Eugene Upah|27 February 2017
“He said if I don’t pay him the money he asked me to pay him I will carry over his course and he will make sure that I fail the course again next year. And even after a friend borrowed me the money, I took it to him in his office, but he asked me to use the money and book a hotel room around Parliamentary, then I should call him to come to the place. What do I do?” She yelled.
This were the exact words of a second year undergraduate student of the University of Calabar yesterday who preferred quitting her education rather than giving in to her Lecturer’s only option of passing her: sex. The said girl is married with her wedding ring on her finger. She had even gone as far as presenting her wedding pictures to these Lecturer, but still, he won’t rescind. He threatens to make life in school unbearable for her if she doesn’t succumb to his will. What a world!
Dear Mr. anonymous Lecturer, you have a Daughter who is schooling in another University, she is being lectured by another person, he passes her and accords her the makes she deserves, and he doesn’t place her under any form of intimidation or rascality. He mentors her, he advises her, and when it is time for her project he endorses her topic freely without asking her for a dime, he does not ask her to book a hotel and call him thereafter, she graduates and comes out with a very remarkable result, she returns home and presents her result to you, you are happy that she made you proud while in school, you go out set a party for her with your family and friends, everyone drinks and is happy, you return to work the Monday after you had celebrated your Daughter’s exceptional result because she was properly cared for by another institution and you think your own Daughter has an edge over the poor girl you have been molesting? You lie. You are a dare-devil heartless man. It doesn’t end there; God will punish you for your misdeeds.
It is very obvious that there is high level rot in our Universities. As a matter of fact, the corruption in the Nigerian academic environment is even more than what is obtainable in other circular worlds. The rate at which Lecturers take advantage of the female students they mentor leaves one wondering if there is life after these students graduate from the University. They do it as a collaborative business; a Lecturer can connive with his colleague in another Department to fail a particular student because he too does the same thing. And to make matters worse, some of these students like the fact that these Lecturers hangout with them. Some even present themselves to these blood sucking demons in other that they favor them during exams and pay their “bills”, it makes life in school very easy for them. The one who tries to advise or oppose them is subjected and eventually victimized. Very sad indeed.
There is the need for the federal government to constitute organizations and commissions to checkmate activities of academic institutions in the country if it must win the fight against corruption in our institutions of learning. The services offered by SERVICOM and other “un-noticed” organizations aren’t enough to curtail the rot perpetrated by Lecturers. Tens and Hundreds of students (especially the females), walk about with pain and despair unleashed on them by these Lecturers, they have no one to fight their cause for them, they are afraid to say they have been molested because of fear of being victimized. They will always cite the instance of how a student who tried to fight for such a cause ended up, so they don’t want to be witch-hunted. My dear Sister let me tell you, speak out, or do you think the man himself is proud of what he is doing to you? It is because he knows you can’t fight him. Recall how a 400 level undergraduate in the Department of Law, University of Calabar, Sinemobong Ekong Nkang brought down a Dean of her Faculty some years ago because of a similar issue? Things must not remain like this. Things ought to change for good. Your future husband may be that Lecturer’s son.
Eugene Upah
Pained Nigerian who is tired of hearing about the sex-for-marks syndrome in the higher institutions
