Sexual harassment, gender violence in higher institutions very worrisome ― Human Rights Activist

It has been lamented that sexual and gender-based violence has remained the main problem for the country while for the educational system, it is a big issue.

The assertion was made by a human rights activist, Dr Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, who also lamented the rising cases of sexual harassment in higher institutions in the country.

She said that “What we are doing here today is to see how we can gather voices together in higher institutions to assess the state of the problem and to also see what strategies are also in place by their different institutions to address the problem of sexual and gender-based violence.”

Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, who is the founder/director of Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre, stated this in an interview at the end of one-day training support for lecturers and administrators on the protection of girls in a tertiary institution in Bauchi State.

She also said that “Of recent, there have been a lot of interventions particularly at the National Assembly level where there is a proposal for sexual harassment prevention policy, so this project is also in line with that to say that most of the higher institutions need to have policies and they need to go beyond policies to have actions.

“They think that the situation is endemic and the system has grown with it, so they don’t trust the system, they are afraid to report even when they are not afraid, they don’t know who to report to,” she added.

According to her, issues of sexual harassment on campuses is a “disgrace” to the higher institutions in the country saying that although her organization doesn’t have a data yet on the statistics of sexual harassment cases in higher institutions, that they are being supported to come with data.

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She further said, “But from the feelers, that we are getting, sexual harassment in campuses is really endemic. It’s a big problem in the institutions and the students are really helpless in terms of addressing it. We must also acknowledge that within the last one year, there has been a lot of development around this issue because institutions have started taking action”.

“We don’t want to wait until we have a situation like the UNILAG situation before they take steps. And that’s why we are coming around different schools and we are talking to them about the need for them to address the issue of sexual harassment and gender-based violence that has eaten so deep into the system, that is making the students not to trust the system, that is also causing some form of disgrace for the higher institutions of learning in this country,” she stated.

She, however, challenged ASUU to ensure that it tackled the rising cases of sexual harassment in the universities pointing out that: “I think ASUU needs to sit up in this matter, the body language of ASUU is not showing that they are ready to tackle this issue head-on. If ASUU does not think it is important to discuss this matter because they see it as a women matter, then women in Academia should start their own Academic Staff Union.”

Dr. Akiyode-Afolabi also lamented that sexual harassment and gender-based violence has affected education negatively pointing out that a lot of students have left school because they failed for an offense they didn’t commit.

She added that a lot of students had to end their schools because they could not confront the monster of sexual harassment while some have lost their self-confidence. Some of them are ashamed of themselves.

She disclosed that “I have had a meeting where I was talking to students and a particular student was just weeping because at a point in time, she had to give into the pressure of the lecturer, and while we were talking, she felt so bad that she could not stand for her right.

“I don’t blame the victims because at times, they are in compromising situations, so they have to do what they have to do. It is the system that should support the victims to be able to speak out when they are in trouble,” she advised.

She also said that for the problems of sexual harassment and gender-based violence to be addressed, a lot of awareness needs to be created in the school system pointing out that “the students must get their voice. They must speak above the whisper, they must be bold enough to speak about it.”

The Human Rights Activist advised that the school system must invest in it and they must put it in the budget because “it is not something they can just be doing by pasting posters and all of that, there must be a safe space within the higher institutions where students can go to without any fear of reprisal.”

She said that although sexual harassment and other forms of gender-based violence are not only peculiar to lecturers of higher institutions alone, she, however, said that ASUU has a great role to play in reducing it to the barest minimum.

The training held at Bagari Hotels and Suites, Bauchi, had lecturers from the Bauchi State University, Federal Polytechnic, Bauchi, Abubakar Tatari Ali Polytechnic Bauchi and the Bauchi State College of Agriculture, as participants.