When a top rated lecturer of the University of Ibadan died recently, staff and students of the institution as well as the general public were made to believe that the Professor slumped while trying to buy some items in a market in Ibadan.
Findings have however revealed that the 51-year-old lecturer whose health had been a topic of discussion among staff and students who knew him closely met his rather untimely death after an amorous encounter with a secret lover. The news of how he died in the hands of the lover has started spreading around the university though the authorities quickly started a damage control process in order to suppress the story. Most lecturers would rather not talk about it as they all seem to have adopted the “you don’t speak ill of the dead” approach. Street Journal has however found out that the issue is more of a matter of “let he that has no sin cast the first stone”. Reason being that it has become common knowledge that a very high percentage of lecturers in the institution engage in the same act.
His Department in the Faculty of Arts is one of those particularly noted for sexual harassment. One of his colleagues who lives in the staff quarters has a willing accomplice in another lecturer who lives in his boys’ quarters. The lecturer who stays in the BQ is encouraged by the fact that his family stays outside the campus and he goes home only on weekends. During the week, he gets “served” in the boys quarters by female students who do not want to fail the courses he teaches.
Earlier in the year, a Doctor in the Institute of Educational Management was shown the way out of the university sequel to several allegations bordering on sexual harassment and misconduct. Though there had been several allegations in the past and talks around the Department that the lecturer is “wicked in bed”, the Doctor never had his cup full until his encounter with one of the post graduate students in the Department who had “proved stubborn” for so long . The encounter was the last straw.
The lecturer’s undoing was his belief that the girl would not try to hit back. After the lady had succumbed to pressures from the notorious Doctor, a date was fixed while a suitable venue was also agreed on for “action”. The student who felt she had a point to prove carried recording equipment which were placed in strategic locations within the room.
When she eventually took action against the lecturer, he denied ever being involved in such. His denials were however punctured by the video evidence that was tendered before the Staff Disciplinary Committee. He was subsequently found guilty and his appointment terminated.
Street Journal gathered that similar fates have befallen lecturers in History Department, which has produced a Vice Chancellor of the institution and also the Department of Adult Education.
Students disclosed that when it comes sexual harassment, all cadres of lecturers are involved. It is not a function of age, class or position. Street Journal found out from the students of the institution that senior lecturers and professors are involved. They went as far as stating that some members of the University’s Senate are not exempted while some of the students opined that even those who constitute the Disciplinary Committees may not be clean after all.
Findings revealed that while those in the University’s Senate try to be as discreet in their affairs as possible, some of the students they have slept with are not so careful. Some have shown text messages and other proofs of their relationships with the dons to some of their friends and fellow students.
It has also been discovered that the Faculties most notorious for sexual harassment include the Social Sciences, Education and Arts. In the Social Sciences, Departments of Sociology and Psychology were named as the hotbeds of sexual harassment while in the Faculty of Education, Department of Adult Education is said to be the most notorious for illicit lecturer-student sexual relationships. In the Faculty of Arts, European Studies and Philosophy Departments are known to have the highest number of victims.
Street Journal gathered that in the European Studies Department, it is an open secret that anyone who refuses to “play ball” or refuses a lecturer’s advances is courting failure and may end up with an extra year. It is also often discussed within the department that to prevent being caught in any scandalous web, lecturers have started using their offices as “slaughter slabs”. A student disclosed that “”the number of offices in which female students are not being slept with on a regular basis can be counted”. One thing is however common to all the students, no one wants to be caught disclosing the names of identities of victims or perpetrators of the horrible act. They all simply agree that most, if not all the lecturers are involved.
Surprisingly, the issue is not restricted to the Social Sciences and Arts faculties, it happens in the Faculty of Science too. One of the lecturers in the Geology Department was fingered as the worst culprit. Students allotted to him for project supervision normally end up in his bed.
Street Journal’s investigations revealed that lecturers have devised ways of reaching their victims. The “safe method” now is to approach female students by proxy; close students, graduate assistants and youth corpers are normally found useful for such jobs.
Street Journal has also found out that sexual harassment thrives in the University of Ibadan mainly because the institution is yet to officially initiate a policy on sexual harassment. Investigations revealed that the MacArthur Foundation drafted a Gender Policy on sexual harassment which covers the sexual harassment policy for the institution but the draft has not been adopted by the University’s Senate, despite having been rectified more than a year ago. Efforts to speak with the Public Relations Officer of the Institution proved futile as her phone line was not reachable at the time of filing the report.
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