By Austine Uche-Ejeke
The recorded conversation that went virile of a university professor that got caught ‘pants down’ by a female student who is alleging that the said professor is demanding not only sex for him to pass but a mind blowing and whooping five rounds of sex in order to give her good grade is one too many of happenings in our supposedly citadel of higher intellectualism these days.
To many this may not be a new thing. It has been with us for ages and decades in higher institutions of learning. If you check what is happening in schools now you will attest to the fact that virtually everybody is responsible for this decay. If you see what some girls wear on campus you wonder the kind of homes they come from. It will take a very disciplined man who is a lecturer to overcome the temptations. Even when the lecturer does not want to do he may be forced to succumb except he is a committed church goer that still has some modicum of morals and principles left in him. This is because some of these girls practically hawk sex to the lecturers to obtain unmerited marks.
Nowadays we hear slangs in school where girls boast that they must pass their courses in higher grades by ‘fire by force’ even if they don’t attend lectures or study hard. You hear words like I will Sort, Block or Duck the lecturer. By ducking they mean offering sex to the lecturer to pass the courses.
True to fact some of the lecturers may not be innocent as some of them initiate the sex for mark deal. They actually start the negotiations and harassment of the female students. Statistics have it of some lecturers that have started affairs with their students they were teaching and eventually marrying them. A typical example is that of Professor Wole Soyinka who married one of the students he taught. To some they will see that as sexual harassment and intimidation as there is no way the lecturer will not be influenced in assessing the students he is having an amorous relationship with.
This very case is very dicey and messy. Dicey in the sense that assuming the randy professor agreed to the terms of the girl and offer her an A grade after the sex romp would anybody have heard anything about the case? That is how some graduates have obtained unearned marks and came out as half-baked graduates causing nuisances here and there in the society. Both male and female students fall under this category but mostly affected and heard of are the cases involving female students. In some cases, we hear of female students dropping huge amount of money, rent a posh hotel (mostly the spec of the rampaging lecturer) and still offer her body and dignity to the lecturer for her to pass or obtain good grades.
A personal experience was about twenty years ago and precisely 1998 while doing a post graduate course in one of the universities in Lagos. One of us won the then American visa lottery and needed to travel out with his family before the duration of the course. He has done the programme half way and it was remaining writing and submitting final Thesis. Could you imagine that this very person struck a deal with the Coordinator of the Programme to personally write the Thesis for him at an agreed fee of five hundred thousand Naira (N500k)! Of course, the man graduated with us.
Another case happened during our undergraduate days in one of the universities down South-South where the Head of Department (HOD) who later became the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the school personally wrote the final year project of one of the girls he was sleeping with and the girl graduated with a second-class upper division!
Many cases abound where in some schools some students may not attend classes up to three times in a semester and still pass the course with good grades.
But it would still not have made it right, either offering or accepting sex for mark by both parties. But this has been a menace in the Nigerian university system. Most girls that have passed through the university are maintaining dignified silence as they don’t want to open their mouth on what they went through in the hands of some irresponsible and randy lecturers. This is mostly because of shame and consequences of what may come out of such revelations.
Another good question is why does it still thrive? If many girls offer and harass lecturers, how about the half who do not offer sex and are still sexually harassed and threatened with failure and prospects of not graduating. Does it mean we don’t truly have intelligent girls in our schools who will not graduate without compromising?
It’s even a double-edged sword that fellow male students usually run into troubled waters by the mere fact of being a boyfriend to any girl that a lecturer has interest in. And may heaven help such a male student if the lecturer handles a core and compulsory course that the student must pass before graduation.
Many of these unfortunate male students have because of this had additional years in their year of study. Some extreme unfortunate ones have ended up being frustrated out of school on account of this.
Another big poser that is yet to be unravelled are why are the female lecturers not accused of sexually harassing the boys in our higher institutions? Are they telling us that there are no handsome and macho boys in the universities that will attract the fancy of some of the female lecturers? Since I have been hearing cases of sexual harassment I have not heard of cases where female lecturers harass and intimidate boys to have sex with them in exchange of high grades. And, of course, I know it happens in our universities on regular basis but come out unreported!
Again, why has the Nigerian university system not fashioned out ways to curb this menace? We don’t get to hear much of this issue of lecturers harassing and sleeping with female students from other climes apart of occasional abuse of small boys by elderly female teachers and these are mostly in their secondary schools and not universities.
But in the case of this girl and the randy professor a lot is at stake here. Most of the cases we have had in the past some of the victims never come out unscathed. Even if the girl scales through the hurdle of the case and emerges victorious she may not graduate in peace. There is this solidarity that the fellow lecturers normally give their fellow colleagues in what is known as esprit de corps. It means that other lecturers particularly the friends of the affected lecturer who may also be involved in the same game coming together to frustrate the life of the affected student.
Also, there is this issue of social stigma that will follow the girl especially if the girl has slept with the lecturer and the lecturer still refused to fulfill his own side of the bargain.
Are we not surprised that in the heat of all these that is going on for weeks the apex academic body of lecturers, Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has not uttered a word on the issue. Why you may wonder? Most of them are involved and guilty of the mess and it will be who is that sanctimonious lecturer who will stick out his neck and throw the first stone. I will not be surprised that any attempt of involvement by the union may open up a can worms where the lecturers will end up exposing themselves particularly those that will carry the matter on their head!
This is where all well-meaning Nigerians and NGOs should come out to fight for this girl. Assuming that she is innocent, she should be encouraged to come out with all the evidence and facts to nail the professor. By successfully prosecuting the case in favour of the girl, they should rally round her and give her the needed support. If possible, arrangements should be made to procure admission for her in a foreign university to finish her studies. This will save her a lot of harassment, intimidation and even threats to her life.
Realistically, if the girl scales through the case and emerges victorious she may not have smooth sail in the university to make her graduate without hassles.
At the end and eventually if the randy professor is indicted he should be made to face the music. He should be disgraced publicly and if possible let him be stripped of his professorship. This will serve as a deterrent to other lecturers in his fold. This will serve as part of fighting and stamping out a particular genre of corruption in our society.
*Austine Uche-Ejeke, Publisher and Editor-in-chief Agenda Community Newspaper and public affairs analyst, wrote vide eaustineuche@yahoo.com
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