Gabriel Dike
As outrage over the sex-for-admission scandal grows intense, management of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) has announced the suspension of another lecturer, Dr. Samuel Oladipo.
On Monday, UNILAG management had suspended Dr. Boniface Igbeneghu of the Department of European Languages and Integrated Studies and banned him from the campus.
The trending video chronicled cases of sexual harassment of female students by lecturers in some West African universities including UNILAG in exchange for admission.
Dr. Oladipo, lecturer in the Department of Economics, was featured in the second stream of the video recording allegedly demanding for sex in exchange for admission from an undercover British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reporter in his office.
Vice Chancellor, Prof. Ouwatoyin Ogundipe, said Dr. Oladipo will face a panel.
A specialist in Economic Development, Oladipo has six research works to his credit and one project. His recent article, which he co-authored with C. Ogboni is titled: ‘’Stock market and economic growth: The Nigerian experience’’ was published in August.
When newsmen visited the offices of the two lecturers, yesterday, it was under lock and key and none of their colleagues could explain their whereabouts while students claimed they saw them last on Friday.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) UNILAG branch, Dr. Dele Ashiru, has described the incident as unfortunate and tragic.
Ashiru, who said the union was against all forms of unethical practices, including sexual harassment, called for thorough investigation and appropriate sanction for lecturers indicted in the alleged sex for grades scandal in order to sanitise the university system.
“As a union, we are against all unethical practices among colleagues, including sexual harassment and even abuse.
“The development is very disturbing and unfortunate. We have appealed to colleagues to understand that as lecturers, we stand in ‘loco parentis’ (in the place of a parent) to these students and must not be perceived in any way of not being protective.”
He urged members to refrain from any act that could tarnish the image of the university.
Chimdi Maduagwu, professor of English, also in UNILAG, said there was need for a social re-orientation of the lecturers and others.
According to him, it is about social scrutiny, urging for enforcement of self discipline, especially among the academic staff.
i am greatly disappointed that our respected men who are supposed to be role models for virtue, degrade, debase and bestialize themselves for reasons that cannot be explained. These are men who have travelled, read, interracted with civilized western world. Men who are supposed to teach us the way to behave and to honour God who they know that in truth exists because if there is no God who merits the attributes credited to Him, the wise British men, the Americans and others will not worship Him. When I see Rev. Fathers and Bishops from overseas being in charge of our local parishes and dioceses, i have the full encouragement to obey God because if He does not exist, these great men will not leave their countries where they have everything to enjoy to come here and suffer in a bid to make us children of God. These our men know that what they are doing is bad and still they continue to do them. What they are doing to others’ daughters they would not like them done to their own daughters and sisters.
How come that parents will be grooming their children from childhood in the way of God and when the children enter the universities instead of the lecturers who are supposed to be churning out good citizens by continuing the moral upbringing from where the parents left off will now be the ones to corrupt and turn them from virtue to vice, even the self-acclaimed men of God called pastors!
How can men of this calibre in a twinkle of an eye destroy hard-earned careers and reputation they built up for so many years over an irrelevant issue? They have the money and whatever it takes to get the best wives for themselves and yet they are not satisfied. i am just pitying them and their families over this ignominy. All good things come from God. The good positions they have came from God but they refuse to recognize this by using them to His glory; they instead glorify the Devil by going against God’s rule with the elevated positions He has bestowed them with.
Any way, it is true that what they have done is bad but the disgrace they have gone through is enough punishment. They are human beings like ourselves. At one time or the other we make mistakes and learn from them. Let me take it that the Devil misled them and now they have seen the repercussion. My late father said, “if bloodshed is engendered in anger, burial should be effected to ward off evil smell.” In the circumstances, I am begging the authorities both in Ghana and Nigeria as well as elsewhere to temper justice with mercy by allowing them to continue with their jobs with promise to turnover a new leaf else they will face severe disciplinary action by way of summary dismissal. Let the essence of this action of the undercover BBC journalist be to correct and reform and not to throw them and their families into abject poverty. The same gesture should please be extended to Professor Akindele.