Sex-for-grade Harassment In Nigerian Universities

I came across this article and was shocked at the degree in which our young ladies are harassed for sexual favors in our universities. Our current

Education minister (Oby Ezekwesili) whom I was hoping could help arrest the situation, is leaving soon to work at the world bank.

Source: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/world_us/20070408_Nigerian_women_speak_out_on_sex-for-grades_harassment.html



Have you ever been harassed or do you know of any lady that has been harassed by a professor in any university ?

Please share your story with us.

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Nigerian women speak out on sex-for-grades harassment

By Katharine Houreld
Associated Press


ILE IFE, Nigeria - When Nigeria's education minister faced an audience of 1,000 schoolchildren, she expected to hear complaints of crowded classrooms and lack of equipment.
Instead, girl after girl spoke up about being pressured for sex by teachers in exchange for better grades. One girl was just 11.

"I was shocked," said the minister, Obiageli Ezekwesili, who has several children herself. "I asked - was it that prevalent? And they all chorused, 'Yes.' "

For years, sexual harassment has been rampant in Nigeria's universities, but until recently very little was done about it. From Associated Press interviews with officials and 12 female college students, a pattern emerges of women being held back and denied passing grades for rebuffing teachers' advances, and of being advised by other teachers to give in quietly.

The problem has spread into schools, Ezekwesili says, and there are signs the government is finally ready to intervene.

Most victims are college students such as Chioma, a slim, quiet 22-year-old with a B average, who repeatedly failed political science after refusing her teacher's explicit demands for sex. She said he was a pastor and old enough to be her grandfather.

"Now it has been two years and everyone else has graduated," she said sadly, arms folded neatly in her lap. She is desperate to finish her studies and begin working to help support her family, yet "my life is stopped," she said.

Chioma and others who spoke to the Associated Press asked that their surnames be withheld. All said they and several close friends had been harassed.

Stigma prevents many more from speaking out, says Oluyemisi Obilade, a professor who teaches adult education at prestigious Obafemi Awolowo University at Ile Ife in central Nigeria.

Like many Nigerian universities, the seemingly peaceful campus with its flame trees and soaring art deco architecture has witnessed horrifying sexual assaults. After a student was gang-raped nine years ago, Obilade formed WARSHE - Women Against Rape, Sexual Harassment and Exploitation.

"Some lecturers see young girls as fringe benefits," she said, wearing a black T-shirt that says "This is what a feminist looks like."

"We've had cases where the girls have complained and the heads of their department have called them and said, 'Give him what he wants.' "

Mayowa, a 20-year-old student, said six of her friends were having problems and none had sought help.

"It's tough to fight," she said. "Sometimes you just have to give in."

In a recent survey carried out by a graduate student and funded by WARSHE, 80 percent of more than 300 women questioned at four universities said sexual harassment was their No. 1 concern.

But with a strong African tradition of respecting one's elders, families or teachers, harassed students can rarely expect support, even when repeated complaints are made against one individual.

Bola, a 27-year-old political-science graduate with a C average, said she was repeatedly harassed by a teacher who had assaulted several other students.

"He was troubling me to go and see him at odd hours, very late, but I didn't go," she said. After she refused, she said, she had to retake the class twice, along with four other female students who spurned the professor's advances.

"Even my parents didn't want to help with the problem," she said. "I wish we could get someone with courage to face that man."

This is really crazy   

Thank God I didn't go to uni in naija

na today? its been going on for years , i was a victim i was harrased when i was in school by my eng 105 and 106  lecturer
i carried over those  courses till my last year in school
only  by the grace of God, My  wonderful mum pestering the HOD of my dept. and Death threats to that lecturer saved me!

 

_{iyana gini?}      

yes oh !  and it was not a good experience!
i really don't know oh! never bothered to find out oh!
once i had passed :
my motto became ! eni ori yo o di ile! 

Inasmuch as the issue of sexual harrasment in our schools is a serious concern we must however note that the majority of "complaints" are mainly from those seeking an excuse for poor grades. It is laughable that downright ugly girls even complain of sexual harrasment as a reason for failing their classes!  

Lets be frank, so many girls scream sexual harrasment as soon they get an F on a course they deserved to fail! tons of girls also perpetuate the problem, when you choose to sleep with a professor to pass remember you are setting a dangerous precedent for those coming behind.
What about girls who dress indecently? Let no one yell about men keeping their control, women have a huge responsibility to protect themselves. What you are on the inside is a reflection of how you dress. If you dress in skimpy outfits be prepared for harrasment from warm blooded men out there!

How many women are prepared to take advantages of available opportunities to seek redress in an event they feel they are being blackmailed by unscrupulous professors? Rather they go home crying about sexual harrasment even when not a single man has approached them in 20yrs!

when HOD is doing the same thingy on the side what will he do? all na lip service now!

i said i failed it for 3 years common simple english!

twas when my mama wahala dey too much and i guess the lecturer was tired of me coming to beg him weeping , with all my friend in tow . he had to let me go!




right what about those who don;t dress indecently ,study hard for exams but the lecturer still fails them?  for no just cause?

did you say seek redress where?

3 years ?

Ikamefa, my sister, I am speechless !!  I really am.

i had course mates who did all of the above! but s ome of us  studied hard, as if our lives depended on it but at  the end of the day its  those girls you described above that will get  A's alongside you
what am trying to say is yes some girl do all you described above  but not  all and yet we are/were still victims of sexual harassments by our lectures

That my dear is the crux of the matter. How do you separate the wheat from the chaff. If 20 girls are doing it, who is bothered when one girl cries out?
The blame has been wrongly laid at the door of the lecturers for far too long giving the lazy girls a very ready excuse for failure. It is time our girls too began to shape up, if we all did the right thing it would be far easier to weed out those randy old illiterates who hang phds on their doors.

LOL

I attended FUTA for 1 semester before coming here and this was the first thing the 4th year students told me. They said I should back off from any girl that a lecturer likes immediately or else I am doomed !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

yes ke! some did t'was an open thing and we all knew about it! 

you are lucky!  uni in Nigeria  na complete animal kingdom story



word!

I perfectly agree. But take it or leave it, the girls who are victims are a minority compared to the vast majority who come to school prepared to "use what they've got to get what they want".

why would you come to school hoping to sleep your way through to a Good!  G.P A? 




yes it is, the sad fact is  some girls do it but  i disagree they are in the  majority like david is claiming ! 

so most    Nigerian   Uni gals are  Ashewos?   

Unbelieveable !   You actually witnessed this first hand as a lecturer !!!!

even in the north with all this sharia ? this is mind blowing.

So it is fair to say that for every female graduate of our univ,  x % has at one point slept with a prof for good grades.

How did we get to this point ? Is our economic situation the root cause of all of this ? 

my brother, alhajas with scarf and hijab sef! Dont ever trust a woman when she's determined to use "what she's got to get what she wants". If you were a corper especially from Lagos you were a BIG BOY!. If you were a lecturer you were even a BIGGER BOY. My friend had a constant girl he took home on weekends. Plus the other ones who still came around hoping for a free lay for some points.
I remember laughing so hard at one girl. About 5 of us corpers were standing under a tree and this girl left her exams to stand with us in the sun waiting for a fellow corper who had gone chasing after a girl. She wanted to ask what she should cook for him!!!


Everything na economy. Even if toads start growing 8 legs it will all be the fault of the economy.

useless girls