Sexual harassment in primary and secondary schools

Recently, the Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Dr. Musa Adamu Aliyu, raised the alarm over the wave of sexual harassment in Nigeria’s primary and secondary schools.

This confirms an earlier report by the anti-corruption agency that there were 17 cases of sexual harassment in secondary schools between 2012 and 2022. The report also claimed that pedophilia is becoming increasingly widespread in society.

According to a 2018 survey conducted by the World Bank, 70 percent of graduates from Nigerian tertiary institutions have been sexually abused, with lecturers being the main culprits. In August 2023, a lecturer at the University of Calabar (UNICAL), Dr. Cyril Ndifon, was suspended from the institution after his students protested, alleging that he subjected them to various forms of sexual harassment. He had been suspended on similar grounds in 2015 after a final-year student accused him of raping her in his office. Ndifon is currently on trial in a Federal High Court in Abuja.

On July 7, 2020, the upper chamber of the National Assembly, the Senate, passed the Anti-Sexual Harassment Bill. It was finally passed by the House of Representatives in 2022. By 2023, both houses of the National Assembly jointly passed the bill. The bill is intended to promote and protect girls in tertiary education institutions from sexual harassment.

Despite the efforts of the Nigerian government to combat this evil through the implementation of various policies and laws, this sinister practice unfortunately still exists. Sexual harassment, which was previously more prevalent in higher educational institutions, has now become a vexing problem in primary and secondary schools as well. Unfortunately, girls are at the mercy of both teachers and their peers.

The findings of a 2021 United States report revealed a disturbing trend of sexual harassment in secondary schools in Nigeria. The report called for urgent action to tackle the scourge before it gets out of control.

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Indecent dress among female students is cited as a major factor in sexual harassment in colleges. Sex for grades is another factor in colleges where male lecturers inappropriately exploit their female students.

According to this newspaper, sexual harassment in Nigerian schools will continue to be a problem if the way girls dress is used as an excuse for the illicit act. Blaming the victim leads to perpetrators escaping justice. What can we say about primary and secondary school students wearing their school uniforms? Do they also dress provocatively?

The culture of allowing perpetrators to get away with it without harsh penalties or punishments continues to encourage perpetrators to commit these unacceptable acts against the female gender.
Recall that in 2019, the Federal Government launched its first National Sex Offenders Registry to name the perpetrators of this sinister act across the country. One state that is leading the way in nameless shaming of sex offenders is Lagos.

Only 10 out of 36 states, including the FCT, have passed the law, while the rest are still struggling with implementation. The states are Lagos, Ekiti, Akwa Ibom, Ogun, Edo, Kaduna, Abia, Adamawa, Bauchi and Bayelsa. Only four states – Lagos, Ekiti, Akwa-Ibom and Edo – have so far published complete details of perpetrators. Unfortunately, these registers are not updated regularly, which goes against the objective for which the law was originally introduced.

The lack of strict laws to prosecute the perpetrators is apparently the reason why the perpetrators of this evil act have taken it a step further and sexually harassed innocent primary and secondary school students. In 2021 and 2022, two prominent private secondary schools in Abuja and Lagos respectively made headlines when parents denounced the school authorities over rape allegations against teachers at the school.

Despite overwhelming evidence against the authorities, the schools concerned denied the allegations. According to a recent report, many Nigerian girls are prevented from continuing their secondary education due to sexual harassment, which further increases the already alarming number of children out of school, especially among girls.
This newspaper believes that if the government is serious about combating this shameful act, it must compel other states to enact similar laws and follow the example of Lagos, Edo and Ekiti, states known for shaming sex offenders and properly documenting the perpetrators.

We also believe that urgent action must be taken to curb this problem. Everyone must do their part to combat sexual harassment of young children in schools. Systems should be put in place to allow students to report incidents anonymously.

Perpetrators must be brought to justice, no matter how high-ranking they are. Serious cases such as sexual harassment are often ignored and sometimes dismissed as a joke. This is unacceptable!