Sex for marks: The need for action

There is Hausa saying, “the pain of a woman is for a woman”. The issue of lecturers demanding sex for marks is alarming in our tertiary institutions. While promising our support in anyway possible, the struggle for ensuring passage of law that will  prohibits sex discrimination should be championed by female activists in Nigeria. If […]

There is Hausa saying, “the pain of a woman is for a woman”. The issue of lecturers demanding sex for marks is alarming in our tertiary institutions. While promising our support in anyway possible, the struggle for ensuring passage of law that will  prohibits sex discrimination should be championed by female activists in Nigeria. If women champion the cause, it will be easier to have speedy passage of the bill by our National Assembly.

It is an open secret that so many female students are victims of sexual harassment in our tertiary institutions and they cannot report the case to authorities concerned for fear of intimidation or victimization and lack of proper laws to guarantee their safety. According to Kano Today (online news), a female student lost her life in one of Kano Universities while attempting abortion in which her lecturer who promised to give her marks for sex was responsible for the pregnancy.

On this note, I am in touch with prominent female activists in Northern Nigeria. We should take it as a duty to remind our comrades on the dangers facing girl child education in Nigeria. With this ugly development, the future of girl child education is at stake and all hands should be on deck to reverse the ugly trend.

Together, we can ensure that tertiary institutions in Nigeria are free from discrimination based on gender, sexual violence, sexual assault, stalking, dating violence and sexual misconduct of any form. No girl should be denied higher education simply because she is a woman. Civil society organizations in Nigeria should put resources together in order to stop sex for marks in our tertiary institutions.

I totally disagreed with some lecturers who argued that “indecent” dressing and seduction are what causes sex for marks in our tertiary institutions. In summer, students outside Nigeria wear bomb or pajama shorts with bikini and lecturers cannot even imagine requesting for sex because the law is there and girl child is well protected.

Authorities concerned are indifferent on sexual discrimination especially among female students in Nigeria. Before proceeding to National assembly, it is important to register our concerns at Ministry of education,  National Universities Commission, National Board for Technical Education and Academic Staff Unions.

As I write, majority of our higher institutions of learning doesn’t have realistic and formal way of receiving complaints from victims of sexual harassment. All institutions should be mandated to appoint female lawyers of excellent repute as coordinators of sexual harassment in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions.

Fahad Ibrahim Danladi

PhD student, University of Texas at Arlington.