The Kogi State Government has warned against any form of sexual harassment across the various Tertiary institutions in the State.
The state’s Commissioner for Education, Hon. Wemi Jones, gave the warning on Tuesday in Lokoja, at a one day stakeholders meeting on State Level Adoption of the Model Anti-Sexual Harassment Policy in Tertiary Institutions in Kogi State.
Jones decried that sexual harassment had eaten deep into the fabrics of the Nigeria society, adding that the present administration has put up machineries to apprehend anyone involved in sexual harassment in Kogi.
According to Jones, the objective of the meeting is to facilitate the adoption of the state level model anti-sexual harassment policy.
This, he said would enable the state to secure the buy-in of institutional heads on integration of Campus Safety Initiative Framework (CSIF).
“Sexual harassment has remained with us for a long time because victims are usually scared to talk about them after being harassed because of stigmatization,” he said.
Jones noted that the Federal Ministry of Education has implemented the anti-sexual harassment policy, and hence the need for Kogi to take the lead in domesticatiing the policy at the state level.
He assured the commitment of Kogi Government to always be at the forefront of domesticating federal government policies to the benefits of the people of the state.
He added: “You would recall that towards the end of President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure, there was the elongation of the service year for teachers which is a national policy.
“Kogi was one of the first States to implement that Policy, as well as the recently established Federal Government’s Senior Secondary Education Commission (NSSEC).
“Because of our proactiveness, we are going to adopt the policy against sexual harassment in Kogi State”.
The commissioner added the initiative was in collaboration with the Independent Corrupt Practices & Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), and Gender Mobile Initiative (GMI).
“This initiative is to ensure that we reduce and totally eliminate sexual harassment especially on our tertiary institutions because that is where it happened the most.
“That is why we are here today, and I am sure we know the stands of Kogi State Government on the issues of crimes and criminalities.
“Sexual harassment is a major criminal act and the Kogi government will not condole it,” Jones stated.
The commissioner stressed the need to come up with a robust document that will ensure a conducive learning environment across schools.
“We need a very robust document which we are going to use to work and make our State very safe for both genders so that we can collectively create and have a conducive learning environment” he added.
Dr Ernest Ogezi from Gender Mobile Initiative (GMI), presentated a paper on “Institutionalizing Campus Safety Initiative Framework at all Tertiary Institutions in Kogi State
Ogezi noted that a recent survey revealed that 69.8 per cent of respondents had been sexually harassed as students in various tertiary institutions out of which less than 10 per cent were reported to the appropriate authorities.
He described sexual harassment as an unwanted behavior of a sexual nature which has the purpose of effect of violating an individual’s dignity.
According to him, causes of sexual harassment include: poor implementation of sexual harassment policies, uneven power relations, culture of silence, lack of confidential reporting channel, and absence of anti sexual harassment prohibition bill in Nigeria, among others.
Ogezi, therefore recommended the setting up of sexual harassment policy, constitution of anti sexual harassment prohibition committee, robust collaboration with other stakeholders, provision of medical and psychosocial support services as the solutions to reduce sexual harassment in Nigeria.
The stakeholders at the meeting include: heads and students of various tertiary institutions across the state, and officials of the ministries of Education; Innovation Science and Technology, among others.
Sexual harassment should not be tolerated! Rather, it must be confronted and stopped so that our institutions can be safe and positive places for everyone in the community,” Ogezi said.