Ladies of Delight Blog

I was just a girl when I first heard about professors in Nigerian universities demanding for sex from female students to pass courses. I would eavesdrop on conversations had by my older cousins and young aunts in University, and over time from hearing it mentioned repeatedly and in a resigned manner, I became scared for the future. I became sacred of entering the university,I even made up my mind never to go near any lecturer’s office without wearing long skirts and looking very undesirable. So many times I feel being female is tough.

It came as a shock that professors could deliberately hamper, delay and even destroy the academic success of a female student, all to satiate a sexual urge. These are people who are even meant to fight against any form of harassment and accord students the marks they merit. Sexual harassment of any form is an abhorrent behaviour that has been allowed to go unchecked for a long time.

Sexual harassment delays and destroys the advancement of women. So many women lose out on opportunities to succeed by simply saying no, and that fills me with lots of anger. I know some ladies will readily offer their body for marks or favours without being asked to, I still feel it is the lecturer’s responsibility to stop it and take necessary actions.

My belief is that the world remains the same when we are too afraid to challenge it. So challenge it, we must.

It gladdens my heart to know that a month has been set aside for the awareness of sexual harassment and how to curb it. It is starting to make headlines everywhere. Recently a professor in my university was involved in a sex for mark scandal, asking to sleep with a female student five times so he can upgrade her marks from 33 to 40, which is equivalent to a D. I was almost asking myself ‘’what if she wanted an ‘A’ how many times will he sleep with her? The school management have taken the matter up and as at yesterday it was heard that the professor has been suspended while other investigations are ongoing.

Justice can be done. Let’s all force this so called ‘’norm’’ out of the system because it is highly abnormal and doesn’t speak well of anyone doing such.

I ENCOURAGE EVERYONE TO VOICE OUT.

SEXUAL ASSAULT AWARENESS- OLAYINKA OLASENI ( A content writer, language lover, volunteer enthusiast and a global advocate)

Today, it is not difficult to find a significant number out of ten people who were previously or are currently victims of sexual harassment. As a matter of fact, the media is rocked with news of such happenings from time to time. Sexual harassment is an infringement of an individual's right. Without doubt, both males and females can be victims of sexual harassment, although cases affecting the latter are more frequently spoken of than that of the former.

In this part of the world, Southwest Nigeria to be precise, sexual harassment, especially the ones involving women, does not seem like it is about to end anytime soon, on the contrary, there seems to be a growing occurrence of it.  The reasons are not difficult to understand.

To start with, the society and her value system is anti-female. When such incidents are recorded, the members of the society usually are ever ready to vilify the woman involved and give reasons why it is her fault for being a victim. In cases where the men are victims, the men have already been made to feel like it is a shame for such to happen after all it is a patriarchal society.

In addition, it is not helpful to note that victims are not encouraged to speak out. Silence does translate to consent, sometimes. Without the ability to raise a loud and powerful voice to combat sexual harassment, perpetrators will continue to indulge in the act. Without taking it a step further to enforce severe punishment against this crime, others will join in the act and escape freely.

That sexual harassment will be a thing of the past or reduce to the barest minimum, I believe that the society has to develop empathy towards victims and support them all the way.
It is equally necessary to have regulations and laws put up to punish those guilty of the act.

To sum it all up, more and more awareness against sexual assault and harassment should continue to be raised. Beyond days and months marked to raise this awareness, we must all ensure that it becomes an important priority to do so at all time.

SEXUAL ASSAULT AWARENESS- ADESHINA OPEYEMI ALEXANDER ( A writer, a budding lawyer, human rights advocate)

It is my suggestion that in order to end the scourge of sexual harassment and sexual assault cases that have bedevilled the Nigerian society, stringent laws against sexual harassment are enacted by the legislature. In 2016 Senator Ovie Omo- Agege and 46 other sponsors presented The Sexual Harassment Bill to the Senate to punish educators who breach the fiduciary relationship between teacher and student by sexually harassing their students and seeking sexual gratification. 

According to Omo Agege “The bill provides a compulsory five-year jail term for lecturers who sexually harass students. When passed into law, vice chancellors of universities, rectors of polytechnics and other chief executives of institutions of higher learning will go to jail for two years if they fail to act within a week on complaints of sexual harassment made by students. The bill expressly allows sexually harassed students, their parents or guardians to seek civil remedies in damages against sexual predator lecturers before or after their successful criminal prosecution by the State,’'. It is however sad that as of today this bill has not been enacted by the National Assembly, although it was passed at the Senate, it suffered a major setback at the House of Representatives because the in the opinion of the Reps members the bill was not all encompassing enough as it focused solely on sexual harassment in the Tertiary institutions. In the words of a Representative from Osun, Ayo Omidiran she said “As a woman, I know sexual harassment can take place anywhere be it in market, church or work place; sexual harassment is sexual harassment anywhere and women too, harass men not only men harass women so there should be different segments of harassment and it should be accommodated in the bill.” 

The decision of the House of Representatives is with good intent however the delay is unfavourable as there are more persons suffering in silence because of the delay, hence it is submitted that the Bill be reviewed quickly and passed into law.

Secondly, every institution, organization, company etc. should have well written work and office regulations and punishments against sexual harassment that will be clearly spelt out to workers from time to time so that they do not err,

Finally, it is my advice to victims of sexual harassment to defy the culture of silence by speaking out and coming out to accuse those that harass them sexually. The culture of being quiet has not helped anybody, it does not help the victim neither does it help future victims of the harasser however when the harassed victim publicly shames the harasser for the improper  then it would definitely deter others from doing same for fear of being exposed and subject to ridicule with the antecedent embarrassment that follows. With all that has been said there is still a need for the Sexual Harassment Bill to be revisited and passed in to Law and I do hope the Nigerian National Assembly lives up to expectation.

Thanks for reading guys! Raise your Voice, Embrace Your Voice, Stand up for the change you want!