A bill for a law which
prescribes five-year jail term for lecturers who engage in s3xual
relationship with students passed its first reading in the Senate on
Wednesday 4th May.
The
bill, sponsored by Ovie Omo-Agege (Labour-Delta Central) and
co-sponsored by 46 other senators, seeks to completely prohibit any form
of sexual relationship between lecturers and their students.
Briefing
journalists after plenary, Mr. Omo-Agege said that the nation’s
institutions of higher learning must be sanitised to rid them of
lecturers who saw female students as “prize’’.
According
to him, when the bill is passed and signed into law, any lecturer found
guilty will be liable to a jail term of up to five years but not less
than two years with no option of fine.
“When
passed into law, it makes it a criminal offence for any educator in a
university, polytechnic or any other tertiary educational institution to
violate or exploit the student-lecturer fiduciary relationship for
sexual pleasures.
“The
bill imposes stiff penalties on offenders in its overall objective of
providing tighter statutory protection for students against sexual
hostility and all forms of sexual harassment in tertiary schools.
“The bill provides a compulsory five-year jail term for lecturers who sexually harass students.
“When
passed into law, vice chancellors of universities, rectors of
polytechnics and other chief executives of institutions of higher
learning will go to jail for two years if they fail to act within a week
on complaints of sexual harassment made by students.
“The
bill expressly allows sexually harassed students, their parents or
guardians to seek civil remedies in damages against sexual predator
lecturers before or after their successful criminal prosecution by the
State.
“The
bill also seeks to protect, from sexual harassment, prospective students
seeking admissions into institutions of learning, students of generally
low mental capacity and physically challenged students,’’ he stated.
The
lawmaker said that it was practicable in other climes as “honour codes’’
but stressed that it should be domesticated in Nigeria in the Penal
form.
The
bill reads: “An educator shall be guilty of committing an offence of
sexual harassment against a student if he/she has sexual intercourse
with a student.
“He or
she shall be guilty if he has sexual intercourse with a student or
demands for sex from a student or a prospective student as a condition
to study in an institution.
“He or
she shall be guilty if he has sexual intercourse with a student or
demands for sex from a student or a prospective student as a condition
to the giving of a passing grade.
“ He or
she shall be guilty if he solicits sex from or makes sexual advances at
a student when the sexual solicitation or sexual advances result in an
intimidating, hostile or offensive environment for the student.
“He or
she shall be guilty if he directs or induces another person to commit
any act of sexual harassment under this Act, or cooperates in the
commission of sexual harassment by another person.
“He or
she shall be guilty if he grabs, hugs, rubs or strokes or touches or
pinches the breasts or hair or lips or hips or buttocks or any other
sensual part of the body of a student.
“He or
she shall be guilty if he displays, gives or sends by hand or courier or
electronic or any other means naked or sexually explicit pictures or
videos or sex related objects to a student.
“He or
she shall be guilty if he whistles or winks at a student or screams or
exclaims or jokes or makes sexually complimentary or uncomplimentary
remarks about a student’s physique,” he said.
The
bill also has provisions to sanction students who falsely accuse
lecturers of sexual harassment. Such students could face dismissal from
the school but no jail term was prescribed.
According
to the bill, the only exemption is where the student is legally married
to the lecturer before admission in the school as a student.
It
states that the consent of the student shall not serve, in anyway, as a
defence as the bill seeks to completely ban lecturer-student
relationships.
Source: Premiumtimes