10th December, 2019
Mrs Toun Okewale-Sonaiya, Chief Executive Officer, Women Radio 91.7 FM, has called on tertiary institutions in Nigeria to create platforms for students to rate their lecturers anonymously.
Okewale-Sonaiya made the call on Tuesday at the 2019 Olabisi Onabanjo University Alumni Inaugural Annual Lecture series held at Radisson Blu Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos.
She said that this would enable the school authorities to detect lecturers in the habit of assaulting their students since they found it difficult to speak out due to fear of being stigmatised.
According to her, this is important in order to promptly sanitise these institutions and guide students against distractions from their academics.
“We need to find a system where students can rate their lecturers anonymously; this will create room for the students to speak out when they are abused.
“Oftentimes, victims of sexual abuse do not speak out for fear of being stigmatised, but when they know they can speak without people knowing they did, and it makes things easier.
“We are not doing enough in trying to break the jinx of sexual abuse in the country.
“We are not talking enough; it is our collective responsibility to ensure that the victims speak out and offenders are made to face the wrath of the law.
“We need to stifle those in the habit of committing offences of such magnitude,” she said.
Okewale-Sonaiya urged the states across the federation to stay committed in effectively using the national sexual offenders register to curb the menace of sexual abuse in the country.
She commended Lagos and Ekiti for their efforts so far and called on other states to follow suit.
According to her, sexual harassment is common all over the world, but other countries had been able to create a system that works against the perpetrators.
She urged non-governmental organisations to work more on instilling confidence in female children to speak out in cases of sexual abuse.
“We must all put a stop to all forms of abuse relating to sex-for-grade, food, salvation, employment and all; people take advantage of ladies for various reasons,” she said.
Also, Mr Olufemi Awoyemi, an alumnus of the university and founder, Proshare Limited, decried the falling standard of Nigeria’s educational system, saying it was evident in the quality of graduates being produced by various tertiary institutions.
Awoyemi said that building a better society and salvaging the falling standard of the educational system was a collective responsibility of everyone.
He, however, urged parents, teachers and individual in the educational system to instil discipline in their wards.
Awoyemi also urged the alumni of the university to continue developing themselves in order to further develop the institution as a citadel of learning and the nation.
“It is unfortunate that we do not focus on the most important things in our educational sector; we have more hostels and offices than educational materials in schools.
“We must all look inwards to upscale the educational standard,” he said.
Earlier, Mr Stephen Makinde, National President, Olabisi Onabanjo University Alumni, said that the association decided to hold the lecture because it was convinced that the contemporary world was being ruled by a knowledge-driven economy.
Makinde said there was a great need for the association to continue to come together for periodic cross-fertilisation of ideas, note sharing and intellectual brainstorming on contemporary issues of national and international pedigree.