‘Excuse me sir, I don’t know what to do’

1. Lecturer: Hey ! you girl tell me, what is your name?

Student: My name is Bimbo.. Bimbo Owoyemi.

Lecturer: You failed my test, you failed my exam.But if you want to

pass you know what to do.

Student: Excuse me sir, I don’t know what to do…

Lecturer: I will tell your mummy and I will tell your daddy, you

no wan give me pomo, I be Mr. Lecturer, I will fail your papers.

REMEMBER the above song by sensational Nigerian Hip-hop singer, Eedris Abdulkareem? It was a song that hit the music waves, and if you ask me, it really sold well. The song was, in a nutshell, trying to conceptualise the goings-on on our campuses. In that particular track Eedris tried to portray that when it comes to sexual harassment on campuses, the lecturers are culpable. I don’t know the actual reactions to this song, but in a bid to balance the equation, I believe Eedris quickly did a follow-up to this song.This time  he portrayed the student as the sexual harasser.

In my time in school it was the lecturers that were doing the chasing. They harassed the living daylight out of some of us. I recall vividly the experience of one of my very close friends, way back then. This particular lecturer that took us in photography  vowed that he must sleep with my friend, otherwise  he would fail not only his target  but even her close friends, yours truly included. Our endless pleas to him fell on his  deaf ear. He insisted on having his way even  if it meant  the last thing he would do.

To make good his threat he started scoring my friend below her normal merits. And as if that was not bad enough his fellow lecturers joined him in this personal vendetta,dealing terribly with my friend. For every test of 20 marks, my friend would score two. Even the ones we spent endless nights preparing  for, it was the same outcome.

Read Also: Sex for marks: Students hail sack of OAU Professor

We had resigned to fate only to notice a dramatic change in Mr. Lecturer.He became friendly  with us. He smiled more and joked more with us even when we could not fathom what the change was all about. My friend was quick to put us out of our misery. She invited us all to lunch and opened up on what we all had dreaded over the years

“You remember the weekend I told you, ladies,that I was going to Benin to see my parents?” she began,asking no one in particular.

“Well, I lied. I spent the weekend with Mr. A.”

For the first time in my adult life,  I felt speechless.

Before any of us could pick up our dropped jaws, she continued  as if she wanted to get it all out of her.

Summary of it all is that my friend decided to be the fall guy, or is it fall-lady now, for us all. She felt that since all he wanted was to sleep with her then he could have her. We felt terrible, we felt violated.

Till date, the scar of that incident has refused to leave us.We feel like crying whenever we recall the harassment. My friend  has since moved on with her life.She has a good husband and a child, and I believe they are living happily.

Anyway, that was then, and this is now. Things have changed drastically. It is the students that are now sexually harassing their lecturers. Indecent dressing, for now can be considered stale news. Female students are getting more daring .

I heard of a recent occurrence  in a popular campus in Lagos  where a female student locked up her lecturer in his own office; pulled down her undies after neatly tucking the key into her brassiere! I will spare you the details of how that particular incident ended ,but sadly that is what we have today.

Some students simply  refuse to study. They are pre-occupied with   looking  for shortcuts to success and that is why graduates today cannot even begin to defend their certificates. How can they? When they either bought their way out or slept their way through. There are cases of  ambitious students  who aspire to have the best grades, but also want to have a good time while on campus. Such students then begin to run after lecturers.The desperate ones decide to sleep their way through it that is what will get them  second class upper or even first class.

There have also been cases of  pretty ladies  harassing  lecturers with their flirtatious and lecherous  glances. I heard that some even offer to give it to them right there on their office tables! How sad, condemnable and cheap. Why one earth would anybody want to get a certificate they don’t deserve?

Do not, for any reason, be intimidated by this set of people. Just challenge them to a debate or discussion especially on  happenings around us, and watch how they expose their lack of education.

My thesis is that there should be an anti-sexual harassment policy in place in all schools of higher learning. Offenders should be brought to book to  deter  others or would-be offenders; I feel also that this could restore  sanity in our tertiry  institutions.

For the relentless predators, please be careful not to victimize the aging male lecturers who may be enticed by your escapades since you obviously want to have it both ways – good grades, little effort.