• Stakeholders lament ugly trend, say they’re evil killing Nigeria’s higher education
By Cosmas Omegoh (Lagos), Oluseye Ojo (Ibadan), Judex Okoro (Calabar), Stanley Uzoaru (Owerri), Jude Dangwam (Jos), and Sola Ojo (Kaduna)
Rising corruption news from the nation’s many higher institutions are not pleasant to the ears. Frequently, scandals of numbing proportions ring out making the headlines. Lecturers are heard demanding sex for marks from their female students. The students are heard paying their teachers for good grades, while lecturers are forcing students to buy their handouts.
Sunday Sun gathered that female students who fail to yield to the amorous demands of their lecturers are oftentimes punished with poor grades during tests and examinations. Sometimes, the offending lecturers, in alliance with their colleagues, frustrate their victim-students, who they force to carryover courses if they fail to accede to their demands. Some ensure that their victims never graduate at the right time or not graduate at all.
Every now and then, for instance, the media are awash with many of the anomalies in many institutions, detailing how randy lecturers are running wild with some of their escapades headlined as follows: “OAU Professor allegedly demand bribe, sex from student for higher grades”, “AAUA sacks 10 workers over sex-for-mark scandal,” “Sex-for-marks: Former UNAD lecturer bags seven years jail term,”, “Two MAPOLY staffers arraigned for sex-for-marks”; “Lecturer caught on tape demanding sex for marks,” and Unical dean suspended over sex-for-marks allegation.”
A graduate from one of the universities in Lagos, admitted that despite the punishment sometimes meted out to the rampaging lecturers, some of them still go on with their illicit amorous activities secretly. Such dons, he said, consider sex with their female students as a part of their “fringe benefits.”
On the other hand, female students are accused of seducing and scandalisig their teachers with their provocative outfits and appearances on campus, flaunting themselves some times half-clad. They draw out lecturers who are actively in the game to make demands from them in exchange for undeserved marks.
There is also another obnoxious method adopted by many students – male and female – to gain undue favour in school.
They approach their teachers, promising to offer, pay in cash or kind for higher grades after examination. This is called “sorting,” a practice said to have gained enormous grounds over time.
Yet, there is another method adopted by the lecturers long before now, where they were accused of forcing their handouts and books on their students. Those who refuse to buy them or have no money to do so are marked and punished with poor grades during examinations and tests. Those who have no one to speak for them suffer in silence.
Sunday Sun learnt that the aforementioned ills have become deeply entrenched in many campuses, threatening the very foundation of what is left of Nigeria’s higher education sub-sector.
Sorting, an old undying practice
Sorting, Sunday Sun was told, is students’ way of buying marks from their lecturers, an old practice that appears not to be dying in tertiary institutions .
A parent and a senior staff of University of Calabar, Madam Helen Effiong, admitted that sorting had almost become a norm in the university, but commended the institution’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. Florence Obi, for tackling the menace headlong though she alleged it was still going on in some of the programmes of the universities.
In his contribution, President, Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, Alhaji Yerima Shettima, described sorting as “one of those several bad conducts that were introduced into our society, which is now gaining ground and becoming an accepted value.
“To say specifically why it happens is difficult for me. But what I know is that what is wrong is wrong and it doesn’t matter why it happens or who is involved.”
Providing a background to the problems, Chairman, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Kaduna State, and Country Director, Global Peace Foundation Nigeria, Rev. John Joseph Hayab, argued that nicknaming some of societal and moral decadences makes sound sweet.
“I will say if you want to sustain evil, give it a good name like ‘sorting’ for academic corruption in our institutions of learning which means a process by which students pay in cash or kind to be awarded unmerited marks by lecturers after examination or test. This has become a culture in our educational institutions.
“In my opinion, this academic corruption happens in whatever kind in our institutions of learning for different reasons: most of them are filled with corrupt, uncultured, immoral lecturers and administrators in some cases. Another reason is the desire among students today to get things the easy way out of shared laziness.”
He said that sorting was becoming rampant because “lecturers need a means to generate more income, and also the desire to satisfy their sexual urges.”
He lamented that “if an investigation is carried out, especially in the postgraduate schools in our universities, the result will shock Nigerians because they will realise that more than 50 per cent of postgraduate students who have had to stay more years to acquire a Master’s or Doctoral degree do stay that long not because they are dull, but because they are intelligent, and possibly do not have the money to pay their way out. So, the lecturers keep them to be generating contents for them which they sell to other students who are able and willing to pay. That is how we get the unrealistic researches and projects in many libraries.”
