Wife of Ekiti State Governor, Mrs. Bisi Fayemi, on Monday disclosed that she faced sexual harassment while she was a university student.
Fayemi made the disclosure during the premiering of #SexForGrade, a one hour documentary by the British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC, exposing randy lecturers in some universities in Nigeria and Ghana.
Condemning the practice which is rampant in many tertiary institutions in the country, Fayemi noted that it was troubling that some lecturers have a culture of entitlement to the bodies of the girls.
“I cried because what this young women have experience is the story of many of us who passed through higher institution in this country.
“I was educated here in Nigeria and I too was a victim of sexual harassment during my university days. I was luckier than these victims. It didn’t go that far but it was extremely unpleasant and of course back in the days when all these things happened you can’t tell anyone because if you do even up till now people ask you to keep shut.
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“You know people don’t talk about things like this. I was watching the documentary and there were three words that came to me, one is voice, it is time to speak up and speak out and for those who do we need to stand with them and stand by them and not silence them because the culture of silence has endured enough.
“Another word that came to me was accountability, we need to be accountable whether as parents, guardians, teachers or leaders in any form through out the different section of society. We have to be accountable for the well being and health of the young people in our care, from when our children come to say mummy, uncle so so and so touched me and instead of asking further to find out what’s its all about, we should act.
“There has to be accountability and the third thing that came to mind was justice, justice for victims or I choose to call them survivors and so those of us who have worked in the women’s affairs whether at international level or Africa or national in Nigeria, we know that we have many law and policies in place that are supposed to guard against things such as this but these laws sometimes mean very little because there is inadequate political will.”
Mrs. Fayemi reminded all that Ekiti had already opened a register to name and shame sex offenders in the state and called on other states do likewise.
