As the Senate passed the Act to Prevent, Prohibit and Redress Sexual Harassment of Students in Tertiary Educational Institutions and for Other Matters connected therewith 2019, women lawyers, lecturers ,activists, women and students have been reacting to the development.
Speaking in Ibadan, a public affairs analyst, Comrade Azeem Oladimeji Salako,said:” Firstly and importantly, if the bill as you have explained is to protect students and not fe(maleS) individuals, then it makes no sense because that would mean that sexual harassment has been confined to the higher institution which to me is grossly erroneous. It has been observed to be worst in other places which perhaps define first, the presence/effect, and then the argubly bias role of media reporting of sexual harassment in Nigeria. It is thus pertinent to know as it has been understood if the Senate is reacting to media impulse, and it brings into the fore the intention of the Senate; that is – if they were interested in curbing the practice of sexual harassment in the school only or the act itself in the large society.
“Secondly, I am aware of existing laws (both locally, nationally and internationally) that criminalizes sexual harassment in Nigeria, this is evident giving the litigious and convictions of past events. Attempt to create another law may not be necessary. Instead, there is the need to enforce implementation of the existing laws and possibly an amendment that can ensure deterrent particularly in respect to jail term. I am averse to a life imprisonment or death sentence except if it was a rape.
“Thirdly and lastly for now, I expect that the Senate should be more concerned about sexual harassment as an act and not as a practice in the school. The school itself is a complex structure with different complex relationships- lecturer-students, administrators-students, principal officers-administrators-lecturers, lecturers-lecturers and others. If this bill fly then it will certainly be less effective even within the context of lecturer-students relationship. Fourtly, there is the need to look into the implementation and the process of implementation of sexual harassment in Nigeria especially in the supposedly despised higher institutions. The need to integrate ASUU, NASU and relevant organizations as watchdogs”.
However, lecturers, women lawyers and activists lauded the development, saying it would go a long way in curbing the menace.
Leading the pack is the Coordinator, Women’s Research and Documentation Center (WORDOC),Institute of African Studies, University of ibadan, Dr. Sharon Omotoso,who said:”The Sexual Harrassment Bill is a welcome development. In a sense it creates awareness for all stakeholders to be cautious when interacting on campuses. However, there are grey areas that that still needs attention before the bill is passed to law and adopted by key stakeholders. First, the bill must not discountenance the fact that students also harrass educators. Secondly, administrative arms of Institutioms should also be captured within the bill. Likewise, there are are vague concepts, such as ‘winking and whistling’ how will these be proven in the court of law? How will sexual compliments be defined? What security measures (security camera and others) are to be provided by government in their owned institutions? How will these be enforced in private institutions? Some Institutions like the University of Ibadan already have their Gender and Sexual Harrassment Policies. How does the bill fit in, complement or streghthen these institutional policies?
What about dignitaries who pick students on campus for sexual gratification? Will it be captured?
The Gender Mainstreaming Office and the Women’s Research and Documentation Center (WORDOC) of the University of Ibadan hereby raises the need for a holistic re-assessment of the bill before it becomes law. If lawmakers are doing this, it must be a holistic fight against sexual harrassment”.
On her part, Mrs. Patricia Abokede, who is the founder, Pabokede Initiative,lecturer and child protection activist,development psychologist, said:”First, I want to congratulate the Senate on the achievement so far, as regards the bill. This is a huge one because this will give our students especially the female voice to speak up against sexual harassment. It will also enforce seriousness on lazy students who always want a shortcut through the back door. I believe the school should be a more safe place for our students. At the same time I expect this bill when it turned to law should be enforced with the necessary penalty attached to the offence. It will become of no effect when no necessary effort is made to ensure anyone caught is properly dealt with. Furthermore, the law would help the education system better because it will no longer be business as usual. Every party, both students and lectures will be more serious. For the second question, I hope it will help to reduce the rate of sexual harassment in the campuses because like I said earlier, only if strict measures are applied to bring anyone found guilty to book, then, it will force the everyone to sit tight.
Again, a lecturer at Lead City University, Ibadan, Mr. Tosin Adekunle Adeluwoye, said:”The expectation sincerely is that this law effectively deters the growing menace around sexual harrassment as it is now in the society. I expect that when this bill is signed into law, adequate public enlightenement and education particularly in the public media will be week created around it. Because the problem we have always had as a country is not lack of laws or people to formulate them, but instead lack of enforcement whcih begins with the total ignorance of this law. Hence, because many are not even knowledgeable about it, they are readily cheated or exploited without being able to seek a redress from the law.
There is also a way adequate public awareness will deter potential perpetrators from carrying out this nefarious acts. So let everyone know that if they do so and so according to this new law, this and this is what will come upon them. The law is not made to be kept on the shelf or to just punish people, no, they are there to guide and guard against evil or breaking the law. The law is in place as a tutor and protector to protect the victims, not just a tool to seek punishment for someone when an irreparable damage or loss has been done to the victim in the first place. So the main issue is low awareness or total ignorance on new laws and it’s plausibility or implication that populace needs to know, and my expectations are that this will be done, especially at this point in time when there is much noise already around sexual harrassment and rape. It is my hope that existing gaps in our laws would have been well addressed”.
Adding a voice to it, the Oyo State Chairperson of International Federation of Women Lawyers, Mrs. Collins Deborah Oluyemisi,said:”The bill when finally assented is expected to help curb sexual harassment the purpose for which it was put together.
Recently,there have been cases of indecent happenings from our citadel of learning, shows of shame which had further dented the status of the educational system in Nigeria. With this bill in place, we hope that many of our female folks will be further emboldened to come forward and feel free to speak on some encounters they had had in time past for prosecution and Justice for them. On reduction of occurrences with the bill in place, our expectations are that the bill should not be there as toothless dog, but be enlivened through enforcement for prosecution of such offences”.
