₦airaland Forum

Secondary school days are one of the most memorable moments of our lives. It fills the mind with nostalgic feelings remembering the teenage years and wondrous experiences.
During my secondary school time, I was someone who didn’t really fancy the academic sessions and my favorite school moments were the when the school bell was being rung for Long Break and Closing. The sounds of the bell which troubles my soul and makes my heart weep dejectedly during morning assemblies and change of lesson periods sounded like music to my ears when it announced the Long Break and Closing time.
The long break period was a time for students to reconcile their hungry bellies with food after hours of separation. It was also a time to relax and a period where the ‘busybodies’ got their ears loaded with weapons of gossips/rumours from the arsenal of careless mouths. Well, as for me, it was a time I engaged in my most beloved game-Football. The type of football I am referring to isn’t the one you watch on television where 21 millionaires kick each other, tumble on the grass and chase after a ball for 90 minutes o.
Have you ever played or witnessed a 5-aside football game before? It is a football game played mostly on a concrete floor and the makeshift goal post (mocking post) is called monkey post. It is also known as street football and the foundation of many renowned footballers. Unlike the leather balls used in playing grass football, we made use of rubber balls the size of coconuts. Only legends can understand the way the rubber balls were boiled until they became very hard and small.
With hearts full of gleeful expectations, my football mates and I would race to the abandoned lawn tennis court, venue of our football games. While some played with their school uniforms on, others preferred playing in their underwear to avoid getting their uniforms dirty or worse still, torn. Playing barefooted was dangerous as one could easily get bruised on the hard concrete surface. This made it expedient for us to play wearing footwear (our school sandals served that purpose). It was during one of those exciting football games that my school sandal decided to put me in trouble. While I was trying to dribble past an opponent, I slipped and heard my sandal scream in agony as its sole got ripped off. “Jeez!!! I don enter trouble today”, I exclaimed.
Images of my mother warning me sternly to take good care of the sandals flashed in my head. She had threatened to skin me alive should the sandals spoil. She reiterated her threat by pulling my ears vigorously. This incident occurred about a week ago . Mother was getting disturbed why my sandals kept getting damaged very frequently. Fortunately for me, she never knew why.
“My mama go beat craze comot for my body today” I lamented as I began to imagine how mum would bark at me while she landed painful lashes of koboko (whip) on my bare back. I had no money on me to buy gum to unite the sole with the other parts of my sandal or have the sole sewn by the shoe cobbler. I pleaded with my football friends to help me with some money but none yielded. Well, I managed to tie two rubber bands around the sole which temporarily held the sandal in place.
When closing period arrived, I hurried home, praying silently for mum not to be home before me to notice the state of my sandal. I was glad when I saw she wasn’t home when I arrived. I decided to play a trick so she wouldn’t notice the damaged sandal.
A smile cut across my lips when I remembered how I once used superglue to gum the buttons of my school uniform. A football opponent had carelessly pulled my shirt depriving it of two buttons in the process. There was no way I could return to the classroom with a uniform devoid of two buttons. Luckily for me, I was able to find the missing buttons which I attached to my uniform using a superglue bought by a friend.
While still pondering on how I could prevent my mum from seeing the sandal in its bad condition, an idea struck me. There was a left over Eba in the kitchen. I had often seen people use Eba as adhesive for posting papers on walls and was quite convinced that Eba could do the magic on my sandal. I scooped some of the Eba in the plate, applied it to the sole of my sandal and was filled with joy when I noticed it worked. Minutes later, mother was home, she checked the sandal and saw nothing wrong. If only I knew what awaited me the morning after.
The following morning, mum decided to leave home for work very early, her workplace wasn’t far from my school and so she suggested we leave the house together. I wore my sandals confidently and had barely taken ten steps when all the Eba attached to my sandal’s sole was let loose leaving the sole of my sandal opened like the mouth of the fish when it was about to swallow Jonah. My mother needed no soothsayer to understand my mischief. Her fury was worse than that of Tyson in the boxing ring. She delivered some unforgettable beatings on my body, decorating it with whip marks.
Ever since, I have developed a great hatred for Eba. There is no way I can love something that betrayed me.

