Parents of undergraduates have been urged to rally support for the sexual harassment bill which seeks to protect vulnerable young people in the workplace and educational institutions.
Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege made this call in favour of the bill he is reintroducing for the consideration of the Senate.
The sexual harassment in Tertiary Institution Prohibition Bill was first proposed before the 8th National Assembly.
Omo-Agege said the bill required the attention and support of concerned fathers, mothers and youth and he will galvanise it to accelerate the success of his bill towards becoming an effective law against sexual harassment in Nigeria.
He noted that the bill is coming at a time the social media is awash with the issue following a media focus on the matter investigated by the BBC.
According to him: “It is a problem that has caused academic injustice, depression and countless other negative effects on individuals and the society in various parts of the world but the key to lasting change is for us to begin it within our own environment.
“I applaud the First Lady, Hajia Aisha Buhari, the First Lady of Ekiti State, Erelu Bisi Fayemi, the Academic Staff Union of Universities and all those who stoutly rose in support of the BBC’s commendable journalistic endeavour that is effectively beaming light on a hidden menace.
“It must, therefore, be extremely offensive to a reasonable mind where an educator treats students as ‘perquisites’ of his office. As a father, it is an issue that I cannot just accept. It is a shame on our conscience as a people. We will stop it.
“In 2016, with the support of several colleagues in the Senate, I tabled the bill on the Prohibition of Sexual Harassment in Tertiary Institutions which provides for a five-year jail term or a fine of N5 million for any lecturer convicted for sexually harassing male or female students.
“The bill also criminalises any act of neglect or failure by administrative heads of tertiary institutions to address complaints of sexual harassment within a specified period and it also made provisions to adequately punish anyone found to have levelled false allegations of harassment against lecturers and educators.
“I deeply appreciate the Academic Staff Union of Universities’ (ASUU) decisive change of position on this issue which they opposed three years ago; I see myself, not only as a representative of my senatorial district but as a representative of every parent who has a daughter that will one day, pass through our tertiary institutions.
“Nobody’s daughter deserves to be treated as ‘fringe benefit’ for anyone in position of trust and responsibility; the psychological trauma of sexual harassment has existed for too long and that is why we are reintroducing the new bill to make prosecution of sexual offenders easier for prosecutors and remove the vexatious argument of ‘consent’ as a defence to perpetrate evil.
The punishment of a five-year jail term for those found guilty should serve as a deterrent in a society that urgently needs to address this issue of sexual harassment.
“I feel proud and further motivated. What we all collectively need at the moment is urgent action, especially for the passage of the bill for the Prohibition of Sexual Harassment in Tertiary Institutions into law,” Senator Omo-Agege stated.
He described the scourge of sexual harassment in the nation’s tertiary institutions as unacceptable and pointed out that it was high time the trend was nipped in the bud.
Recall that the proposed legislation sponsored by the lawmaker was passed by the 8th Senate but never got concurrence from the House of Representatives.