Have you ever found yourself in a position where you have the opportunity to take advantage of the vulnerability of someone below you in hierarchy or someone that needs assistance from you? How did you handle it?
It happened to me when I was in university. My older friend and benefactor (he was the one who facilitated my admission into the university) introduced a girl that had a challenge passing a mathematics course. She had written the course and failed. It happened that I knew the girl before then. I had been seeing her on campus and on different occasions, I told my close friends of how I'd loved to date the girl.
After the introduction, I started teaching the girl every weekend. We would study for some hours and I would give her some tasks to check her level of assimilation. I noticed that there was no tangible improvement.
The time for the examination arrived and she wrote the course. Unfortunately, she failed again. At this point, she gave up with the conviction that she couldn't pass the course even if given a hundred chances. However, she must pass the course before graduating.
Having given up on her ability to write the examination and pass, she approached me to impersonate her and write the paper for her. I was shocked to my marrow. I outrightly told her that I can't do such a thing. That's a crime of a severe magnitude in the university.
The girl kept pestering me to yield to her desire.
"I am ready to pay you in cash and kind," she told me on one such occasion.
Since we started the tutorials, I was holding myself back from asking her out for a romantic relationship. I tried to avoid taking advantage of my present relationship with her. Her offer to pay me in kind rekindled my interest to have her.
"Should I take advantage of her vulnerability to have my way?" I asked myself.
I faced some battles within. In the end, I allowed the side of me that respects human sanctity and dignity to prevail. I didn't write the exam for her nor take advantage of her.
Cases of lecturers taking advantage of the vulnerability of female students under them has been on the increase in Nigeria in the last few decades.
As a teacher, failing your student intentionally so that you could use such an opportunity to negotiate for a sexual relationship is evil. Each time I read a story like that, my experience, as captioned above, makes it clear to me how one's lustful desire, if not put into check, could lead one to deviate from professional ethics. It is a battle that you must win by reigning in on your lustful desires.
Recently, I read about a professor in one of Nigerian universities being prosecuted for sexual harassment of his students.
Victims were called upon to tender evidence against him. The victims in their numbers, with their identity protected, came up with different pieces of evidence.
One explained how the professor requested for sex in order to admit her from the diploma program that she was doing into a degree programme. A few others tendered nude pictures and videos that they exchanged with the professor. All the victims were manipulated by the professor. In most of such cases, a defiant student is made to face the music. Graduating from the programme might become near impossible except the victim gives in to the desire of the professor.
Many victims who couldn't cope had dropped out from school in the past. Many of them were frustrated to the point of contemplating or commiting suicide.
Like I stated earlier, the menace doesn't start today. In 2003, when the problem wasn't as pronounced as it is today, a Nigerian rapper, Eedris Abdulkareem sang about it in a song titled "Mr lecturer."
This song gives a detailed account of how this problem occurs in our institutions of higher learning.
In their typical method of perpetrating their evil acts, you could see the lecturer in the video telling his student, Bimbo, that she failed his test and examination. The lady insisted that she didn't know what to do but the lecturer insisted that she knew what to do.
He let out his intention when he said, "Jekamafe arawa, jekama mmmm arawa." This is a Nigerian language that translates into, "let's be dating each other and be having romantic affairs."
The lady could not hold it any longer. She walked out of the office and informed the police. The lecturer was arrested and hopefully he was going to face the music.
The problem is not just about the menace of sexual harassment in our universities but also the weakness of the judicial system where the vulnerable rarely gets justice.
This has made many victims cry and suffer in silence. If they cry out in most cases, the perpetrator would use his influence to frustrate investigation and prosecution of the case. It could get worse if the victim becomes more victimized by the system that has different laws for the rich and the powerful in society.
Everything about this act is evil and must continually be condemned. I hope things keep improving for the better so that every victim of this menace can speak up.
Only when the perpetrators get punished can we talk of seeing the end of the unfortunate problem.
It's sad how some people tend to take advantage of their students, it's very nice to know you didnt take advantage of her vulnerability.
#dreemport
It's condescending to say the least. It reduces one's self esteem as a teacher. Thank you for stopping by my fellow #dreemer.
You're welcome
I remembered this song and it talks about corrupt lecturers molesting their female students because of marks that too bad. I hope all this corruption will end one day in the higher institutions.
#dreemerforlife
If we keep condemning the action and also pressuring our lawmakers to make stringent laws to combat it, I believe that the end is near.
The challenge we are facing is that fact that the higher authorities tend to face the other side or just give a very mild punishment to the offenders or the victims are not taken seriously until it gets out of hand. It's good that you did not indulge in it because it would have had grave consequences of you were caught.
#dreemerforlife
That is the problem. The law is weak against the crime. The most annoying part is that there is undue advantage given to the privileged when implementing even the mild law in existence.
Exactly, that's why the perpetrators feel that nothing will be done to them even if they get caught.
Nigeria as a country have been eaten so deep my corruption. I just pray we find our ground someday, I just pray God helps us. The issue of lectures and teachers taking advantage of students is just one among many. Even the law is corrupt, one can even buy his/her out of the rought of the law
You are right. The challenges being faced by the country is multidimensional. The system is not strong enough to fight the challenges. Until there is the political will to come up with a system that can fight the challenges, progress may continue to elude us.
Absolutely my friend