The university is undoubtedly one of the most vital institutions in any nation as the role it plays in nation building is indispensable. The primary objective of the university include conferring degrees in various academic disciplines and producing citizens who will be endowed with life skills for solving personal and societal problems.
A 21st century university is one that has all it takes to make tertiary learning possible, interesting, effective and one that is free from corrupt practices. A 21st century university is one that is able to produce graduates who will be useful assets in the society.
Truth be told, the university revolves around the students it trains and that it why it must possess mentally sound and qualified staff, good learning and well equipped facilities, a well functioning and standard library, sufficient and commodious hostels, and efficient health centres. All these and more are very vital for a university in this century but even with all these things put in place, one cannot score Nigerian universities highly. Not while they are still bedeviled by a poignant menace- Sex for marks..

Sex for marks is a malignant force that is eating the essence of what a university is supposed to be in Nigeria. The term ‘sex for marks’refers to how varsity teachers or lecturers demand sex from their students in exchange for good grades. Students who fail to heed to the overtures of randy lecturers are usually victimized and failed.
Why some Nigerian Lecturers are known to love bottom power more than common sense, no one can understand. The situation is rife in Nigeria. According to Guardian Nigeria, "In one survey of female graduates in Nigeria’s higher institutions, at least 69.8 per cent said they had been sexually harassed by their lecturers.” It further stated that about two-thirds experienced the non-physical sexual harassment (in the form of sexual comments and requests to do something sexual in exchange for academic favours); 48.2 per cent experienced physical sexual abuse but statistics only scratches the surface of the ugly practice.

The social media has been abuzz with dozens of sex for marks cases in Nigerian tertiary institutions for a long time now. However, the story that will never escape the confines of our memory is that of a Nigerian Professor, Richard Akindele, a lecturer in Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), who pressurized a female student of the school, Monica Osagie, into serving him with five rounds of sex for a pass in an exam last year.
Moniga Osagie will always be remembered for her couragein calling out the randy lecturer, an act which ultimately led to his expulsion from the university. He was sentenced to two years imprisonment after pleading guilty to the charges levied against him.
Regardless of the exposed sex for marks cases in Nigeria, I believe that there exist a thousand cases which would never be brought to light because of shame, fear and threats instilled on the victims. Many will remain silent until they graduate. Why shouldn't they? We have read of cases where victims who gathered the courage to report sensitive issues like this to the school management received painful backlashes from the lecturer in question. Their reports are rarely believed due to the "problem of proper and convincible evidence". Those who resist the overtures of randy lecturers get to suffer greatly.

Sex for marks is a malignant force that is eating the essence of what a university is supposed to be in Nigeria. The term sex for marks refers to how varsity teachers or lecturers solicit for sex from their students in exchange for good grades. Students who fail to heed to the overtures of randy lecturers are usually victimized and failed. Why some Nigerian Lecturers are known to love bottom power more than common sense, no one can understand. The situation is rife in Nigeria.
According to Guardian Nigeria, "In one survey of female graduates in Nigeria’s higher institutions, at least 69.8 per cent said they had been sexually harassed by their lecturers. It added that about two-thirds experienced the non-physical sexual harassment (in the form of sexual comments and requests to do something sexual in exchange for academic favours); 48.2 per cent experienced physical sexual abuse. But statistics only scratches the surface of the ugly practice."
The social media have been abuzz with dozens of sex for marks cases in Nigerian tertiary institutions for a long time now. However, the story that will never escape the confines of our memory is that of a Nigerian Professor, Richard Akindele, a lecturer in Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), who pressurized a female student of the school, Monica Osagie, into serving him with five rounds of sex for a pass in an exam last year.
Moniga Osagie would never be forgotten for her boldness in calling out the randy lecturer, an act which ultimately led to his expulsion from the university. He was sentenced to spend two years of his life behind bars afterwards despite the fact that he pleaded guilty to the charges levied against him. But for one exposed sex for marks cases in Nigeria, I believe that there exist a thousand cases which would never be brought to light because of shame, fear and threats. Many will remain silent until they graduate. Why wouldn't they? We have read of cases where victims who gathered the courage to report sensitive issues like this to the school management received painful backlashes from the lecturers in question. Their reports are rarely believed due to the "problem of proper and convincing evidences". Those who resist the overtures of randy lecturers get to suffer greatly.

