Nasiru Yusuf Ibrahim

Continued occurrence of sexual harassment in higher institutions of learning in the country has been
disturbing Center for Awareness on Justice and Accountability (CAJA).
The menace seems to be on the increase.

KANO FOCUS observed that the perpetrators of such act seem to be
getting away with it as rare or no punishment has been meted against them.

If punishment is meted against such
perpetrators, the gesture would really
serve as a deterrent against others.
CAJA is lending a campaign against the
act in the country’s institutions of learning.

Cross section of participants

That is why it recently organized an
interactive stakeholders’ session at Tahir Guest Palace in Kano metropolis with a view to deepening discussion on the issue.

The theme of the event was: ‘The Role
of the Media on Curbing the Menace of
Sexual Harassment in Tertiary Institutions.’

The center invited seasoned panelists
who shared their views and perspectives on how best journalists or stakeholders could do to end the menace.

The panelists were Malama Nafisa
Murtala Ahmad from Exrpress Radio;
Malama Sadiya Aliyu from Solace Base
and Malam Mustapha Gambo Muhammad from Pyramid Radio respectively.

Cross section of participants

During the event proper, journalists and students from various media organizations and institutions of learning in the state, held the view that there should be more commitment of stakeholders in pursuing cases of sexual harassment to logical conclusion.

Stakeholders observed that it was not
only the males that perpetrate the act,
even the females, to some extent, do engage in such harassment.

They however observed lack of or non
availability of serious codes in tertiary institutions that spell the punishment to be meted against the perpetrators.

They posited that there should be written documents that would warn any would-be perpetrator of the act and the punishment to be meted on him or her.

They acknowledged that most cases
treated on sexual harassment, in the past, in some institutions of learning in the country, hinged on dismissal of the culprits – that is all, saying that apart from dismissal, the culprits should be made to face the wrath of the law of the land.

Nafisa Murtala Ahmad

It was observed that not only indecency used to attract sexual harassment, but
however, even ladies in Hijab used to fall victims of the menace.

Again, what drew attention of participants at the event was the issue of a bill laying before President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for his assent.

The bill tagged: ‘Sexual Harassment in Tertiary Institutions Prohibition Bill 2023,’ if passed into law, would help a lot in addressing or wiping out the menace or its eradication completely from the nation’s tertiary institutions.

That is CAJA or its partners like Evelyn
T. Ugbe, the Vulnerable Population Sector Manager and Mr. Eric Umoru from Strengthening Civic Advocacy and Local Engagement (SCALE) team, who attended the event all the way from Abuja, the capital of the nation, posited that the media should pursue the passage of the bill vigorously as it provided preventive mechanism to the nation’s students against the menace.

Ugbe said the media should maintain
the momentum so that assent to the bill
should see the light of the day.

In his votes of thank, the Senior Program Officer of CAJA, Malam Akibu Hamisu Garko, while thanking everybody for attending the event, said they took the campaign against the menace in tertiary institutions in the state as very significant so as to eradicate it completely.

Malam Akibu Hamisu Garko

Garko said creating awareness
about the menace in the institutions would help in doing away with it, adding that the students in such institutions should know the existence of such clusters around them with a view to knowing the needed things to do in case of any harassment.

He urged the media to do the needful
and understand the cluster in tertiary institutions, which he added had done a lot on seeing that the bill waiting to be assented by the presidency scaled through.

He said what they prayed for was the
inauguration of an independent sexual harassment committee that would ginger up efforts towards actualizing the dream of their organization.

The Executive Director of CAJA, Malam
Kabir Sa’id Dakata, coordinated the
panel session of the event very well.