14-year imprisonment for randy lecturers

A powerful and unequivocal statement against sexual harassment and exploitation in Nigeria’s tertiary academic institutions was made by the Senate last week when senators approved a legislation prescribing up to 14 years in prison for lecturers who sexually harass students. The introduction of the somewhat stiffer punishment will hopefully put paid to the application of the variants of punishment contained in the extant sanction grid, which have proved incapable of reining in the ignoble activities of randy lecturers in the ivory towers. It can be imagined, for instance, how  ineffective a deterrence it is to sentence a professor to a two-year jail term for committing the criminal breach of trust and abuse of power which sexual harassment constitutes. When signed into law by President Bola Tinubu, the Sexual Harassment of Students (Prevention and Prohibition) Bill, 2025, will mark the beginning of a serious and  genuine fight  against sexual exploitation in tertiary institutions. This is a serious menace that verges on betrayal of trust and abuse of power which hitherto was neither accorded the attention it deserves by the  gatekeepers in and outside of the tertiary  institutions, nor frontally attacked with commensurate sanctions on the perpetrators.

  Nonetheless, it is evident that the author of the bill, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele (APC, Ekiti Central), who is also the Senate Leader,  has a full grasp of the enormity of the challenge at hand as he proposed provisions in the Act to address what constitutes  impediments in the way of justice for victims of sexual harassment in tertiary institutions and how to lawfully circumvent the obstacles. According to him, the bill seeks to dismantle a “culture of coercion and silence” that has eroded trust between educators and students. He stressed further that the legislation is crafted to “protect students from all forms of sexual misconduct and abuse within academic environments,” while enshrining respect for human dignity and ethical standards in teaching. He added: “This law safeguards the sanctity of the student-educator relationship built on authority, dependency and trust. It ensures that no educator ever uses that trust as a weapon of exploitation again.” Under the new Act, educators convicted of sexual harassment face a minimum of five years and up to 14 years imprisonment, with no option of fine.

  It is also interesting that the Act has removed the excuse of lascivious lecturers who would always falsely claim to have a steady and consensual relationship with their victims. It removes the defence of consent, stating: “It shall not be a defence that a student consented to the act. Only a legally recognised marriage between both parties may serve as an exception.” This provision has effectively dismantled the usual hiding place for randy and  irresponsible lecturers. However, there would appear to be a dilemma. The provision in the new Act that seeks to recognise formal marriage as the only form of romantic relationship that could exist between lecturers and their students would seem to  infringe on the rights and freedom of both parties to associate and be romantically involved without necessarily signing the dotted lines. On the surface, what the Act outlaws is sexual harassment; it does not seem to mean that educators and students cannot engage in romantic relationships. But what happens if a voluntary romantic relationship between a lecturer and his student goes awry, and the student mischievously reports sexual harassment to the  authorities? The lecturer may find it difficult to prove consent in order to exonerate himself. After all, the usual refrain is that a    student is not in a position to consent to harassment. Thus, it may be wisdom in certain circumstances to forfeit certain freedoms for one’s greater good and/or peace of mind.

  The preponderance of cases of sexual harassment in  some of the country’s tertiary institutions underscore the imperative of a legislation with stiffer provisions that would appear to impact citizens’ freedom in a tolerable fashion. At the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), one Professor Richard Oladele was jailed for two years in 2018 for sexually harassing a female student. Also, three lecturers of the institution  were dismissed in 2021 for sexual harassment. Again, in 2022, a professor in the Department of Linguistics and African Studies was investigated for sexual harassment. Similarly, at the university of Abuja, two lecturers were dismissed in July 2023 for sexual misconduct. The university has reportedly implemented measures to report and address sexual harassment. The University of Calabar is also on the ignoble list as Professor Cyril Ndifon, the Dean of the Faculty of Law, was suspended and is currently on trial for alleged sexual harassment. The University of Lagos  is not left out: a lecturer was suspended for raping a 21-year-old student in 2023. Other institutions whose lecturers were found guilty of sexual harassment of female students include the Kogi State Polytechnic, where a lecturer was dismissed for harassing a female student in 2023, and Ambrose Alli University, which terminated the appointment of a lecturer for sexual harassment in 2023. There is also the Federal University, Lokoja, which announced the dismissal of four lecturers for sexual misconduct in 2024, and the Lagos State University of Science and Technology, where three lecturers were dismissed for sexual harassment in 2025.

  The list is literally endless and even at that, many believe that it pales into insignificance in comparison with the preponderance of  cases of sexual harassment in higher institutions that go unreported or are swept under the carpet after being reported. It is only in a few cases where the victims are uncompromising or bold enough to come forward to lodge complaints about their violators and where the authorities of the institutions are willing to investigate that there are documented cases of sexual abuse. It is really terrible . For many years, the student-lecturer relationship which is built on authority, dependency and trust has been tested and betrayed by unscrupulous lecturers, leading to significant compromise of academic freedom and excellence. We, therefore, welcome any legislation that promises to usher in an era of zero tolerance for the sex-for-grade scandals that have rocked many campuses of tertiary institutions for years. And we urge  President Tinubu to sign the bill into law as soon as legislative scrutiny on it is concluded by the National Assembly.