Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has advocated strictest punishment for perpetrators of sexual harassment in the country.
The Vice President spoke on Wednesday at a webinar on anti-sexual harassment themed “Finding Safe Spaces for Female Students in Nigerian Universities”, organized by the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife.
The event was based on the book authored by notable journalist and former presidential spokesman, Mr Olusegun Adeniyi, titled “Naked Abuse: Sex For Grades In African Universities”.
Prof. Osinbajo said it was a wrong notion that victims or potential victims of sexual harassment were architects of their fate especially by their attitude, dressing, or willingness to be in a compromising place with their violators, stressing that such view should be resisted in every situation.
According to him, “the victim must always be seen as the victim and not to be blamed. There cannot be an excuse, especially given the power configuration between students and lecturers, that the victim could have somehow invited the abuse upon themselves. I think it is an important consideration to be made and we must not allow that notion to persist.”
He particularly advocated stricter punishments for rape offenders especially in situations involving lecturers and their female students.
Osinbajo said developing and adhering to a set of ethical codes of conduct for conversations and interactions involving lecturers and students in universities would greatly address the problem.
The Vice President, who spoke on ways of resolving issues around sexual harassment in Nigerian universities, said the search for answers to creating safe spaces for female students in universities must begin from the question of why such an evidently rampant crime was so under-reported.
He also recommended the adoption of a mandatory “well thought-out whistleblower process emphasizing confidentiality, professional legal and medical help for victims or potential victims.”
Dignitaries who also spoke at the webinar besides Adeniyi, the Guest Speaker, included the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege; the Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq; the First Lady of Ekiti State, Mrs Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi; and the Vice Chancellor of OAU, Prof. Eyitope Ogunbode.
In another development, Prof. Osinbajo has underscored the need for synergy between the legislature and the executive in supporting policies and programmes of the administration especially those geared towards boosting the nation’s economic base.
The Vice President stated this on Wednesday at a virtual Citizens’ Dialogue on the Green Imperative Project.
The Green Imperative Project is a bilateral initiative between the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Brazilian government to develop Nigeria’s agricultural production base through a mechanization programme that is spread across the 774 Local Government Areas in the country.
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