Governments at all levels and private individuals have been called upon to intervene in the rising cases of sexual harrasment in the society especially in schools.
Ms Omowumi Ogunrotimi, Executive Director, Gender Mobile Initiative (GMI), an NGO, made the call at the inauguration of the ‘Sexual Assault Prevention and Consent Education Module’ to serve as one of the organisation’s proactive steps at tackling the menace.
The event which was held virtually, was organised and supported by Ford Foundation, to expose participants to learnings which would transform into actionable steps.
“We consider this an evolutionary approach to driving systems change because normative and cultural shifts are fundamentally critical to achieving systems change,” she said.
According to Ogunrotimi, it is expected that institutions will adopt the module, and the consistent use of it will enable peoples attitude to move from one that facilitates rape, to the one that promotes consent.
“This module was developed in partnership with institutions of higher learning and I am excited about the commitment of institutions to institutionalise this module.
“We consider this an evolutionary approach to driving systems change because normative and cultural shifts are fundamentally critical to achieving systems change.
“This, we believe, is achievable through consistent education that will transform prevailing adverse norms.
“We are building a winning coalition that has the potential to catalytically transform other parts of the system.
“We thank our partners, BIGIF, WRAPA, Yaradua Foundation, ICPC, NFSAN, FUOYE and the groupings of young people who are using their authentic voices to speak against sexual harassment,” Ogunrotimi said.
Mr Iseoluwa Akintunde, who reviewed the module said it was time issues of sexual harassment was put in the front burner of government’s activities and also school curriculum.
Akintunde said there was a global movement of outright prohibition of sexual harassment in higher institutions and that Nigeria could not be left behind.
“If Nigerian tertiary institutions can adopt some of the reflections we have made in this module, wholesale, and tune it to their specific cultural and sociological campus context, I think they would have taken a huge step in fighting this ‘epidemic’.
“We hope that this module will be distributed to lecturers, hostel wardens and friends across various campuses and we hope also that they download the Gender Mobile campus pal app for reporting sexual harassment.” NAN
