Thread by @elnathan_john

Glad to see #SexForGrades trending in Nigeria and Ghana. If you did not hear of rape/coercion/sex for grades while you were in Nigerian university, it is because you did not want to hear. These are not exceptions. One can safely say it is standard practice in most places.

There are things some of us can say, people we can name, but it is not my story and only those victims can decide if they want to speak up and when they feel ready to do so. I know people who were raped several times and still failed. I know lecturers who used to brag about this.

There was a lecturer who taught a non law elective course. We all thought he was a funny guy. He would say, sometimes: don't think because I slept with you, you will just come and get A or B.

I had a friend. A very close friend. Super religious. Super studious. One equally "religious" lecturer wanted her. And every time she would return from his office she would be very angry. In the end she failed the course. Twice. She wouldn't tell me exactly what happened.

I remember having a spat with a well known Nigerian lecturer a few years ago and he said that I was exaggerating when I said then that Nigerian tertiary institutions were raping fields and that sexual impropriety from lecturers were more the norm than exceptions. He was upset.

He said he had never heard of any of his colleagues who raped or demanded sex in his university in Ibadan. I said well maybe you do not want to see or hear. Just ask the women. They will give you their horror stories. This extends down to even postgraduate students.

I remember more than once, female colleagues (most married) and friends of mine doing Masters in my university reporting that lecturers wanted sex from them. In some of the cases the lecturers accepted cash in lieu of sex.

One thing that can help in Nigerian universities is ending this system of worship which passes for the relationship between lecturers and students. God and slave. Master/ servant. Let students also be able to evaluate lecturers. Let them be able to report without being punished.

As a Nigerian student you are generally petrified of your lecturer. You are afraid that if you upset or even mildly irritate them, they will fail you. And that no one can help you because lecturers, especially male ones, are a cult. They protect their own.

I will never forget. 200 level. Law. ABU. Someone had written an anonymous petition against a lecturer detailing allegations including sexual abuse and coercion. What did my classmates do? They called a class congress to try to fish out the person who did. Some rained curses.

Why? Fear. Instead of asking if any of these allegations were true, many of my classmates were more concerned that this lecturer might get angry with the whole class and give us poor grades. One student suggested the religious people say prayers of curses on the petitioner

I made the mistake of coming late for the congress not knowing they had reached something of a consensus with few dissenting voices. And when I accused some of being cowards, many concluded that it must have been me who wrote the petition. Because who else if not Elnathan

And the truth is, while I wish I wrote the petition, I did not. I wanted to find out which woman was being pressured or threatened into having sex. I was happy to put my name to the petition. But instead they formed a delegation to go and beg the lecturer and apologise. Fear.

I do not blame my course mates who were there. ABU teaches you to worship lecturers. All Nigerian universities do. They are god and you are nothing but a pencil in their hand. I got an E in that course. People told the man they thought I was behind it. I got 40 on the dot.

Many encourage me to protest my score. I said nah. If he had failed me, then we will fight. But if this is all that he can do, I will take it and walk away. Imagine what the women were going through. Anyone who tries to minimise this is either crazy, or complicit.