*Senate chides ASUU President over remark
A body representing lecturers in Nigerian universities, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has called for the rejection of the Anti-Sexual Harassment Bill.
The bill was sponsored by Senator Ovie Omo-Agege.
It proposes five-year jail terms for any educator caught in the act of sexually harassing their students.
The call was made by the union’s president, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, who noted that universities already have joint internal agreements to address sexual misconduct among staff and students.
He, therefore, called any law being made by the Senate to replace existing University regulations a challenge to the autonomy of universities.
Professor Ogunyemi described the bill as “discriminatory, selective, spiteful, and impulsive and lacks logic and any intellectual base by attacking the character and persons of those in tertiary institutions rather than addressing the issue holistically.”
A one-year campaign between May 2015 and April 2016, by a US-based NGO, Dream Project for Africa, tagged “End Sexual Harassment and Bribery in Nigerian Colleges” reveals that 96% of Nigerian students are impacted by sexual harassment and bribery.
92% of Nigerian students also believe that school authorities do not take sexual harassments incidents seriously.
Between May 2015 and April 2016, at least fifty cases of male lecturers forcefully subjecting female students to perform sexual acts in return for grades or academic favors have been exposed in the Nigerian local media.
These cases of rape and sexual harassment took place across universities in the country including top-rated schools such as UNILAG, UNICAL and UNILORIN.
ASUU PRESIDENT, PROFESSOR BIODUN OGUNYEMI GETS LECTURED BY SENATE ON MEANING OF THE SUPREMACY OF LAW
Yesterday at the Public Hearing on the Sexual Harassment in Tertiary Educational Institutions Bill, the President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi received some basic social studies lecture when he implied that any law made by the Senate to amend existing regulations drawn up by universities was a direct challenge to the autonomy of universities.
Senator Ovie-Omo Agege of the Delta Central Senatorial District, in response to the opinion by the ASUU chief, asked if he was unaware that the Senate was the absolute law-making branch of the Federal government, and that the Senate had obligations to make new laws or amend existing ones for the nation.
In his presentation to the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights, and Legal Matters, the ASUU chief suggested that “the Sexual Harassment bill violates the Federal Government of Nigeria and ASUU agreement of 2009 and as such should be rejected,’’
Adenike Fagbemi
(Director of Media and Events)