Hi Folks,
I was still busy with recovering from the Big Brother Naija and Mercy’s 60 million naira booty when the “Sex for Marks” video report from BBC went viral. The issue of lecturers or people in position of authority taking advantage of subordinates is no news but for some reason it gets swept under the carpet.
Haven gone through the Nigerian educational system, I find it difficult to fold my arms and just enjoy the moment; I like to share my thoughts and possibly get yours.
Back in my University days, a female friend had sought my help in dealing with a lecturer who wouldn’t let her graduate by holding on to her result in particular course. Her offence was that her beauty was too stunning and he had to have his share of her pie, can you believe that?
The lady, 19 years old at the time, was truly a beauty to behold but she was also very brilliant and closes the semester with a “B”. I simply told the lady to get a recording of their conversation and I sent to him days after. I told him in a short message how much damage the recording could cause, he yielded and my friend was able to graduate. There are thousands of young people who have been victims of such superiors and weren’t lucky enough to find a voice to fight back.
A story was told of a lecturer who was killed in Ogun state with his manhood severed, he was said to have taking pleasure in forcing students to bed in exchange for grades. There must have been many such cases where people choose silence and resort to self-help, figure out all the options if you can.
But really, are these people at fault? Well… it is neither here nor there and here is what I mean; when you find yourself in a situation like the “sex for mark” or “sex for promotion” or any case of exploitation, I think the best thing to do if you are truly competent is to blow the whistle and let us bring the perpetrators to book.
However, the question of stigmatization of the victim is also a major factor that hinders people from speaking out when confronted with issues like this, supporters of the culprits often lash out and call the victim names and try to shame them for speaking out. Such is what our society has become, some will say “why not give the sex and move on, after all it doesn’t read like a meter”.
Now “sex for this or that” runs through our entire system, from government to private parastatals, even religious bodies have their share, if not a large chunk and everybody just keeps mum over these issues.
The University of Lagos lecturer who was recently dismissed is a good scape goat but what do you think should happen to those in other organizations besides the academia?
I think it high time we start to deal decisively with issues like this without caring whose horse is gored, let us restore sanity to humanity.
Remember today as always, to make somebody smile with your acts of kindness. Have a great week!
Yours,
Ilupeju B