanisms that will ensure that the depravity is vehemently confronted. With the increasing sex-for-marks scourge that makes nonsense of the degrees awarded from such unholy unions, universities worth their names must enact code of conduct governing female students-teachers relationship, which must be religiously monitored.
The infamy is helped along by a general atmosphere of fear engendered by official cover-up and a rally in defence of errant lecturers by their colleagues and school managements. Stories abound of students being given the option of paying large sums of money to pass in lieu of offering sex, while many institutions’ authorities look the other way or live perpetually in denial. Female victims should be encouraged to speak out and be protected by the authorities from victimisation. Students’ union governments on all campuses, which are supposed to be vibrant platforms for combating this vice and seeking the welfare of female students, should wake up now.
Universities need to update their discipline procedures to address harassment, provide clear information on how to report an incident and offer greater support for students who report harassment. Organising periodic training and campaign for staff and students on sexual harassment will help in keeping the scourge on the front-burner of university life.
UNILAG authorities should properly investigate the BBC report and take steps to protect its students from further harassment.
