Ex-National University Commission boss blames academically weak girls for sex-for-marks menace

FORMER National University Commission (NUC) executive secretary Professor Peter Okebukola has blamed young female students for the incessant spate of sexual harassment within academic circles saying academically weak pupils breed the sex-for-marks menace.

Nigerian institutions of higher learning are notorious for cases lecturers demanding sexual favours to get passed and of late, several academics have been dismissed after being filmed making such demands. According to Professor Okebukola, the admission of academically weak students was responsible for the trending sex-for-mark menace in the system.

He added that if universities and other institutions admitted students who were academically sound and had good scores on entry, there would be no room for any lecturer to harass such students. According to Professor Okebukola, many of the universities in an attempt to make money from different programmes in various satellite campuses, admit wishy-washy students who are desperate to pass.

Professor Okebukola said: “If, in the first instance, a student is academically good, what will a lecturer tell her, sex-for-which mark? All those girls who run after those lecturers or can be harassed by lecturers are those who are academically weak.

“Even, if the lecturers do not want to get engaged with them sexually, the girls will offer them their bodies. If at the point of admitting our students, we ensure that they have met some respectable score that when you teach them in class, they can understand and do well on their own, then the problem would have been addressed.”

Of late, high profile cases of sexual harassment have been reported at the Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife, Lagos State University, University of Lagos and Covenant University, Ota. They all involve lecturers threatening students that they will not pass unless they offer them sexual favours.