Ex-President Buhari admitted sorting
While admitting the corruption in the nation’s higher institutions, former President Muhammadu Buhari lamented that “sex-for- grades” was at the centre of it all.
He said: “There is sorting or cash for marks/grades, sex for marks, sex for grade alterations, examination malpractice, and so on.
“Sexual harassment has assumed an alarming proportion.”
Buhari identified other forms of corruption in the varsities as “lecturers writing dissertations for students for a fee, payment of salaries to non-existing workers and lecturers taking up full-time jobs in more than one academic institution.”
How Reps, ASUU frustrated bill against sexual harassment
In 2019, it was learnt that, “A bill for an Act to make provision for the prevention, prohibition and redressal of sexual harassment of students in tertiary educational institutions and for matters connected therewith,” was introduced.
Sponsored by Senator Ovie Omo-Agege during the 8th Senate, the bill was said to have received the support of 46 other senators.
Six months down the line, the bill was passed on the floor of the Senate on October 27, 2016.
The said bill prescribed five-year-jail term for anyone convicted of sexual harassment of their students either male or female.
But the bill allegedly could not fly in the House of Representatives because it was not harmonised for ex-President Buhari’s signature.
Femi Gbajabiamila, the then Majority Leader of the House and current Chief of Staff to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who later became Speaker of the House, “expressed concern that it did not take care of other spheres of the society.”
He noted that the said bill “ought to take care of work place, religious institutions, among others.”
The then Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, agreed with the submissions, and stepped down the bill pending the consultations between the Senate and House of Representatives.
The then Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, had lamented that “in 2016, my colleagues and I in the 8th Senate passed the ‘Sexual Harassment in Tertiary Education Institution Prohibition Bill,’ to prescribe a five-year-jail term for any lecturer, educationist or person in a position of authority in any tertiary institution in Nigeria found guilty.”
He later appealed to the 9th Senate and former President Buhari to revisit the bill “so that we can implement the institutional reforms necessary to safeguard our children in educational institutions in the country.”
It was learnt that “at a public hearing organised by then-Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, ASUU kicked against the bill, describing it as a violation of the rights of its members.”
The then ASUU President, Biodun Ogunyemi, stated this as the position of the union in his presentation at the public hearing on the bill.
ASUU boss, lecturer lament sex for mark vice
However, while reacting in his personal capacity on sexual harassment in the universities not long time ago, Dr John Edor, ASUU chairman, Unical, whose member was enmeshed in sex for mark scandal lately flayed the vice, describing it as “unholy” and “unacceptable.”
He said: “If I say I have not heard about sexual harassment in our universities as the chairman of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), University of Calabar (Unical), I will not be fair to myself and my generation.
“This causes a revolution in my conscience; it causes a revolution in my mind to hear that lecturers exchange grades for sex; it is unholy; it is unacceptable.”
The same feeling was expressed by Prof Joseph Olagunju of the Postgraduate School, Lagos State University, Ojo.
He said: “I strongly condemn the act in the strongest terms.
“You don’t have to give conditions for passing your students especially when they are of the opposite sex. It is immoral; it is condemnable in absolute terms. It is a thing I hate with passion. Amorous relationship with the opposite sex is condemnable not minding the religion one practices.”
How varsities encourage sorting
The Vice Chancellor, Osun State University (UNIOSUN), Prof Odunayo Adebooye, told Sunday Sun that individual universities have their own ways of contributing to the menace.
“It is the leadership that allows some things. When the leadership does not allow such, they don’t happen.
“You can’t do that in my university. You can’t do sex for mark, or handouts for mark, or textbook for mark. It cannot happen. If I catch you, you are gone.
“So, leadership must be determined. Leadership must be resolute to ensure that fairness, equity and justice reign in our institutions.
“These things are related to the quality of leadership. When you know that your vice chancellor will not take nonsense, you won’t act nonsense. It is as simple as ABC. I lead UNIOSUN as a German.”
On whether the problem stemmed from giving admission to unqualified students, Adebooye said: “We don’t admit unqualified students. That’s why our students are doing well.
“Few days ago, I received a congratulatory message from the University of Westminster in United Kingdom, that one of the graduates of UNIOSUN made 97 per cent average at Master’s level. He also got automatic scholarship – the highest in the history of the University of Westminster, to do a Ph.D. There are several of them like that, flying high.”
