Ovie Omo-Agege, Nigeria’s Deputy Senate President has alleged that members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and frustrating efforts to make the anti-sexual harassment bill into law.
Senator Omo-Agege was speaking at a policy meeting discussing the anti-sexual harassment bill in Abuja on Thursday, December 12, 2019.
The senator shared that the bill is already at the stage of public hearing in the senate and was designed to offer protection against sexual harassment to students and university staff.
Nigerian public universities, most of which enjoy protection under ASUU, are notorious for sexually exploiting female students, especially those struggling with their grades.
This is what prompted the viral documentary “Sex for Grade: Undercover in Nigeria and Ghana” by a BBC reporter in October 7, 2019.
See the statement the senator made concerning the situation below.
“During a public hearing on the bill which seeks to protect our children in universities from sexual harassment by lectures, some members of ASUU vehemently opposed the passage of the bill.
“I believe as a matter of character, principle and learning that the student-educator relationship is one of in loco parentis in the same unique class as parenting.
“It is a fiduciary relationship of authority, dependency and trust where the educator, like a good and responsible parent, exercises supervisory responsibilities over the student.
“It is formed on an unwritten code of absolute honour and obligation of good faith, honesty, dignity, and care to be held inviolable.
“No educator has the moral right to exploit the special student-educator relationship for repulsive personal satisfaction.
“No one should be allowed to exploit seeming weaknesses in our existing legal frameworks to make life unbearably for our students, especially our female student.
“As a father, I am confident that I speak for an overwhelming majority of our citizens that sexual predators who operate on our campuses of tertiary education do not represent who we are as a people. We have a duty to stop them.”
