President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan has said that the passage of the
sexual harassment bill by the Senate will ensure the safety of students
of tertiary institutions in the country.
Lawan stated this in his
remarks on Tuesday after the upper chamber passed a bill for an Act to
prevent, prohibit and redress sexual harassment of students in Tertiary
Educational Institutions.
The bill was sponsored by the Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege (APC – Delta Central).
The passage of the bill followed the consideration of the report of the Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters.
Speaking
on the bill passed by the upper chamber, Lawan said, “this is a very
important and landmark legislation that the Ninth Senate has passed. We
have to protect our daughters from predators.”
“In the process we
could see clearly that we wanted fair means of determining what offence
somebody is accused of, so it is a balanced legislation.
“We
want our tertiary institutions to be a very safe environment for
everyone, and this is a legislation that will ensure that wish”, the
Senate President added.
Earlier in his presentation, the Chairman
of the Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, Senator
Opeyemi Bamidele (APC – Ekiti Central), said the piece of legislation
“attracted unprecedented support from not only Distinguished Senators as
demonstrated by the 106 Senators that Co-sponsored the bill but an
overwhelming number of Nigerians who see the bill as a necessary
legislative intervention that will bring sanity and good order to the
educator-student relationship in our tertiary institutions.”
According
to the lawmaker, “the bill is not targeted at a particular community –
the educators and that it does not interfere with the autonomy of the
universities – rather, it is intended to reposition and strengthen our
tertiary educational institutions to maintain the core values of
etiquette and excellence.”
He added that with the passage of the
bill, the piece of legislation will bridge the huge gap and give legal
backing to any internal rule by educational institutions to check the
incidences of sexual harassment.
Bamidele stated that contrary to
ASUU’s claim that there are extant laws that can sufficiently address
sexual harassment in tertiary institutions, the Committee found that
there are no such laws.
“This legislation is meant to address
incidence of sexual harassment in tertiary institutions only, as there
are other laws that address sexual offences in respect of persons under
the age of 18 years such as the Child Rights Act 2003”, the lawmaker
stressed.
He added that, “by enacting this bill into law, the
Nigerian Government would be fulfilling part of its obligations
undertaken through the ratification of the United States Convention on
the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW),
the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, the Protocol to the
African Charter on the Rights of Women in Africa, and the African
Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, amongst others.”
Lawmakers during the clause by clause consideration of the bill, however differed on the retention of clause seven in the bill.
The
Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege who proposed an amendment to
clause 7, argued that it was unnecessary for the prosecution to prove
the intention of the accused person or the condition under which the act
of sexual harassment was carried out.
According to him, the commission of sexual harassment was sufficient to try any educator accused of a sexual offence.
Lawmakers
such as the Senate Leader, Yahaya Abdullahi (APC – Kebbi North) and
Senator Abdullahi Adamu (APC – Nasarawa West), however, argued on the
contrary that should the bill make it unnecessary for the prosecutor to
prove the intention of any accused person in a sexual harassment trial,
same would lower the requisite standards obtainable in criminal
proceedings.
According to Senator James Manager (PDP – Delta
South), going ahead to pass the bill without making it compulsory for
prosecutors to prove the intention of the accused person in a sexual
harassment case, may expose educators to blackmail.
“Laws are being made for the people, and when you make laws with a technical amendment like this, we have to be very careful.
“The
rape cases that we have had in recent times, majority of them are
outside the universities or the tertiary institutions and they are all
strict liability offences. We have not been able to amend that
particular part of the law.
“When you isolate, because some of
the rape cases are on children who are even five or six years, but the
burden of proof is still strict liability. You have to prove, that is
for a separate law for a separate group of people.
“Mr.
President, we have to be very careful, as we are trying to protect the
female students, we must be seen to be protecting some innocent
lecturers.
“In this day of the internet, a lecturer can easily be
set up. We have to be very careful. For us to isolate by removing the
intention, that will not be good enough”, Manager said.
The lawmakers while voting on clause seven, voted for its retention as contained in the bill and recommended by the Committee.
The
clause provides for strict liability which makes it necessary for
prosecutors to prove the intention of the accused, as well as the
condition under which the act of sexual harassment was carried out.
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