Sexual harassment: lecturers in trouble – VC warns

The Vice-Chancellor of Nasarawa State University Keffi (NSUK), Prof. Suleiman Mohammed, has promised to dismiss any lecturer caught harassing female students on campus.

Prof. Suleiman, said this on Thursday while giving a goodwill note at a seminar organized by the Centre for Gender Studies of the university in Keffi.

Being represented by Prof. Akinwumi Olayemi, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academics) of the institution, Mohammed stated that the laws of the institution were quite clear on the issue of sexual harassment.

“The sanction for any staff member found culpable of the act is immediate sacking from the institution and the management would ensure the law is enforced to serve as a deterrent to others,” the VC stated

He, however, applauded the center for putting up such a seminar thereby assuring them of his support in championing the cause to fight Gender-Based Violence in the nation.

Hajiya Hauwa’u Mainoma, in her welcome address, as the Director of the Centre, called on the Federal Government as well as other stakeholders to immediately take steps towards tackling gender-based violence in the country.

She also explained that the seminar so far was first of its kind by the center since its inception in 2017.

According to her, the high rate of sexual violence in institutions informed the center to put set aside the event aimed at creating consciousness on the menace.

Mainoma however, called for a stiffer penalty for perpetrators of gender-based violence, giving that it will create equal opportunity to put their God-giving potential to good use.

Prof. Charity Angya, the former Vice-Chancellor, Benue State University, Makurdi, also stated that gender-based violence goes beyond mere physical attacks on someone due on the person’s gender.

Angya noted that both gender-based violence at some point in Nigeria occur but more women were molested than men.

She also explained that gender-based violence did occur more in places of work and academic environment due to the high level of discrimination in careers path.

“Education is a right and government must eliminate any tradition militating against girl-child learning in the country.

“Such move will naturally resolve the violence that most women go through in the society,” she stated

The former VC counseled that men should greatly take on careers and courses hitherto supposed to be exclusively reserved for women and vice-versa, as a solution to ending gender-based violence in Nigeria.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) thereby reported that the seminar thus has as its theme: ‘Gender-Based Violence and the Survival of Education in Nigeria’.