Former Vice President of Nigeria and Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2019 presidential election, Atiku Abubakar is outraged by the prevalence of Sex-For-Grades in public tertiary institutions across West Africa.
Atiku was reacting to the sordid exposure in the BBC Africa Eye’s latest investigative documentary, saying such predatory attitude is unacceptable, and requires systemic strategies to put deterrence to such behaviour.
As a father and promoter of education, Atiku said the trend is psychologically abusive to young women and a direct opposite of what a sound educational system represents and so should not be allowed to thrive.
In a press statemeny signed by his media aide, Paul Ibe, Atiku said the overwhelming outrage, outpouring of examples and outright naming of perpetrators means that unless something is done, and expeditiously too, young people might begin to take the laws into their own hands.
He also harped on the need to focus on helping the victims to also cope with their turmoil saying “at least one person wanted to kill herself three times.”
Mr. Atiku therefore recommended punitive, exemplary measures and swift continuous legislation to stem this “epidemic”.
He said, “Going forward, there have to be checks and balances on the processes of communication between lecturers and students.
Away from the dormant, inactive and often unenforced university codes of conducts, we can rely on technology to assist – pre-booked online appointments that show a record of visits on a central system that can also be periodically accessed for auditing can help in raising red flags.
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Atiku disclosed that the American University of Nigeria, AUN, which he founded has been able to maintain zero tolerance policy for sexual harassment by operating a strictly enforced Code of Conduct to which all lecturers, staff and students sign on to.
According to him, the Code of Conduct is explicit on what constitutes sexual harassment and how to report it adding that once a matter of sexual harassment is reported by a student, directly or anonymously, a Disciplinary Panel is set up and hearing is set and disciplinary actions against sexual harassment include Expulsion/Suspension.
The Judicial Affairs Department, a full fledged Office which oversees students conduct, shares the Code of Conduct with students, parents, lecturers and staff at the beginning of each semester either in hard copy or soft copy.
He said because of the seriousness attached to the matter of sexual harassment (ignorance is not considered a defense), the Judicial Affairs Department conducts a “Know Your Codes” campaign every semester. They go to the students’ hostels, classrooms, library, cafeteria, playgrounds, coffee shops etc, and extend the messaging, sharing posters and pamphlets, taking questions from students.
He stated that the school also has four Student Clubs; Women Leadership Council, Ethics Club, Rotract Club and the Leadership Club with a mandate from the university to organize anti sexual harassment seminars, which are funded by the university every semester.
To this end, the swift suspension and termination of the jobs of scores of lecturers implicated in various sexual harasement misdemeanor at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria is worthy of commendation and emulation by other universities.
He therefore commended the BBC Africa Eye for focusing on investigative documentaries which outcome is reverberating across Nigeria and the African continent.
