By Gbenga Abulude
The Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege on Thursday said, sexual predators have turned the blessings and trust in the student-educator relationship into a source of torment.
Omo-Agege, who represents Delta South in the Senate in a statement signed by his Special Adviser, Media and Publicity, Mr Yomi Odunuga, explained that this concern informed his decision to sponsor the Sexual Harassment Bill in the Senate.
The statement followed a keynote address delivered in Abuja by Omo-Agege, who is also the leader of the APC South-south caucus at the conference on sexual violence in Nigeria.
Citing jurisdictions in the United States, the United Kingdom, South Africa and Australia with laws that specifically penalize sexual harassment in educational institutions of higher learning, he noted that the Sexual Harassment Bill passed by the Nigerian Senate is not in isolation.
It would be recalled that on July 7, 2020, the Senate passed ‘The Bill to Prevent, Prohibit and Redress Sexual Harassment of Students in Tertiary Educational Institutions, 2020’.
It prohibits sexual harassment of students in tertiary institutions and prescribes jail term ranging from two to fourteen years for various degrees of offences.
The bill was sponsored by the Deputy Senate President and co-sponsored by 106 lawmakers.
The legislation proposed a N5million fine for offenders.
Omo-Agege noted that if approved by the House of Representatives and signed into law, it would not only send a strong signal to those who may want to abuse women but ensure that students are not at the mercy of ‘sexual predators’.
The statement read in parts: “The Sexual Harassment in Tertiary Educational Institutions Prohibition, Prevention and Redressal Bill, 2019, considers sex between the parties as statutory rape. To this extent the Bill also considers all the appurtenant issues, including sanctions that are consistent with statutory rape.
“In all, however, we are making progress. But it must be seen that with institutions of learning still posting up to 55 percent of women at the mercy of sexual predators, against 13.5 percent at the work place, there is still plenty of work to be done.
“For me, I see the Sexual Harassment in Tertiary Educational Institutions Prohibition, Prevention and Redressal Bill as a trailblazer for us here in Nigeria. With a new legislation coming from this Bill to address this pandemic at the foundational place of character formation, it will in no small measure help to also address the issue. They will become bolder, more confident, and with higher degrees of self-worth.
“I am confident however, that in the fullness of time, this initiative being introduced in our tertiary institutions, by law, will eventually find expression, also by law, in every organisation where women are found”.
The event also witnessed the presentation of the book, ‘Lend Your Voice’, written by the Country Coordinator of Breakforth Nigeria, Ambassador Osere Daniels Ewharekuko. The book was reviewed by the Chief of Staff to the Deputy President of the Senate, Dr. Otive Igbuzor.
