A recent study has shown that college authorities in Nigeria might be culpable in providing a conducive atmosphere for sexual harassment and bribery due to passiveness in vigorously curbing sexual harassment and bribery.
According to a survey conducted by Dream Project for Africa during Phase I of the “End Sexual Harassment and Bribery in Nigerian Colleges” campaign, only 8% of students believe that school authorities take sexual harassment offenses seriously. The respondents in the survey were mainly students of the University of Lagos campus, where one of the lecturers in the Accountancy Department, Dr. Akin Baruwa was alleged to have raped an 18-year old student.
When asked about how common the issue of sexual harassment was in their college, 75% of the respondents replied that sexual harassment was high on the campus. The most dreadful reality of the research was that 90% of the respondents were between the age range of 16 and 26. This implies that the very future of Nigeria is being methodically destroyed by the scourge of sexual harassment and bribery while authorities take little or no action to shore up the confidence of these young leaders. Alarmingly, 33% of the respondents confirmed that they or someone they know have been (or are being) sexually harassed. 37% dread the idea of reporting the issue to anyone!
Although, it is a general claim that provocative dressing is a factor that encourages sexual harassment of students, 65% of students believe that this is not true.
On the issue of bribery, 75% of students reported that bribery is a major challenge for students in Nigerian colleges. 53% of respondents report that there are no specific sources defined by the school authority to report cases of bribery to and 47% say that that they have paid or have been asked to pay bribe before.
Another interesting report from the research is that 42% of respondents claim that lazy and unintelligent students are the ones who encourage bribery in the system.
Overall, 96% of students who responded believe that they could build a better future for themselves if sexual harassment and bribery were not factors standing in their ways.
Joy Oforka (DPA’s Sociopolitical Analyst)
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