He recalled that his friend and Dean of Students Affairs, the University of Ibadan, Prof Keye Abiona, once said that sorting happens if students judge themselves as academically inadequate.
He added: “When students fail, they try to induce lecturers. According to him, if a student is good enough, he does not need to induce any lecturer.”
A lecturer in the Department of Political Science, University of Calabar, (Unical) who did not want his name in print, also blamed some universities for their roles.
The lecturer disclosed that “some unqualified students, who were admitted are the ones encouraging lecturers to accept sorting and once they refuse to accept that, they are nicknamed ‘wicked souls’ and sometimes attacked by the students,” explaining, however, that the university system should not be entirely blamed for the anomaly.
How parents encourage sorting
Speaking on how parents encourage sorting, Mr Kemi Olaitan, whose has seen three children out of university said: “The role parents ought to play in ending this menace is for them to keep their eyes on their children especially the female ones, the same for the male ones.
“If a student attends classes, does not join bad companies, submits their assignments, follow instructions, prepares adequately and sits for exams and passes, no lecturer will fail them.
“It is when they don’t pass that they try to cut corners. I think the academic system should be built in such a way that it will phase out sorting.”
Also blaming some parents for the mess in some varsities, the UNICAL Political Science, lecturer said that parents contributed to that by pushing for admissions for their children by hook or crook even when their children or wards were not mentally ready or qualified to study some courses.
Agreeing to the trend, Shedrach Nanfang, a student studying Accounting at the University of Jos, blamed elite parents for what their children do.
He said that most of them forced their children to study courses they didn’t like.
“Some parents don’t want to hear their children have carryovers; they see it as a disgrace to their family. So, they try to see how they can sort out some of their results.”
Individual role of students in act
Speaking to Sunday Sun on the ill, a student of the Imo State University (IMSU), Owerri who did not want her name mentioned blamed some students for falling prey to their lecturers.
According to her, when such students are admitted through the back door, they become a liability to themselves and thus vulnerable to lecturers who want to sexually harass them. They then resort to sorting as way out.
Why students indulge in sorting
But why do students resort to the way out?
A Calabar-based gender expert and advocate, Innocent Agida, said that the practice was becoming as old as Nigerian universities themselves.
According to him, students resort to sorting for many reasons. They do so because of the enormous resources they have, high competition, desire for better grades, lack of transparency in evaluation criteria and admission of academically unqualified students who struggle with their programmes.
Explaining that not all lecturers were involved in sorting, Agida said that those involved took advantage of the situation, and called for stringent policies against the act.
He stated that poor internal mechanism to respond to complaints by the students within the university system left victims of academic fraud and sexual harassment frustrated in the process of seeking justice from the oppressors, adding that there was an urgent need for more efficient systems to address such issues immediately or within a reasonable time.
Why sorting persists in varsities
A Professor of Criminology and Director of Gender Studies, at Kaduna State University (KASU), Hauwa’u, Evelyn Yusuf, noted that “sorting happens because students in most cases do not read and are not confident of what they have written in the examinations.”
Such students, she said, believe that they must pass at all costs with high grades.
“Whether some lecturers are creating an environment for sorting, I will say yes and no. Yes because some deliberately create difficult situations that make it obvious that the students are likely to fail. No, because I believe no lecturer enjoys their student’s failure. At times, students who are not confident offer themselves without the lecturers’ asking. Mind you, it’s not only female students that engage in sorting.”
She recalled that “our university, KASU, tries to get the best to enroll in its academic programmes. But I tell you a lot of unqualified people gain admission in one way or another, and they want to pass by all means.
“Not every university has a ready hands-on policy for sexual harassment. But for us at the KSU, we are a step ahead as we do have a sexual-harassment policy document that is in force.”
Shettima, the AYCF boss, blamed the breakdown of family systems especially loss of parental control and oversight, for much of the ills that go on in the nation’s universities.
He did not spare “the breakdown of the educational system from the primary to secondary levels” lamenting the absence of guidance and awareness of information on the dangers of the problem to the youths and adolescents.
On her part, Madam Effiong said: “It is because students don’t want to fail and carry over their courses, or the lecturers demand for it through handouts or give students tough homework so that when they fail, they come back for sorting to make up their exam grades with the class assignments.”
She disclosed that although there was less of open sorting now in UNICAL, but students now had adopted another approach of using some of their lecturers, whom in turn approach their colleagues handling the course to help out, but admitted that the establishing of quality-assurance unit in almost all the departments by the Vice Chancellor had minimised sorting to the barest minimum.
