British-Nigerian feminist and Ekiti State First Lady, Erelu Bisi Fayemi, has said that she was sexually harassed when she was studying in Nigeria.
She said this in reaction to the new BBC reports focusing on activities of some lectures sexually harassing students.
Although Fayemi did not give details of who particularly harassed her, she is likely to have had the experience at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, where she studied for her first and second degrees.
She also noted in a write-up that she was luckier than many other girls because the real thing did not happen in her own case.
Saying the BBC video moved her into tears, she said:
“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.
“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 there are parents, guidance or 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 victim or I choose to call them survivors and so those of us who have worked in the women’s whether at international level or Africa or national air in Nigeria, we know that we have many law and policies in place that are supposed to guard against things such as this but this law sometimes means very little because there is inadequate political.”
