TheCable

Sunday Asefon, senior special assistant to President Bola Tinubu on student engagement, says he will ensure the sexual harassment prohibition bill is signed to end abuse in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions.

Asefon spoke on Friday when he received representatives of the Nigerian students who presented pens to be used to assent to the bill in Abuja.

The meeting was facilitated by the partnership between the Nigerian students and the Gender Mobile Initiative (GMI), an organisation working to address gender and sexual violence in the education sector.

The presidential aide said a collective effort is needed to curb sexual harassment in Nigerian tertiary institutions,  adding that the message of the students would be delivered to the president.

“I receive these pens in good faith and will deliver the message accordingly. I assure you that the president who is our father, would do the needful on this bill,” NAN quoted Asefon as saying.

“We have heard a lot of cases of sexual harassment by lecturers on female students and the female students with boldness report these cases but because of the lecturers’ influence, the cases are swept under the carpet.

“This bill will give judgment to criminalise sexual harassment offenders.

“And I want to assure you that my office will collaborate to renew the fight against sexual harassment and sex-for-marks in our institutions.”

On her part, Benita Olaniyan, former students union president at the University of Abuja, called on the president to prioritise the signing of the bill to stop all forms of abuse and violence in schools.

“Education system is supposed to be a safe place for learning but students have been harassed and sexually molested,” Olaniyan said.

“The students across higher institutions of learning in this country, in their goodwill, have donated these pens to the president and we believe there will be stricter punishment for offenders.”

On November 27, the GMI  asked Tinubu to sign the sexual harassment prohibition bill for tertiary institutions into law.

Recently, there have been rising cases of sexual harassment of students by lecturers and secondary school teachers in Nigeria.

In August, students of the University of Calabar called out Cyril Ndifon, the dean of the faculty of law, over allegations of sexual harassment.

The allegation led to the suspension of the dean by the management of the institution.