The Nigerian tertiary institutions have come a long way in moulding leaders and intellectuals who had not only shaped the destiny of this nation, but are still contributing in one way or the other to the development of the country.
The reasons why the school authorities employ men and women is to give them the responsibilities of moulding the minds of the upcoming future leaders of Nigerian nation.
The recent development coming from academic circle employ to be the role model is not encouraging at all, especially in regards to sexual harassment from the supposed mentors and tutors. In no distant time, the moral structure that hold our society (tertiary institutions) together will be seriously battered by some careless people who are teachers, lecturers, mentors and fathers to their children (students). One imagines a situation where some lecturers demand sexual satisfaction before they give high scores to mostly females.
It is amazing and disturbing that, this is happening in an environment that is often believe to be moulding and fertile ground for building strong leaders and intellectuals that will mount the stage of leadership of this country tomorrow. What will you expect a person that offers her body as a ransom to pass exams to implement when saddle with leadership responsibilities tomorrow?
The common accusation by these careless lecturers is that these students often provoke them in indecent dressing. Imagine the excuses coming from someone who is suppose to be a father, mentor and teacher who the destiny of those children (students) has been committed into their hands. In as much as the mode of dressing of these our daughters is quite disturbing, it does not in anyway implies sexual stimulation, if we are upright as lecturers, mentors, teachers etc in the first place.
Although our female students have their own shortcomings, in terms of their manners of seducing their lecturers and arousing mode of dressing in order to easily scale through the school system at ease. These students are so lazy in their academic pursuits that in place of seriousness, they have deviced various means to trap their victims to submission. This call for one to have a rethink on the academic system in the country.
Then who will listen to the voices and cries of the innocent victims, who are on daily basis humiliated, molested, harassed and deflowered into submission to give their God given jewels to some careless men who called themselves lecturers. These lecturers know that what you sow is what you reap. This incident can also happen to their children, sisters, wives and aunties tomorrow.
What measures are the ASUU, ASUP etc taking to checkmate this danger that is fast eating deep into our tertiary institutions? What manners of disciplines and sanctions have they (ASUU, ASUP) put in place for their members? These questions begging for answers.
I believe the society has kept quite enough and that is why these threats begging to affect the society. What roles are the parents, education administrators, student bodies etc playing to tackle the problem?
If this continues, it will not only destroy womanhood but also the moral structure that hold us together. A society that is not armed with weapon of good manners are not rule by worthy rulers.
What do you expect from a nation, who engines that mould the mindset of its supposed future leaders.
It is a most to understand that this column is not meant to put the whole blames on the lecturers, but to draw attention of the public and parents to the silent social problem that is seriously eating deep into fabric of the academic excellence in our tertiary institutions. ###
Edith Nse Friday
fridaynse@yahoo.com
08025293937
