The Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal matters organized a public hearing on a Bill titled “An Act to Make Provisions for the Prohibition of Sexual Harassment of Students by Educators in Tertiary Educational Institutions, and for Other Matters Connected therewith on June 20th 2016. The Bill which is sponsored by Sen. Ovie Omo-Agege( LP:Delta) seeks to prohibit the offence of sexual harassment in tertiary institutions and impose stiffer penalties on perpetrators.

The hearing was presided over by Sen. David Umaru (APC: Niger), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters and attended by other Senators including Sen.Abdullahi Adamu(APC; Nasarawa), Joshua Lidani (PDP: Gombe), Philip Aduda (PDP:FCT), James Manager(PDP: Delta). It was also well represented by members of the general public including stakeholders from Ministries, Department and Agencies; and Civil Society Organizations.

Giving his welcome remarks, Sen. David Umaru (APC: Niger) elucidated that the Bill intended to criminalize the act of neglect or failure by administrative heads of tertiary institutions to address complaints of sexual harassment within a specified period. Furthermore, he explained that the purpose of the public hearing was to enable his Committee collate the opinions and suggestions of participantsbefore making appropriate recommendations to Senate.

It is noteworthy that there was no representative from the Ministry of Justice, Office of the First Lady although they submitted position papers to the Committee and National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS). However, during the course of presentation, the following recommendations were made by various interest groups;

• That the title of the Bill should be amended to read “An Act to Make Provisions for the Prohibition of Sexual Harassment of StudentsTertiary Educational Institutions, and for Other Matters Connected therewith“.
• That sexual harassment in the Bill should not be limited to educators but include all non-academic staff who have access to students
• That the stipulated fine for offenders should be increased from Two Million Naira as stated in Clause 15 to Ten Million Naira.
• That the Bill should give a time frame for the investigative Committee to act on reported cases of sexual harassment.
• That the Bill should create a time frame within which a student can report a complaint of sexual harassment after the alleged incident is deemed to have occurred.
• That a representative of the students’ body should be included in the Sexual Harassment Prohibition Committee as it would ensure equal representation.
• That some clauses in the Bill should be amended to prevent a replication of laws already in existence.
• That the Bill should not set a minimum age of 18 years as sexual harassment occurs at any age.
• That the Bill should encompass students in other institutions of learning such as primary and secondary schools.

While the Bill was largely commended, Mr. Biodun Ogunyemi, lecturer and President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) notably opposed the Bill which he described as “unwarranted, superfluous, and a waste of time”. Mr. Ogunyemi was also of the view that the Bill failed the test of fairness as it discriminated against educators and targeted male lecturers.

It is expected that the outcome and recommendations of the public hearing would be reflected in the Committee’s report to the Senate.