SAN FRANCISCO, September 10, (THEWILL) – The Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, has urged Nigerians, not to blame victims of sexual abuse for their harassment.
He noted that the victims are not the architects of their fate especially by their attitude, dressing or willingness to be in a compromising place with their violators.
“The victim must always be seen as the victim and not to be blamed,” the Vice President said.
“There cannot be an excuse, especially given the power configuration between students and lecturers, that the victim could have somehow invited the abuse upon themselves. I think it is an important consideration to be made and we must not allow that notion to persist”, Osibanjo added.
The Vice President was speaking as part of his contributions on Wednesday at a webinar on Anti-Sexual Harassment themed “Finding Safe Spaces for Female Students in Nigerian Universities”, organized by the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife.
Speaking further on ways of resolving issues around sexual harassment in Nigerian universities, Prof. Osinbajo said the search for answers to creating safe spaces for female students in universities must begin from the question of why is it that such an evidently rampant crime is so under-reported.
He added that more needs to be done to ensure that more victims feel confident enough to come forward since the low reportage is due to the fact that most victims do not feel confident that they will get redress, or visited with the same fearful consequences that were the subject of the demand in the first place.