Welcome to Nigeria where lecturers are treated like gods and their abusive powers rarely curtailed. Welcome to Nigeria where some lecturers consider themselves high priests who demand female students to sacrifice their bottoms and vaginas on their nasty altars on a daily basis.
Welcome to Nigeria where lecturers consider sex more important and essential than allowing students pass exams and tests the right way (studying). It is against this backdrop that the sex for marks menace prevails. The check and balance idea is totally inexistent in public universities and in most private universities. It is a shame how varsity teachers seek to insert their marauding ugly-looking manhood into the clitoris of female students all in the name of "awarding" marks.
It would be recalled how in 2015, Professor Cyril Ndifon, Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Calabar, was alleged to have sexually assaulted a 20-year-old, 400-level law student. Now this was no ordinary lecturer. This was the head of a faculty. This reveals the extent to which our universities have decayed. If the head of lecturers would engage in such a nasty act, then what should his subordinates do? Why should female students be taken advantaged of in tertiary institutions? This menace will continue to grow in a system where the victims of sexual assault are victimized, ostracized and punished for reporting issues like this.
Professor Cyril Ndifon is not the only dean who has had his image destroyed by sex for marks allegations. Only recently in August 4, a dean in the university of Abuja was indicted in sex for marks scandal. The sex-hungry lecturer was caught in a sting operation at a hotel in Gwarimpa area of Abuja, where he had gone to have an affair with the student whom he had solicited sex to award marks. The dean was caught pants down in the hotel room trying to have sex with the student.

It is disheartening that parents would send their girls to school only to find out that their daughters are being used as sex tools, sex machines and intimacy gadgets in the hands of randy lecturers. Should this continue to be the trend? These young girls cannot continue to suffer like this. These young students should not suffocate their pains with the pillow of fear.

Nevertheless, the situation is not limited to female students alone. Male students are also harassed by female lecturers. Investigations by Saturday Vanguard also revealed that "like female students, male students are also harassed sexually by female lecturers.” Male students who are harassed by these female lecturer, whether old or young are the young and handsome students and those from wealthy homes."
Engaging students in sex before awarding marks is tantamount to making their certificates appear fake and making hard work appear irrelevant. Somehow, students begin to have the notion that there is no essence in studying since they can’t get good grades unless they hop in bed with their lecturers. It is imperative that the malfeasance get drained out in time as to maintain the dignity of a university. One step towards this is breaking the silence.

Daily trust Newspaper of August 2019 recorded that a "recent case involved a lecturer in one of the departments of the Faculty of Social Sciences. The lecturer, according to findings, had been failing one of his female students in a 300-level course he teaches. A Security Unit source said: “He plainly told the girl she can’t pass the course without submitting herself to him. Left with no option, she came here to the Security Unit and reported. We set a trap for him by asking the girl to play along. He went and booked a hotel room, and we arrested him while he was attempting to have sex with the girl."
Creating an atmosphere where sexually molested student can voice out these experiences would do well to call randy lecturers to order and ensure that students are awarded based on their efforts.
Universities should present the opportunity for female students to come forward and make complaints and there must be mechanism in place for the complaints to be fully documented and appropriate steps must be taken to involve the law and ensure justice is put in place.

