lecturers face 5yr jail for Sexual harassment

ABUJA – Senate of the Federal Republic yesterday, passed for Third Reading, a Bill that seeks to make sexual harassment in Nigerian tertiary education institutions a costly venture.

The bill which was sponsored by Sen. Omo Ovie-Agege provides for a five-year jail term with an option of 5 million for lecturers convicted for sexually harassing male or female students.

Conversely, the bill also provides for lecturers and educators who maybe falsely accused by their students to initiate processes by which students could be punished for false accusation.

Addressing Senate correspondents‎ after the passage of the Bill, the Sponsor, OmoAgege, explained the rationale behind the sponsorship of the bill. He said the menace of sexual harassment has been there for a long time and has gone unchecked.

He explained: “Today is a landmark. It is a landmark for our wives, a landmark for our daughters and a landmark for our wives. You recall immediately I got into the Senate, the first and major bill I posted was a bill to prohibit sexual harassment of students in our tertiary institutions. We had a reason for doing that. 

“We did that because we felt that this menace had been there for so long and it had gone unchecked, but we have had our daughters, our sisters, our nieces and wives and students who have been harassed and nothing was done. We had instances where students who ought to have graduated in 3-4 years, stayed for 5-6 years  to graduate just because they said no to unwanted sexual advances from educators in these institutions.

“It took a lot of political will to club together the coalition that we brought on board to see to the successful conclusion of this bill. Today, the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has made it clear that enough is enough and never again will sexual harassment be the norm or the order of the day in our tertiary institutions.”

Explaining the Senate arrived at the 5-year jail term, the Delta state born lawmaker said: “As you recall, when we pushed this bill, we actually proposed a punishment of three years and a fine of N1 million, but the Senate in its wisdom felt that even that was not enough and they wanted to send a stronger message and as a result of that they have increased the punishment from 3 years to 5 years and the fine from N1 million to N5 million or both.

“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. The way we make it statutory rape whether or not consent is given becomes immaterial and the prosecution will no longer have to prove whether or not the consent of the female was obtained. 

“That is the case with minors and that is what we have achieved today with our female students in higher institutions. Now it is touch and go. You stay way from this girls. You touch them as a lecturer, you know there is a price to pay. Somebody describe as a zip up legislation.”