Sexual harassment must not be sustained, By Ayisha Osori

For the last three years Nigeria’s National Assembly (NASS) has had a bitter pill to force down women’s throats in celebration of International Women’s Day. If NASS is not denying the passage of a gender equal opportunity bill or voting against constitutional amendments to improve the social, political and economic rights of women then, they choose to illegally suspend one out of only 4 female senators; going out of their way to prove what working women know: if you complain about sexual harassment, you will be victimised and eventually lose your job.

Nigeria is not one of 119 countries with explicit laws prohibiting sexual harassment, despite being notorious for high levels of sexual harassment at work (54.5 per cent); sexual harassment of female students, particularly in university (63 per cent); and woeful prosecution rates for all forms of gender-based violence.

This is the context within which the 10^th Senate seeks to ignore Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan’s sexual harassment allegation against Senate President, Akpabio. It is no idle accusation; this is a man who was accused of sexual harassment in 2020 and on social media, the people of Akwa Ibom State where Senator Akpabio governed for eight years, have a lot to say on this. It is no idle accusation for millions of Nigerian women and girls who know the reality. Since the Corona Virus pandemic, women and girls have used hashtags #WeAreTired, #MeToo, #ArewaMeToo and #SayNoToRape to share the most harrowing experiences, typically by those known to the survivors: brothers, fathers, uncles, family friends, employers, colleagues, drivers, cooks, the list is endless.

We have had the sex for grades scandal uncovering the rot in universities – raising advocacy for laws against sexual harassment in universities. We have heard accusations, at home and abroad, made against men abusing their positions of authority: pastors (Fatoyinbo, TB Joshua), presidents (Clinton, Jammeh, Mnangagwa); celebrities (DBanj, Weinstein); and bureaucrats in the Africa Union and African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights. We also have data which is likely underreported.

Women leave jobs, lose economic stability, have their lives upended because of sexual harassment – there are real costs and the allegations made against the Senate President should be taken seriously by the Senate.

So why, hasn’t the Senate sought to assure Nigerians that the allegations will be investigated transparently?

It comes back to the data. When we hear for instance that 50% of women are sexually harassed at work, we rarely translate the information to the number of rapists and harassers. If we, for the sake of simplicity, translate survivors to criminals, this means 5 out of 10 men is a sexual predator. In the Senate that means at least 50, out of the 105 male senators, are predators. This is why Senators of the 10^th can treat the sexual harassment allegation as a joke and Senator Olujimi corroborates this with her defense about the jocularity of her colleagues in the Senate. Senator Akpabio is so assured he casually revealed a trademark of abusers: beauty politics.

‘Look at these beautiful women, they have come across me so many times, have I ever harassed any of you?’

Misogynists often speak to ‘beauty’ in different ways. One is the ‘you are not beautiful’ i.e., not sexually attractive enough for me to want you and so therefore you are not rape/harassment worthy. Never mind that babies, toddlers, grandmothers and women in burkas are not safe from rape because it is not about ‘beauty’ but about lack of control, entitlement and power over. This denial of beauty is also useful to keep women in place. Sometimes, ‘you are not beautiful’ is code for ‘no one else could possibly find you desirable; you better stay with me’ (your abuser). The second way is what we heard from Mr Ogunlewe i.e., that Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan’s beauty is a distraction – ‘how dare you be beautiful?’. In other words, beautiful women are to blame for their harassment. Third is Senator Akpabio’s way which is two pronged. Absolution i.e., I am surrounded by beautiful women who I have not harassed so that negates your accusation. Besides, what makes you so special? And, divide and rule – ‘If she thinks her beauty is why I harassed her and I have not harassed you women here before me, then she is saying you are not beautiful. Hate her, not me’. Shame on the women who could be heard laughing in the background. It is not about beauty, it is about a culture of patriarchy, permissiveness and lack of consequences.

The Nigerians who believe Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan know that there are no safe public spaces for Nigerian women no matter how high they climb. There is a delusion that privilege protects women from misogyny and sexual abuse but the higher a woman goes in society, sometimes the more attractive she is for misogynists – there is more at stake for her and it becomes that much harder to expose harassment in a society that is unforgiving of women and blames them for everything. We know we are not safe even in our homes, from kidnap, domestic violence, rape and abuse; we know that we are not safe at work – from the taunting and crude remarks of colleagues, unwanted attention, from rape and sexual extortion and harassment but we cannot know that our state is okay with it in the way that this case is revealing to us. It is not okay – and that’s why the mantra is ‘this injustice cannot be sustained’.

A Twitter user asked: “why is ending rape so contentious and controversial? Why is it generating so much disagreement?” The Nigerian writer, editor, and activist, OluTimehin Adeagbeye quoted the tweet and responded:

It’s contentious because ending rape means ending society as we know it. Rape is the primary tool used to keep women in check plus the ultimate manifestation of men’s unchecked power in patriarchy. How do you curtail women you can’t control? And how do you control women you can’t rape?

Replace the words ‘rape’ with sexual harassment’ and the questions and implications are the same.

Nigeria’s highest law-making body, the National Assembly must do several things immediately. One, recognize judicial precedents and lift the illegal suspension of Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan as a representative of Kogi Central constituency. Two, as quickly and as transparently as possible ensure that the Senate credibly investigates Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan’s allegations against Senator Akpabio, which will require the senate president and majority leader recusing themselves from the process. Three, NASS must adopt a fair and practical sexual harassment policy for all who work in the National Assembly. Akpabio will not be the first man accused of sexual harassment and sadly he will not be the last – we need more mechanisms in place to protect against sexual abuse and harassment and for this we need more Nigerians being implacable in their demands for reforms.