The Academic Staff Union Of Universities (ASUU) has an important role to play in fighting the menace. We see ASUU, whimpering and yelping anytime it needs money from the federal government. To drive in their request into the heart of the government, they embark on nationwide strike actions and protests. This is good but ASUU should learn to embark on nationwide strike actions too in respect to fighting this sex for marks menace. ASUU should ensure that the bad eggs terrorising the bottoms of young female students be kicked out and punished if caught. Why tolerate varsity teachers who are prone to engaging in playful or boisterous sex with students who are anxious to learn and excel?
Also there is a need to establish committees or special units in every university which should be saddled with the responsibility of looking into issues like this. Female students need not die in silence any longer. Nigerian female students need not suffer and smile.
These committees should be independent bodies and in no way consist of lecturers or teaching staff who will be inclined to be sympathetic to the persecution of their erring coleagues. Their responsibility should entail looking into alleged rape cases and if beyond every reasonable such allegations prove to be true, they should be tendered to the school management and finally to the police. Creating committees like this would help to break the silence and guarantee that justice is pursued.

No thanks to the incompetent Students' Union bodies in Nigerian universities. Apart from organising campaigns, sports and semester parties; commissioning projects as weird as wall clocks and white board markers, they have appeared to be almost useless in the fight against sex for marks. It is mind boggling that they have chosen to play a blind eye but they cannot afford to be quiet any longer. Just as they would demand the school management to fix good toilets seats in rotten rest rooms, they must begin to protest heavily against this sickness bedeviling Nigerian universities.
In 2016, the Nigerian Senate introduced the "Sexual Harassment in Tertiary Education Institution Bill", as a strategy to criminalize various acts of "sex for marks" in Nigerian tertiary schools including universities, colleges of education, and polytechnics. The outcome of the bill is still unknown. Nigeria can tackle the problem not just by duplicating bills and laws relating to sexual assault but by making effective use of the ones available.

Students should be awarded grades by using the proper evaluative measurements such as tests and exams and not by many times they climb the beds or office tables of their lecturers. Ensuring this happens will guarantee the creation of a model 21st century university.
Bargaining for marks through money or sex calls for serious scrutiny because it mortgages the standard and quality of our universities. If we mortgage standards, then the certificates we issue will be devalued and the graduates we produce, whether doctors, lawyers or engineers, will be half-baked and pose dangers to our societies.

