Sexual Harassment Bill: Lecturers fire back at NASS

By ISMAIL OMIPIDAN, DESMOND MGBOH, JOE EFFIONG, PAUL OSUYI, TONY JOHN, TONY OSAUZO, IGHOMUAYE LUCKY, JUDEX OKORO, ABDUL HASSAN, SOLA OJO, AGAJU MADUGBA, AHMED ABUBAKAR, JEFF AMECHI, EMMANUEL UZOR, GEORGE ONYEJIUWA AND GABRIEL DIKE

Sexual harassment, as an act, is as old as man. But until recently, Saturday Sun learnt, there was no law, in the country, specifically targeted at tackling the menace, which has remained a recurring decimal in virtually all universities’ campuses, without exception.o

Alarmed at the rate of the menace on campuses, the Senate recently, passed a Bill, which would in the thinking of the Senate, helped stem the tide of the menace.

But some lecturers think that the issue was being over-exaggerated, as such, they are asking the Nigerian lawmakers to concentrate their energies on other worthy ventures, and not mundane ones, like sexual harassment.

The Bill, known as the Sexual Harassment in Tertiary Education Institution Bill, prescribes a 5-year jail term for lecturers and educators convicted of sexual harassment of either their male or female students, just as it made provisions for a fine of N5 million, should the accused be convicted by a competent court of law.

And taking into cognisance, the fact that some students may just take advantage of the law, to raise false alarm, the Bill, it was further gathered, has also provided cover, for this category of lecturers, but not without a caveat. The caveat is that the lecturer, so falsely accused, must be acquitted by a competent court of law. Once that happens, the Student, who raised the false alarm “shall be expelled or suspended, as the University deems fit.”

 Saturday Sun’s findings also revealed that one fundamental difference between this new Bill and the existing Rape law is the fact that, while consent is a defence in rape, it is not tenable in sexual harassment. This much, was reiterated by the sponsor of the Bill, Senator Omo Ovie-Agege, when he declared shortly after the passage of the Bill, that: “we have now removed the element of consent as a defence. As you know, most of you are familiar with the law. Consent is always a defence to a charge of rape,” he said, adding that with regards to the provisions of the new Bill, the Prosecutor would no longer have to prove whether or not the consent of the female was obtained.

According to him, the same way minors’ cases are handled, in rape cases, was what the Senate has achieved with this, declaring that “now it is touch and go. You stay away from these girls. You touch them as a lecturer; you know there is a price to pay. Somebody described it, as a zip up legislation.”

To gauge the mood of the nation on the provisions of the Bill, Saturday Sun, went to some of the campuses across the country, to speak with students and lecturers, and the responses it got, were varied, just as one of the lecturers bemoaned the lawmakers for coming up with the Bill, arguing that the law was not necessary in the first place.

According to the lecturer, Dr. Aniekan Brown, who is a Senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology, University of Uyo, the law was a case of vendetta from the Senate, against the academic community, since the Senate has not told Nigerians what constitutes sexual harassment.

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