IT IS indeed with a huge sense of dole that I write this piece, which itself is a contribution to the raging issue of sex for grade that had become part of our University system and which recently seemed a magnified concern. The BBC documentary on the issue by Kiki Mordi happened to highlight the concern of sexual harassment on female students happening in some selected varsities in Ghana and Nigeria, but that on its own was just a tip of the debauchery perpetrated by lecturers in every high institution of learning in this country.
The incidences of favor for grades has become so prevalent nowadays that continuously they have begun to rob value off our educational system and the certificates it confers. Certificates ordinarily are the culminating reflection of the educational value of a student; they are the concise description of the academic worth of any student presented in a single material. Certificates are such that they do not define the processes towards the feat their bearers assert are achieved. Hence a certificate does not say whether its description of the bearer was obtained through conscious academic/scholarly hardworking or just through spurious settlements as seen by sex, money or otherwise.
It is no wonder that our graduates, regardless of how bright or not they could be are now put to closer scrutiny to ascertain their authenticity and worthiness even though their certificates explicitly declare that they are, which ordinarily should be an affirmation that ought to be taken for what it is. In a rather funny twist, we've seen for some reasons how the certificates of the bearers do not reflect their capacities; such instance as how a graded first class just shows you how questionable such feat is and how a third class just show you how the reverse of their grades they are.
Truly, it is that disturbing as how our certificates have lost value, becoming just a well designed placards that have become graduating necessities. They are no longer the descriptive instruments of the learning/character capacity of graduands that they should be. And, we know the reasons, as they are becoming more obvious and rather more intense in recent times. Money for grade/sex for grade have become the bane of our educational system. They've become the more probable shortcuts for those who could not live up the demands for excellence in the academic journey they've chosen and an encouragement for laziness.
Prior to the BBC's deep cut into the raucous depravity of some lecturers of the University of Lagos, there had been the case of the lecturer in the Obafemi Awolowo University. Mr Olabisi Olaleye was accused by one of his students of sexual harrasment. Earlier before the Olaleye case, another lecturer in the same institution, was also enmeshed in the same scandal. Akindele Richard, a professor of Accounting was accused of continuously failing a female student after his demands for sex we're turned down. Both were indicted and consequently dismissed from the University.
Waving like the tide of the ocean, this boring caterpillar continued to eat away the serenity of our academic institutions, instilling fear on students and aspiring students as to what sanctity could still be maintained in the so-called citadel of learning. And just recently, the infamity was news again, this time having the Imo State University in the spotlight. Two of the state owned varsity lecturers were said to have been caught pants down with their female student-victims in separate video footages that have gone viral.
In one of the videos, a man who appeared to be Dr Agomuo Emmanuel was totally naked as from birth as he was handcuffed by plain-clothed security personnel, looking just aghast and speechless. He was said to have been swooped upon by the security men in the hotel room where he'd gone to have a meal of his harrassed victim. Agomuo is of the department of Biochemistry and has risen through the ranks in the department to become a professor and the head of department. Seen as a taciturn person with often as serious look that always portrayed him as a no-nonsense fellow, the young professor exuded what was totally unconnected to his Nemesis.
The second video had the fair-bodied Mr Victor Njoku stark naked with a lady, being carried away by his lust desire for pleasure. Dr Victor Njoku is of the department of Chemistry and as learnt has also risen to the professorial rank. It was surprising to many and so embarrassing for me to hear of their scandalous dealing having known them for long!
The acts by these two lecturers continued to bring to the fore the insensitivity and insensibility of those who are seen as civilized and enlightened being orchestrated in the very citadel that should promote dignity and value. Their incongruous crave for sexual gratification continues to debase the sanctity of their scholarly honour at the same time subjecting those to whom they should be guide and father to ceaseless trauma of the kind seen in sexual victimization. This is totally reprehensible and must continuously be highlighted to shame those involved.
The continuous awareness of this senseless acts should, instead of the ordinary news been made of them (-news that are later swept beneath the carpet), be holistically dealt with, observing the strictest mechanisms of reproof, so as to serve as warning for wannabe monsters whose coital desires would continue to feed them with the delusion that female students, rather than be pivotal elements in the educational system cum society are just food for taste.
In the final analysis therefore, I call upon the authorities of the Imo State University and, by extension, the Imo State govt, to step into action immediately to unraveling the basics of the shameful footage and bringing the issue to reasonable conclusion. Of course, there should be punitive measures for anyone found culpable. It's also advised that the institution should hold strongly upon these incidents to launch a total overhaul of the system that would stringently caution those rampaging wolves who have yet to be caught in their acts and to deter anyone considering same.
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