SEX-FOR-GRADE PROHIBITION LAW: EXAM ETHICS SENDS LIST OF 15,550 PETITIONERS TO SENATE PRESIDENT FOR QUICK ACTION.
On 13th February, 2020, Exam Ethics Marshals International (EEMI) delivered the petition signed by 15,550 parents, staff, students and other concerned stakeholders to fast track the passage of the bill for prohibition of Sex-for-Grade and other forms of Sexual Harassment to the office of the Senate President. The petitioners were made up of 56% female and 44% male.
The CD containing the list of petitioners was submitted even though the petition can be directly viewed online by clicking on the link https://www.change.org/p/the-national-assemby-abuja-join-the-movement-petition-against-sex-for-grade-in-tertiary-schools.
More people are still signing the petition as the campaign to fast-track the enactment of the law will be sustained until the bill is signed into law and implemented.
The Bill had earlier been frustrated when it was first introduced in the 8th Assembly in 2016. The Bill was re-introduced in the 9th Assembly following the BBC undercover report of October 2019 which touched off avalanche of revelations of pervasive criminal sex-for-grade practice of lecturers extorting sex from their students as condition for awarding them pass marks. The crime has also been reported in secondary schools.
Many of the complicit lecturers have not been brought to justice because of lack of enabling law. Educational institutions resort to administrative actions of suspending or terminating appointments. Indicted lecturers easily get employed by other institutions to continue to sexually assault female students as no national coordinated system is in place for identification and tracking of sexual offenders.
The fast-track campaign was launched on November 1, 2019 by EEMI. I urge concerned parents, students, staff and citizens to:
1. Visit the link and sign the petition to the National Assembly to fast track action on enactment of the law on sexual harassment prohibition in educational institutions in Nigeria if they not signed.
2. Call, email or send letters to constituency offices of their Senators to work towards the quick passage of the Sexual Harassment Prohibition Law.
The physical and psychological traumatization of female students through sex-for-grade harassment in tertiary institutions must be stopped.
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Ike Onyechere, MFR
Founding Chairman,
Exam Ethics Marshals International
February 18, 2020
Twitter: @ikeonyechere