The Alliances for Africa (AFA), a non-governmental organisation with a particular focus on advancing the rights of women and girls, held a two-day consultation with student leaders on addressing sexual harassment on campus this past week in Abuja.
The consultation which was titled “A Two-Day Consultation with the Student Union Government (SUG) and Campus Journalists and Review of Students Union Handbook Towards Addressing Sexual Harassment in Nigerian Tertiary Institutions” saw in attendance 36 students from 12 universities nationwide.
In the opening charge, one of the facilitators, women and human rights activist, Iheoma Obibi told the group that the purpose of the gathering was to come up with effective ways to stop sexual harassment in institutions. “Sexual harassment cuts across age and gender and we are here today because we think it is a systematic change that is needed.”
Speaking on how rife the issue of sexual harassment was in schools, feminist and fellow facilitator Blessing Duru noted that sexual harassment has become normalised so that “it now depends on the bargaining power of the girl.” She also stated that the goal of the project was to gather data so that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu would sign into law the bill criminalising sexual harassment in tertiary schools. “Data is important if we must engage the lawmakers,” she emphasised.
The event also featured group work, brainstorming sessions and presentations by each group to the rest of the participants.
Representing the University of Ibadan were Aweda Bolaji, the president of the Students’ Union, his vice, Boluwatife Aboderin, and Tosanwunmi Tarre, the president of the Union of Campus Journalists, University of Ibadan.
Other schools represented were the University of Abuja, University of Jos, Bayero University Kano, Delta State University, and Lagos State University, among others.