On sexual harassment, she said that the female students shared in the blame as most of them donned in all manners of lewd dressing even when the authorities had come up with dress codes, adding that more stringent measures needed to be put in place to checkmate indecent dressing among the students, especially the females who flaunt their bodies in the name of fashion.
She admitted that the internal mechanism put in place to discipline staff who engage in sexual harassment were not effective, but added that the University of Calabar had always responded to such once the attention of the authorities was drawn to it as it happened earlier when Prof. Cyril Ndifon was suspended and relieved of his deanship appointment following complainant of sexual abuse by a year-two student of Faculty of Law.
How varsities are combating sorting
Recalling how universities are fighting sorting in their individual capacities, the Public Relations Officer, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State Mr Abiodun Olanrewaju said: “In OAU, we do not condone any form of sorting. We value the sanctity of certificates that we give to our students. We don’t want our graduates to be questioned after leaving Ife.
“It is on record, the institution in compliance with the resolution of the Governing Board, the Management, and Senate, has dismissed some staff.
“We encourage our students to come out and speak up in case of any sexual harassment. We are duty bound as ‘in loco parentis’ to protect our students, and their innocence. We have zero tolerance for sexual harassment. Our staff know the difference among retirement, termination of appointment, and dismissal. For every action, there is consequence.
“We have in place a Committee on Anti-Sexual Harassment. We also have the committee at the faculty, college, and departmental levels. So, interaction with the opposite sex is transparent. But if there is mutual consent, that may not be reported. We have checks and balances.
“I must say that we don’t admit students that are not qualified. Ife has standards. To be qualified for admission, a candidate must score above 200 in Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) and over 50 per cent in our post-UTME.
“But some students have been failing because they have liberty of freedom. Nobody will force you to wake up, attend classes, do assignments, and read.
“Some students for the first time, just left their homes where everything was done for them. So, these are some of the factors that can contribute to failure of students, not that they are not qualified for admission.”
While telling his own story, the Vice Chancellor of Imo State University, Owerri, Prof Uchefula Ugonna Chukwumaeze, said that his administration had been able to subdue the menace, giving instances on how seven lecturers, including a professor were suspended for engaging in corruption.
He said that the era was now gone following his strict fight against corruption in the school.
“The first to receive the sledge hammer were seven lecturers, including a professor; their offences were: ‘if you don’t come and buy my textbooks, and write exam you will not pass,’ another one is ‘before you take tutorials you must pay N500 or N1000.’”
The ongoing, he said, were part of the anomalies going in the school before he came on board, but his strategy of reposing confidence in the students led to the sanitisation in the system and end to the misconducts.
The VC also revealed the situation of a lecturer who slapped a pregnant woman in the school and other four female students and how it was resolved.
According to him, “we have restored confidence in the students; you heard when a lecturer slapped a student in the school?
“This thing had been happening before; we suspended that lecturer; we set up a disciplinary committee; now he is facing them. Other lecturers who were involved in admission racketeering and unprofessional behaviour are being tackled.
“So, we’re addressing corruption in all its facets; the era of taking examination and waiting for two years to see your results is gone. No lecturer will hold answer scripts beyond four weeks after examination. After a maximum of eight weeks, the results are approved by the Senate; then the students know their results.”
Also explaining how he was able to get rid of the old order of doing things in the institution, the VC said that he created an email through which the students could access him personally and to lodge their complaints.
“The students sent me mails directly; I printed them out and called on a female lecturer to go to so, so class and randomly pick five students. She did and brought them to me.
“While they were with me, they admitted that the offence took place. They even said the mail I got did not capture the offence in full. The entire management was there and to make sure that they were not victimised; we had to suspend the lecturers; the committee found them liable; they pleaded for leniency, but we had to go by the committee’s report,” he said.
A Senior Deputy Registrar, Information and Communication, University of Jos, Mr Abdullahi Abdullahi, said that the university has zero tolerance for corrupt practices such as “sorting” among students and lecturers of the institution.
He disclosed that two lecturers were dismissed from the university long before now due to the robust mechanism the institution put in place which enabled students to report cases of extortion, abuse or sorting for grades by lecturers for appropriate actions.
Abdullahi told Sunday Sun that there were various stages that victims could make use of to report cases of sorting in the university.
