I recall a friend about two decades ago who told me she went into an office to inquire about vacancies and employment. she had just graduated from college. The man she met at the personnels brought out condoms of different colors and asked to pick her favorite color! There should not just be laws protecting kids and women in workplaces and schools, as the Nigerian Universities Commission is pushing for, there should also be awareness programs and compensations for victims .
More importantly, none of this would matter if no one goes to jail for bankrupting the country. The singular most important legacy Buhari can leave is to be the president who instituted the rule of law. Everything else is contained in this act. Without the rule of law, there will be no justice for our girls, or the poor, or our friends ....
If no one goes to jail, Buhari has failed! The country has failed! Yes, everything comes down to this!!
Bode
I posted the link to a tape of a University of Ilorin HOD attempting to rape one of his students in his office and boasting about previous rapes of the same student as well as others. There was no reaction from the usual noisemaking ASUU-affiliated members of this list, who impulsively flock, like flies to spoilt food, to defend ASUU when it comes to matters of the pocket and the union's perennial financial blackmails misnamed strikes. They avoided the topic like a plague. Even our honorable home-based colleagues, who are usually the lone voices of rectitude from the other side of the Atlantic, stayed away from the topic.--The scandal has been raging for several weeks now but ASUU, whether national or the local UniIlorin branch, has yet to issue even a statement. Now we know why. That mediocrity-promoting, money-grabbing body of enablers and perpetrators is, alas, opposed to any effort to hold the large gang of rapist-lecturers and sexual abusers on our campuses accountable. Read the story below and weep for higher education or what's left of it in Nigeria. As usual, when it comes to being held accountable, they shamelessly run and hide under "university autonomy." But somehow, the narrative of autonomy never extends to monetary and compensation issues. ASUU exists simply to help its members to a bigger share of the proverbial national cake while protecting them from having to actually do their jobs and from being held accountable for this failure and for crimes against students.What a shame! Nonsense!'Sex-for-marks bill' is a violation of our rights, say lecturers
34AdvertisementThe Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) says the 2016 sexual harassment bill before the senate will undermine the autonomy of universities.
Biodun Ogunyemi, president of the union, said this at a public hearing on the bill, organised by the senate committee on judiciary, human rights and legal matters.
The sexual harassment bill was sponsored by Ovie Omo-Agege (LP- Delta Central) and co-sponsored by 57 other senators.
The bill seeks to criminalise sexual harassment in tertiary institutions and among other things, proposes a five-year jail term for lecturers found guilty of sexual harassment of students.
Ogunyemi said universities were established by law as autonomous bodies, adding that there were laws that clearly articulated redress procedures.
"As a global norm, universities and other tertiary institutions are established by law as autonomous bodies and have their own laws regulating their affairs," he said.
"This includes misconduct generally among both staff and students, with clearly articulated appropriate redress mechanism.
"Any law or bill which seeks to supplant these laws violates the university autonomy.
"In this particular instance, the bill violates the federal government of Nigeria and ASUU agreement of 2009 and as such should be rejected."
He said that the bill was discriminatory because it was targeted at educators.
According to Ogunyemi, it is unfair to come up with such a bill; sexual harassment is a societal problem and not peculiar to tertiary institutions.
He also said that the bill was a violation of section 42(1) of the 1999 constitution, adding that it was embarrassing that the legislative arm could seek to make such law that would violate the constitution.
Ogunyemi also pointed out that besides violating the constitution, the bill failed to take cognizance of various extant legislation that adequately dealt with sexual offences.
Faulting the bill, he said it failed to provide convincing evidence to show that sexual harassment in tertiary institutions had attained a higher magnitude than other spheres of the society.
"The bill is discriminatory, selective, spiteful, and impulsive and lacks logic and any intellectual base by attacking the character and persons of those in tertiary institutions rather than addressing the issue holistically," he said.
"Furthermore, the bill is dangerous and inimical to the institutions as it contains several loose and ambiguous words and terms which could also be used to harass, intimidate, victimise and persecute, especially lecturers, through false accusation."
The National Universities Commission (NUC), on the other hand, supported the introduction of the bill "in view of its relevance" and called for its passage.
Julius Okogie, executive secretary of the commission, said while federal and state universities had administrative structures for handling grievances, there was nothing wrong in having a legislation to help with that.
"University miscellaneous provision act gives them power to formulate policies and by-laws to guide them and most institutions have structures to handle these incidences," he said.
"However, there is nothing wrong if there is a legislation to add to what is on ground. We are only saying that universities are doing something about sexual harassment, which may not be enough".
Okojie called on the senate to extend the scope of the bill to cover primary and secondary schools.
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