Broad and deep reforms of how universities in Nigeria teach and grade students are the needed response to the palpable outcry that followed the BBC expose of lecturers demanding sex for grades. While commendable, the outcry should be backed by reforms that check lecturers’ power which comes with their duty to teach and grade.
Responding to the scandal would mean giving priority to the passage of the bill on sexual harassment in Nigerian universities.
The bill, introduced in 2016, was lately re-presented – it should extend to government, nongovernment, private and religious institutions too. Unsolicited sexual advances, verbal and non-verbal, physical and electronic are punishable offences. Indirectly condoning such a behaviour is also an offence (suspicions or knowledge of such sexual harassment must be reported). The bill includes fines and jail terms for offenders, whether individuals or institutions and mandates that universities set up a sexual harassment prohibition committee.
The bill should include also unsavoury jokes and language, it should totally outlaw romantic relationships between current students and academic or non-academic staff (where the relationship existed previously, it should be disclosed), it should limit frequent interaction between staff and students as well as prevent university-related meetings off-campus. We recommend, in addition, that universities give programme or faculty directors (managed, preferably, by a senior non-academic staff) more powers other than administrative oversight.
Sexual assault of students is systemic on our campuses; generations of graduates have been victims of this despicable behaviour. It is unwise to rely on the ethics or prohibition committees of each university. The current practice of allowing universities adjudicate cases of predatory lecturers sexually exploiting students is so hopelessly unreliable; it is a charade. A jury consisting of active felons will always find ways around the law.
Unfortunately, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has morphed into a coterie of wage-increase agitator, with all the finesse of motor park touts, their fierce opposition against the sexual harassment bill means they have lost the credibility to speak on the issue.
In some private Nigerian universities, programme or faculty directors oversee the quality of delivery, attend to academic and non-academic issues, and handle students’ complaints. They also audit the lectures and, every session, get feedback from students through anonymous surveys. For instance, when a student demands a remark, it is the director who organises for an external examiner.
The separation of roles among those who manage, teach and administer the professional exams is a major reason why professional examinations are trusted. These changes are better introduced by the National Universities Commission (NUC).
The NUC has charged vice chancellors to check the abuse of students but we think it should have a stronger policy against the practice and hold institutions accountable. It reserves the right to determine the type and content of courses taught, it should now ensure that those who teach are not predators.
At the root of the rot in Nigeria is the lack of checks and balances that work; no one is answerable to anyone. Lawlessness prevails in a wild, wild west of anyhowness. We see the consequence in building collapses, in doctors who rape their patients, in clerics who violate minors, in graduate teachers who fail aptitude tests for five-year-olds, in accounting graduates unable to prepare a trial balance.
Since we will always have lecturers who can’t keep it in their pants, we must make our campuses inhospitable for their disgraceful proclivities. A higher institution is a place of learning and the only ‘cold rooms’ allowed should be for chilling drinks. Let’s send a strong message to these degenerate lecturers; power comes with responsibility and must be accounted for.
