The bill, sponsored by Ovie Omo-Agege (Labour-Delta Central) and co-sponsored by 46 other senators, seeks to completely prohibit any form of sexual relationship between lecturers and their students.

Briefing journalists after plenary, Omo-Agege said that the nation’s institutions of higher learning must be sanitised to rid them of lecturers who saw female students as “prize.”

According to him, when the bill is passed and signed into law, any lecturer found guilty will be liable to a jail term of up to five years but not less than two years with no option of fine.

“When passed into law, it makes it a criminal offence for any educator in a university, polytechnic or any other tertiary educational institution to violate or exploit the student-lecturer fiduciary relationship for sexual pleasures.

“The bill imposes stiff penalties on offenders in its overall objective of providing tighter statutory protection for students against sexual hostility and all forms of sexual harassment in tertiary schools.

“The bill provides a compulsory five-year jail term for lecturers who sexually harass students.

“When passed into law, vice chancellors of universities, rectors of polytechnics and other chief executives of institutions of higher learning will go to jail for two years if they fail to act within a week on complaints of sexual harassment made by students.

“The bill expressly allows sexually harassed students, their parents or guardians to seek civil remedies in damages against sexual predator lecturers before or after their successful criminal prosecution by the State.

“The bill also seeks to protect, from sexual harassment, prospective students seeking admissions into institutions of learning, students of generally low mental capacity and physically challenged students,’’ he stated.

The lawmaker said that it was practicable in other climes as “honour codes” but stressed that it should be domesticated in Nigeria in the Penal form.

The bill reads: “An educator shall be guilty of committing an offence of sexual harassment against a student if he/she has sexual intercourse with a student.

“He or she shall be guilty if he has sexual intercourse with a student or demands for sex from a student or a prospective student as a condition to study in an institution.

“He or she shall be guilty if he has sexual intercourse with a student or demands for sex from a student or a prospective student as a condition to the giving of a passing grade.

“He or she shall be guilty if he solicits sex from or makes sexual advances at a student when the sexual solicitation or sexual advances result in an intimidating, hostile or offensive environment for the student.

“He or she shall be guilty if he directs or induces another person to commit any act of sexual harassment under this Act, or cooperates in the commission of sexual harassment by another person.

“He or she shall be guilty if he grabs, hugs, rubs or strokes or touches or pinches the breasts or hair or lips or hips or buttocks or any other sensual part of the body of a student.

“He or she shall be guilty if he displays, gives or sends by hand or courier or electronic or any other means naked or sexually explicit pictures or videos or sex related objects to a student.

“He or she shall be guilty if he whistles or winks at a student or screams or exclaims or jokes or makes sexually complimentary or uncomplimentary remarks about a student’s physique,” he said.

The bill also has provisions to sanction students who falsely accuse lecturers of sexual harassment. Such students could face dismissal from the school but no jail term was prescribed.

According to the bill, the only exemption is where the student is legally married to the lecturer before admission in the school as a student.
It states that the consent of the student shall not serve, in anyway, as a defence as the bill seeks to completely ban lecturer-student relationships.

The bill also imposes on institutions the responsibility to protect students who initiate a sexual harassment charge.

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TUC president Bobboi Kaigama told newsmen on Wednesday in Abuja that the congress was optimistic that ASUU and the Federal Government would reach a consensus in the next few days.

“We will mediate and call back both parties to the negotiation table. The good thing is that they are both committed to ending the strike,’’ Kaigama said.

He said that when he and NLC president Abduwahed Omar led ASUU leadership to negotiate with President Goodluck Jonathan, an agreement was not signed because ASUU wanted to “report back to its branches’’.

Kaigama added that the leadership of both TUC and NLC had resolved to wade into the matter again with the hope of achieving a truce.

“Myself and my colleague from the NLC will ensure that this issue is quickly resolved. The most important thing is that both parties want a quick end to the strike. What is happening right now is as a result of a break in communication,” he said.

He added that the threat by the Federal Government to sack lecturers and the reaction by ASUU were as a result of a break in communication between both parties.

The TUC president also expressed the confidence that no lecturer would be victimised at the end of the industrial action.

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In a statement issued in Abakaliki, the Registrar, Sam Egwu, said academic activities would resume on all the campuses of the university on Tuesday Nov.26.

The statement said: “we have waited patiently for the Federal Government and ASUU to resolve the impasse (strike) to no avail.

“The management of Ebonyi State University has, therefore, resolved to commence academic activities on Tuesday. We, therefore, use this medium to inform all concerned that teaching and learning will begin fully on Tuesday, to enable us to cover what we have lost to the strike” , the statement said.

Our correspondent gathered that this was part of decisions reached at a management meeting held on Nov. 20.

It said “80 per cent of the lecturers in attendance agreed that they should ignore ASUU’s nationwide strike and return to class.

“The lecturers are not happy that the strike is lingering and therefore gave their full support for the resumption of school on Tuesday”, the source said.

The source, however, said that Chairman of ASUU in the university did not attend the meeting.

However, the chairman, Prof. Ndubuisi Idenyi, dissociated the branch of ASUU from the decision to resume studies, stressing that “The strike is still in progress until we get directives from our national leadership.”

Idenyi said the leadership of ASUU in the university was ready for a showdown with the school’s management if it decided to punish lecturers who defied the return-to-duty order.

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The Chairman of the chapter, Dr Emmanuel Mordi, told newsmen in Asaba that the state government was planning to implement the policy for the first time.

The state Governor, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan, had urged ASUU members to return to classroom or face implementation of the policy.

“When the strike is called off, lecturers will say: `No pay, no work’. It does not help anybody; it can only escalate the crisis.

“It is unfortunate that ASUU is at the receiving end, as the government, being stronger, has the power to withhold ASUU members’ salaries, he said.

He said that ASUU was willing to call off the strike and would do so as soon as the Federal Government showed more commitment.

“We are anxious to call off the strike, but the government said we should wait for so many months.

“What we must note is that our students are also our children. Some lecturers are also students; so, this is a very painful surgical operation, which we have to carry out in the best interest of our future generation.”

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