Recently it was in the news
that a BBC sponsored
investigation indicted two
lecturers in the university
of Lagos and two in the
university of Ghana for sexual harrass-
ment of its female students.
The investigation which spanned over
9months had video interviews of vic-
tims with faces covered and lecturers in
the act of wooing, coercing, threatening
and even blackmailing students to give
into their sexual advances. The expose
was done by Kiki Mordi. Kudos for a
job well done.
However, it is not really news. Over
the years every single institution has
come up on the radar about illegal
student/lecturer relations in west Africa.
Everyone who has passed through these
schools, male or female, has a story to
tell. Most of them, personal experienc-
es.
Usually if a victim talks, she is victim-
ized by others because almost all the
lecturers are involved. There is also a
code of silence you must maintain, even
if you’re not a victim, so one doesn’t get
victimized further.
The situation has obviously gotten
worse as lecturers rarely hide their in-
volvement in such dastardly acts. They
have now become brave, brazen and
thrown all caution to the wind.
In the video, you can hear a lecturer
who is also a senior pastor tell the girl,
that the lecturers’ staff quarters called
“the cold room” is being used nightly
for groping of students and other sordid
things. The video showed a party in full
swing in the cold room. What a shame!
It is scary to imagine our children
going through such experience and
not being able to do anything about
it. Even secondary schools are not
left out. A few stories have filtered
out about teachers caught with their
students. What can be done?!
A female lecturer claimed that she
had subtly warned one of these lectur-
ers who she noticed the inappropriate
behaviour he had with a student, he
didn’t listen. She also realized that she
could be removed for a flimsy excuse
if she didn’t mind her business, so she
turned a blind eye and never dis-
cussed it again.
The consequences of this issue are
legion. These days, the quality of ed-
ucation has dropped because nobody
is studying, every student is “just
getting by” so they can be awarded
good grades. By the time they come
out, they are as empty as they were
four/five years before. A lot of these
graduates can’t string two sentences
together, they are not articulate in any
language, they can’t function in any
office. They are useless to themselves,
their family and the society.
The lecturer pastor who was first
indicted, has two children in the same
university and sources have told me,
the female child has stopped going
to lectures while the male child just
sits in class, almost catatonic. They
have become pariahs in their circle.
Nobody wants to have anything to do
with them. The lecturer himself has
tried to commit suicide also. I just
wonder what that home will be like
now.
Dear Mothers, our work is nev-
er done. Our children need to be
equipped fully against these societal
ills. Our children need prayers also.
They need to be taught at home never
to keep quiet when they notice such.
I refuse to accept that its a growth
process, it is not. Teach your children
about it before it occurs. Teach them
to say No and damn the consequenc-
es. Teach them not to be afraid of any
teacher. Yes, trials will come, it is how
they handle it, that matters.
Once more, may our Mother of
perpetual help continue to help us
expose these ills and help our children
go through life without any violation
whatsoever.
Through Mary our Mother, we
succeed.
Gloria Young is the PRO of the Catho-
lic Women Organization, Nigeria,
Lagos Archdiocese. CWONLA
