Authorities at the University of Lagos, Akoka, Wednesday, gave strong expression to their resolve to rout or reduce drastically the plague of sexual harassment of students on its campus.
Consequently, the university set up a panel to investigate two of its lecturers exposed, by undercover reporters of the British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC, for sexually harassing them while purportedly seeking admission and change the course of study in the institution.
The two lecturers-Dr. Boniface Igbeneghu of the Department of European Languages and Integrated Studies, Faculty of Arts, and Dr. Samuel Oladipo of the Department of Economics, Faculty of Social Sciences, were caught on camera and shown in a BBC documentary video, sexually harassing the undercover reporters, who had sought favours from them.
The video went viral, and brought the great institution into serious public odium. To redeem its image, the university, on Monday, announced the suspension of Igbeneghu on Monday, and Oladipo on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, the university’s authorities announced, through the Principal Assistant Registrar, Communication Unit, Mrs. Taiwo Oloyede, that it had set up a panel to investigate the two lecturers and other related cases.
It further stated that it was awaiting information from the panel set up in June 2018 to investigate allegation of sexual harassment level against another professor.
Mrs. Oloyede urged students and members of staff with relevant information that could help the new panel to come forward, promising that their identities would not be compromised but fully protected.
“The University of Lagos management has set up a panel headed by Ayodele Atsenuwa, a professor of Public Law, Faculty of Law, and the incumbent Dean of the faculty,” Oloyede said in a statement.
“The panel will probe allegations of sexual harassment levelled against Dr Boniface Igbeneghu of the Department of European Languages and Integrated Studies, Faculty of Arts, and Dr Samuel Oladipo of the Department of Economics, Faculty of Social Sciences as well as other related cases.
“We firmly reassure all our students, staff, alumni, parents and guardians that this matter will be tackled with every sense of responsibility and the seriousness it deserves. The whole process will be transparent and appropriate sanctions will be meted out to anyone found culpable.”
However, not many students of the university were impressed about the action of the authorities, which they said was mere cosmetic and face-saving. They alleged that there had been series of previous sex-for-grades cases which the authorities turned a blind eye to. They never acted on them, let alone punish the sex predators, the students alleged.
Some female students of the Department of European Languages and Integrated Studies, who craved anonymity for fear of victimisation or reprisal attacks, said the BBC only highlighted a nightmare they had been living with on a daily basis, all along.
One of the students said: “The documentary did not come to me as a surprise, because I had heard about lecturers harassing students even before I gained admission into UNILAG; I also have friends, who have been harassed by lecturers and nothing was done to those lecturers. I think the school should prosecute these ones caught on tape.”
Another one said she wasn’t impressed by the university’s action, alleging that “they are making noise because the documentary was produced and posted by a strong foreign media organisation. Sexual harassment of female students by lecturers, she insisted, was common in the institution.
An official of a departmental students body, who spoke on condition of anonymity, concurred with the student, saying that the evil phenomenon was rampart because no serious action had ever been taken against predatory lecturers in the past.
“The reaction of students to this issue has been massive because they never expected that Igbeneghu could do such a thing,” the official said, “because he was one of the most respected lecturers in the department.
“Over the years, some female students had reported some lecturers in the department to me, but there is not much we can do as students, because the lecturers are in charge of our grades.”
However, a lecturer said that everybody had their own share of blame in the roiling scandal. Students, he said, must always squeal at the appearance of sexual harassment by any lecturer or Professor, no matter how powerful. He also counseled students to dress properly at all times, and never expose their bodies or behave in suggestive ways.
