Members
of the Female Students Association led by its president Miss Idongesit Micah reportedly
stormed the National Assembly (Senate) Abuja, to show their support to the Bill
for a law imposes stiff penalties on offenders in its overall objective of
providing tighter statutory protection for students against sexual hostility
and all forms of sexual harassment in tertiary institutions.
The
bill is said to prescribe five-year jail term for lecturers sexually harassing
female students.
The Vanguard reported that the sponsor of the bill senator Ovie Omo-Agege, Delta
Central, has urged all female students, through the National Female Students
Association of Nigeria, to present a memorandum to the Senate to chronicle
their demands during a public hearing on the bill on sexual harassment in
tertiary institutions 2016.
According
to Senator Omo- Agege, the bill, which he sponsored with 45 other senators, did
not come about by accident but were driven by a problem which has been on for a
very long time that the Senate has been trying to fix.
Speaking
when he received members of the Female Students Association of Nigeria, Senator
Omo-Agege described sexual harassment of female students by lecturers as
totally unacceptable.
He
said the bill was targeted at the few bad eggs who had continued to perpetrate
the act in the nation’s universities and other tertiary institutions.
The
president of the association Miss Micah said‘’ female students are afraid of
being humiliated by lecturers or being stigmatized among students. And even
when she speaks up to the school authorities, little or nothing is always done
about it. The students expressed great delight that the Bill has passed through
second reading in the floor of Senate”
Speaking
with the sponsor of the Bill, Senator Ovie Omo Agege, Micah cited recent cases
of Queens College, Yaba, Lagos, University of Calabar and so on, where female
students were sexually assaulted.
She
added that a lot of female students have drop out of school, end up with low
grades while some fail respective courses and don’t speak up for fear of
stigmatization, backlash, character assassination, victimization, among others.
She
added that the growing abuse of female students is orchestrated by lack of
consistent and clear policy by school governing bodies and school authorities
concerning sexual harassment hence her opinion that an independent and unbiased
Committee be set up in tertiary institutions to look into cases of sexual
harassment.
In
his reaction, Senator Agege stated that institutions of higher learning across
Nigeria must be sanitized to get rid of lecturers who see female students as
“prize”.
He
further said, when passed into law, Vice Chancellors, Rectors, Provosts and
Chief Executive of institutions of higher learning will face a two year jail
term if they fail to act within a week on complaints of sexual harassment made
by female students.
In
response, the Students’ Union Government President, University of Benin, Miss
Lauretta Obakpolo, thanked the Distinguished Senator for taking up the plight
of Nigerian Female Students and urged all and sundry to support the Bill.
Others
who made remarks were Fatima Muhammad of University of Abuja, Omofon Mark, Vice
President, Students’ Union Government, University of Uyo.
