The Sexual Harassment Bill is Real & It Has Passed A Second Reading At The Senate

Yes! It’s actually happening. The Nigerian Senate is sitting to pass a bill that could have lecturers who sexually harass students go to jail for 14 years!

The bill, according to PM News, is titled “A Bill for an Act to Prevent, Prohibit and Redress Sexual Harassment of Students in Tertiary Educational Institutions and for other matters connected therewith 2019” but is popularly tagged “Sexual Harassment Bill,” and was sponsored by the Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege, on Wednesday.

The bill states that those convicted would face a minimum jail term of 5 years, and it could go up to 14 years, with no option of fine.

The offences include:

• Sexual intercourse with a student,
• or demands for sex from a student or a prospective student,
• or intimidating or creating a hostile or offensive environment for the student by soliciting for sex or making sexual advances,
• or grabbing, hugging, kissing, rubbing, stroking, touching, pinching the breasts or hair or lips or hips or buttocks or any other sensual part of the body of a student,
• or sending by hand or courier or electronic or any other means naked or sexually explicit pictures or videos or sex related objects to a student,
• or whistling or winking at a student,
• or screaming, exclaiming, joking or making sexually complimentary or uncomplimentary remarks about a student’s physique,
• or stalking a student.

The bill also has punishment for students found to be falsely accusing a lecturer: expulsion.