Rape: Nigerian universities must have units to investigate gender and sexual harassment – Oludayo Tade

From a Part-time Lecturer at the University of Lagos (Unilag) to the Professor of Law at the University of Calabar (UniCal) , the sad involvement of intellectuals in moral debauchery of sex exploitation of female students has further confirmed the slip of the Nigerian society into moral anomie. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, the university symbolizes structure of moral purity. The University is an institution designed for the pursuit of intellectual growth of the society and ought to be divorced from the everyday concerns. But as universities become encircled by communities, and as a gathering of various people with various peculiarities, we cannot but find saints as well as sinners cohabiting. Rape is a subset of sexual assault which is gaining ground due to our docile and sentimental nature which downplays the inhumanity of some of us against the vulnerable. Rape in our ‘knowledge factories’, like the other reported cases outside the walls of universities indicate the erosion of trust in our society. While the UNILAG case indicates abuse of trust, the UNICAL involved abuse of office, threat and capitalization on the vulnerability of the student.

While aligning with those who talk about the indecent dressing on our campuses, this is not an excuse to force any student to have sex. Rape in the ivory tower is an opportunistic crime when we consider the place where the reported cases occurred and sometimes, it may involve active connivance of criminal conspirators. The status of a course of study makes ladies susceptible to sexual harassment. Courses are categorized as core, required and elective. All these courses may make weak students particularly susceptible to harassment. Ladies in part-time, Distance Learning and Diploma courses are more vulnerable to sexual assaults than regular students. Their lengths of stay on campus may make some yield to compromising behaviours. Academically weak students are also vulnerable. They are willing tools for randy lecturers. They patronize lecturers and may be ‘willing’ to negotiate grades. Tests, examination and project supervision are periods of trial for even the serious students if they are allocated to a lecturer nursing sinister ambition.

Nigeria is not yet in the league of top twenty countries in the world where rape is more deadly but if we care is not taken to enforce the necessary laws, it will get out of hand. The social networks of randy lecturers are strong that it sometimes frustrates any efforts at reporting.

Why rape students? Sociologically, it is rational action because the benefit outweighs the cost as it is in Nigeria. Rapist lecturers operate like other typical offenders based on power, anger and sexuality. The compromised lecturers operate from the position of strength of their power as having the ability to determine who will be found worthy to graduate. Thus they feel insulted if their subtle request is rejected by the ladies. They set up obstacles such as failures in test and examinations, and openly insult and harass their victims with the aim of having their way. Rape becomes a weapon of domination and a victory of masculinity. Rape is a crime that is symptomatic of patriarchal societies like Nigeria.

I once attended a polytechnic in the southwest of Nigeria where some lecturers deliberately set illogical questions and plunge the students into confusion. They work with class representatives both to recruit their girls and collect monies. But there are those already marked to be sexually assaulted even when such girls offer money. A lecturer would collect money to adjust grades and went to such extremes as collecting clothing items for himself and his spouse who was a secretary in another department. He would only help if you offer something for himself and his wife who was a secretary in another Department. In Nigeria, things are so bad that the particular spouse, who was a part-time HND student, became a lecturer when her husband, the rapist lecturer, became the Director of the Campus! On the other hand, there were cases of upright lecturers who was not in the circle of raping and extortion of students were set-up with these same girls.

The way forward is having a supportive judiciary in attending to rape cases and their punishment if the case ever gets to that stage. If a rape case appears before a male judge, he is more likely to make a mess of it. The female judge feels affected and would be more likely to dispense justice.

While universities cannot have dress codes, effort must be made through university welfare offices which should be headed by females to check nudity and very indecent dressing and behavior even though rape has no excuse in a decent society. In fact,  rapist lecturers should face a degradation ceremony; a shaming parade within the university. Such a lecturer, after prima facie has been established, must have his picture published in the university calendar in a name-and-shame action.. Universities must also be fined if a case of rape is established within their confines. Doing this will make institutions enforce high moral standard among the workforce. Universities must have a unit to investigate gender and sexual harassment as is being done at the University of Ibadan under the Gender Mainstreaming Office. This unit must be allowed to function properly, and lecturers found guilty must be disciplined within the stipulated laws.

Rape comes under offences against morality in the criminal code and we must arrest it with strict adherence to the letters of the law against rapists.

 

MONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2015. 9:30 a.m. [GMT]