Yeh! I shouted silently as my Android phone slipped off my hand, landing on the floor with a loud thud. You can imagine the look of horror on my face when I noticed the phone screen had broken and my phone was looking unrecognizable. “Oh God, which of my village people did I offend to deserve this calamity”, I cried out in frustration. It was barely a week ago that I purchased he phone at SLOT for the sum of 45,000 Naira. It took me 9 months and several ‘febipanu’(hunger) moments before my savings could give birth to the money. “It is well!” I muttered sadly as I thought of how I could get some money to heal my broken phone.
“Emeka, abeg borrow me 5k make I take repair my phone. You know say na only you be the friend wey I fit borrow money from” I pleaded after narrating my narrating how my phone got battered and disfigured. “Hmmmm!!!! Emeka grunted, keeping me in suspense. I felt like a criminal on trial awaiting the Judge’s final judgment. “I go borrow you the money”, he finally said “but I go collect my money back by next week if we don collect salary o”, he continued pulling his left ear animatedly to emphasize his warning. “Thanks, my padi. No worry, I go pay you back next week”, I said in gratitude.
The following day which was a Saturday, I left home very early for Computer village where I was to have my phone repaired. I got to a Phone repairer’s shop and waited patiently like the biblical Job as the phone repairer performed some technical miracles to return my phone to normalcy. “Oga, I don finish, your money na 2,500 Naira”, he announced. I collected the phone and after inspecting it to verify that the phone was now working fine, I equipped my mouth with weapons of my skill. “2,500 to take change phone screen?”, I asked, feigning shock. “Na how much I buy the phone wey I go use 2,500 take change ordinary screen?, “ I resemble mumu for your eyes?, “Na 1500 I carry come, infact na 1000 Naira I suppose pay but I just say make I use church mind add 500 Naira join am”
“Mr. Man, e be like say you no know wetin you dey talk”, he thundered. “How I go collect 1500 when na 2000 Naira I take buy the screen wey I fix for the phone?? Na because you be my first customer I dey charge you 2500, na 3000 Naira I suppose collect”. After several minutes of haggling, I agreed to pay 2,300 Naira. I charged the phone for about thirty minutes to confirm the phone was working properly after which I put the phone In my bag and headed to the bus stop to board a bus home. Within a minute, I was seated in a Danfo bus heading home “Thank God say I don repair the phone, I don miss Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp wella, make I bring my phone chat small” I thought happily. Little did I know I was about to experience one of the worst moments of my life.
I dipped my hand into my bag to pick my phone and was taken aback when my hand felt nothing. My heart immediately skipped a beat and I became apprehensive. Dismayed, I frantically combed all the nooks and crannies of my bag and searched my body thoroughly like a Policeman would do to a criminal. Hot sweats enveloped my face when I discovered my worst fear-My Phone had gone missing. “Yeeeh”, I screamed as I began to grope around my seat while the other passengers stared at me wondering if I had suddenly run mad. “Driver,abeg stop. I wan come down”, I said. The vehicle was yet to stop when I hurriedly jumped down and started running back to the shop where I had taken the phone for repair with the hope that I had forgotten the phone there. I arrived at the shop panting like a Marathon runner.
“e be like say I forget my phone for your shop” were the words I uttered immediately I stepped into the shop. “Ahan!”, exclaimed the phone repairer., “No be for my presence you put your phone inside your bag?”, he asked in bewilderment. Downcast, I began tracing my steps back to the bus stop with the faint hope that the phone dropped on the floor and could still be found. After searching for more than an hour, I lost all hope. I almost wept but for the shameful spectacle I would cause in public. There and then, I decided to get a small phone having realized I was now phoneless.
“Oga, you wan buy phone?” a young, lanky man asked when he saw me in front of a phone stall looking for the cheapest available phone to buy.”Yes”, I answered absent mindedly. “Where I fit see see any small cheap phone buy”, I asked. “ I get one small phone wey you go like”, he replied and handed me a Tecno Android phone. I checked the phone thoroughly and discovered it was a browsing phone and in good condition, it contained Whatsapp,Facebook, Instagram and some internet apps. “Na how much you wan sell am?”, I asked. “Oga, bring 5k” he replied rubbing his palms. “ E no gree 8k?” I asked sarcastically. He got my point and smiled sheepishly. “Oga, this phone na correct phone o, you no see say e still look new and e dey work well? I get another phone and I need money urgently, na him make me wan sell am”,he added. I engaged him in a price haggling war of words until he grudgingly agreed to sell the phone for N3,000. I handed him the money which he counted and put in his pocket. As I was about to congratulate myself when he suddenly changed his mind. “Oga, my mind no settle as I take sell the phone for you so cheap, collect your money, give me back my phone”. “Okay, na how much you wan come sell the phone”, I asked clearly disappointed at the turn of event. “No worry,Oga. I no wan sell the phone again”, he answered. I handed back the phone to him and collected my money.
“George, you don Bleep up, see as you miss this opportunity to buy beta phone for cheap price, you for no return the phone to the guy na”, My mind chided me as I walked back to the phone stall to get a cheap phone.
I was finally able to see a small phone for the sum of 1500 Naira. The phone had no internet access and the main feature it had was a FM Radio and torchlight. I dipped my hands to pay t for the phone only to discover that instead of money, my pocket was filled with newspaper cuttings in the shape of money. I was too terrified to speak as tears began spilling from my eyes. Immediately the phone seller saw the pieces of papers in my hand, he sighed . “Sorry, Oga, these 419 people don play you wayo o”, he said sympathetically. He narrated to me how many have fallen victim to these swindlers with stories of people who bought phones from them only to discover too late that what they actually bought was either a bar of soap or a plastic replica of a phone stacked with fufu . How the guy was able to hypnotise me and concoct the magic of changing my money into pieces of paper is something I am unable to understand till this very day. I learnt a very bitter lesson though never to engage with street traders in Computer Village.