“The university has zero tolerance for things like that; that is why several mechanism are on ground to ensure that this is reduced to the barest minimum. It is only if we don’t have information from the parties that they can get away with it, but even if is somebody else that is aware that the students and lecturer(s) are conniving, that person can report it and that will be taken up because we have strong mechanism on ground,” he said.
How sorting can be stopped
The Vice Chancellor, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Prof Olusola Kehinde, told Sunday Sun how to stop sorting in various in tertiary institutions. He said: “The best thing to do is to ensure that whoever is caught is punished.
“When you don’t punish iniquity, it will multiply. I think this behooves on some university management to ensure that discipline is maintained.
“I assure you that if some universities are doing this, it will no longer be as rampant as it is.
“We are doing this in our own university and some others are doing so too.”
He said that in their own case, “within one month of reporting such incident, the lecturer concerned was dismissed from the university.
“The decision was not taken unilaterally. We followed due process. There is a due process in disciplining staff. When you adhere strictly to this, honestly people will fall in line.
Agida suggested enhancing transparency in grading, strengthening anti-harassment policies, improving admission processes and implementing rigorous oversight mechanisms to improve upon the overall academic standard, check sorting and sexual harassment.
Madam Effiong on her part said that there should be zero tolerance with respect to sexual harassment and demotion, or sack of lecturers who were found culpable, just as students who were involved in sorting to pass exams should be made to not only face the disciplinary committee, but also repeat the course if found guilty.
According to Prof Yusuf, “one of the sure ways forward will be immediate handling of sexual harassment cases and making wrongdoers pay for their actions. There is also a need for a safe space for reporting these cases so that those who want to complain can feel safe and protected.”
She recalled that “our university has zero tolerance for any form of malpractice. If only students would report with evidence no one would go unpunished.”
Rev. Hayab on his part noted that “we have various staff codes, student codes, disciplinary committees, guidance and counseling units, and many more. These are veritable tools to use. But despite all these, the case is still growing. It shows that it is not the lack of these tools, but may be poor implementation and poor administration.”
He added that “to deal with corruption nicknamed sorting in our universities, all hands must be on deck where everyone sees himself or herself as a stakeholder.
“I will recommend that the National Assembly should come up with a bill for an act to establish an agency of government saddled with the responsibility of checking these corrupt issues strictly within the academic environment.”
Role of upright lecturers in tackling menace
The UNICAL Political Science lecturer advised his colleagues to exhibit uprightness, noting that rather than accepting sorting, they should maintain their stance and ensure that the quality of education was not compromised in any way no matter the threat.
He also called on the universities to protect and reward lecturers who had exhibited such heroism as “academic standard bearers.”
He said: “Every university has internal mechanisms for dealing with the issue of academic fraud and sexual harassment, but that the academic community is a microcosm of the macro society and, therefore, nobody should expect total sanity in the university because we all leave in the same environment.
“The lecturers are passing through turbulent times in this harsh economic situation and so government should come up with a better welfare package and a conducive environment to enable them do their jobs without fear or in favour of somebody.”
The senior lecturer condemned sexual harassment in its totality, suggesting that “any lecturer found in such a despicable act should be summarily dismissed and made to face the wrath of the law because such act of immoral conduct should not be tolerated in an academic environment, which serves as a high moral breeding ground.”
Civil society reaction
Meanwhile, Mr Stev Aluko, a parent and member of the Civil Society Organisation in Plateau State, in his opinion noted that failure on the side of parenting, poor school foundation, lack of teachers welfare and lack of enforcement of legal framework to deal with the happenings were the key drivers of the trend.
“Some of the lecturers deliberately create room for sorting especially the recruitment process; we have instances where people who were not deserving, people that didn’t merit to be lecturing in universities are the ones in those positions. And such people cannot perform; they will not be the very best; they will create problem.
“We have heard cases of sexual harassment, cases of sexual abuse, cases of deliberate witch-hunting; we have seen them. It is because we have people who are not supposed to be teaching at the level of a university.
“Where you don’t have professional teachers taking your child at one point or the other, it is going to affect the child. Also, where the welfare of the teachers is not taken care of, there is a problem.
“Government is not creating curriculum that will serve the people as they grow because the admission policy is one of the factors aiding this trend because those that merit admission are not given.
“And, of course, there is the societal factor of exam malpractice. We have seen schools indulging in it; we have seen some government officials indulging in it; we have seen some parents indulging in it. So, if you start with that foundation, you have to sort it out and in the end, the society suffers for it,” he maintained.
