Saraki asks Buhari, Senate to revisit sexual harassment bill

Former Nigerian Senate president Bukola Saraki Monday asked President Muhammadu Buhari and the current Senate to revisit the Sexual Harassment in Tertiary Education Institution Prohibition Bill passed under his leadership.

As a father, I’m appalled by the actions of lecturers captured in the #SexForGrades exposé,” Saraki tweeted.

“We cannot allow this sort of deplorable behaviour to fester.”

BBC released a snippet of their Africa Eye investigation into the notorious act of university lecturers soliciting sex from female students in exchange for grades. The video sparked outrage on social media in the early hours of Monday.

The Saraki-led 8th Nigerian Senate passed the bill in May 2016 to sentence lecturers caught sexually harassing students to a five-year jail term.

The Sexual Harassment in Tertiary Education Institution Prohibition Bill, however, is yet to be signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari.

In the investigative report, BBC exposed lecturers of prestigious universities in West Africa that sexually harass and demand sex from female students.

A lecturer and former sub-dean of faculty of art at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Boniface Igbeneghu was caught on camera sexually harassing an undercover reporter who posed as a 17-year-old girl seeking admission into the institution.

Also, a lecturer at the University of Ghana, Dr Paul Kwame Butakor was exposed alongside Igbeneghu, a head pastor at a Foursquare Gospel Church, Lagos in the 13-minute snippet of the investigative report.

While the president is yet to assent the bill, Saraki appealed to the President Buhari and the 9th Senate to “revisit this Bill so that we can implement the institutional reforms necessary to safeguard our children in educational institutions in the country.”

The former senate president also urged the institutions to conduct robust investigations on the accused and all other reports and complaints regarding sexual harassment.