Avoiding the tight rope of sexual harassment in Nigeria, by Kunle Osisanya

Introduction

On Wednesday 20th of February 2025, Nigerians may recall an interruption of the Nigerian Senate plenary by Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan of Kogi Central District who vehemently protested her change of seat.

The situation eventually degenerated to the Sergeant at Arms being asked by the Senate President Godswill Akpabio to escort her out of the chambers, as witnessed on live telecast.

Few days later, the altercation took another dimension during an Arise TV News interview of Friday 28th February when Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan alleged that during a visit with her husband, to the country home of the Senate President sometime in 2023, Senator Akpabio held her hand and made inappropriate remarks towards her.

By the Senate plenary of Wednesday 5th to Thursday 6th of March 2025 Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan completed the submission of a petition against the Senate President, where she formally used the term ‘sexual harassment’.

Thereafter, Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan was suspended from the Senate for the earlier ‘misconduct’ while the matter has since been taken to court in Nigeria as well as to a meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) at the UNHQ in New York on Tuesday 11 March 2025.

In view of the gravity of the allegations, on 5th March, the Senate President Godswill Akpabio denied Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan’s sexual harassment claims. In his words “At no time did I ever harass any woman. I was raised very well by my late single mother and I have always upheld respect for women”.

The matter has indeed generated varied reactions and polarized the Nigerian public along mostly political and gender lines. Many have requested a thorough investigation while demanding that the Senate President should step down, while others are demanding for concrete evidence to back up the claims of sexual harassment.

The above prelude has made this personal intervention mandatory as a means of drawing the attention of the general public to some of the issues surrounding the offence of sexual harassment in order to avoid potential pitfalls.

Definitions and Statutes

The United Nations and her agencies have offered definitions to differentiate offences such as sexual harassment, sexual exploitation and abuse or molestation etc.

Furthermore, various countries have introduced statutes to address the challenges associated with sexual offences and Nigeria is not an exception.

Some of the statutes could be traced to the protection of fundamental human right to dignity of human persons as espoused in section 34 of the Nigerian Constitution 1999 as amended. Others are the penal code, the criminal code, Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Act 2015 and other legislation by some state governments.

Based on the above, sexual harassment has been variously defined as unwelcome sexual behavior that makes someone feel uncomfortable, humiliated, or intimidated. It can be a one-time incident or a repeated pattern of behavior. The elements of sexual harassment may therefore be summarized as follows:

• Making sexual comments about someone’s body, clothing, or appearance
• Asking questions about someone’s sex life
• Sexually colored remarks or jokes
• Touching someone against their will
• Unwelcome sexual advances,
• Requests for sexual favors
• Verbal, non-verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature in the workplace.

The intention of this write-up is therefore to help the Nigerian public identify the wafer-thin line which separates sexual harassment from admiration of the opposite sex, to avoid becoming an accused in such matter, or ‘stories that touch’.

Sexual harassment could be verbal. Therefore, when a man expresses admiration for the beauty of a lady by calling her ‘olomoge’ or ‘arewa’ in Yoruba, ‘nwanyi oma’ or ‘asampete’ in Igbo or ‘yarinyan mai kyau’ in Hausa language etc, an offense of sexual harassment has been committed, once she expresses her displeasure.

Sexual harassment could be non-verbal. When you wink at the opposite sex, blow kisses, make hand gestures or the current fad of surprising the object of your affection by kneeling in public to profess love or propose marriage to shouts of “say yes, say yes” by onlookers, it becomes sexual harassment, once the person is not favorably disposed to such.

Sexual harassment could be physical. Therefore, as innocuous as it may seem, even a handshake or prolonged holding of hands, talk less of a hug, could easily degenerate to accusation of sexual harassment, once one of the parties feel uncomfortable, humiliated, or intimidated, even where the other party had no such intentions.

Also, sexual harassment could be irrespective of sexual orientation. Most people typically assume that victims of sexual harassment can only be females in the hands of men; However, as incredulous as it may seem, some males are equally victimized sexually by females. Stretching it further to people of other sexual orientations, a female may be sexually harassed by another female ditto for the male gender.

Based on the prevalent cultural norms across Nigeria, the male gender seems more proactive in the pursuit of relationships with the female gender. Equally, records would show that there are more males in positions of authority and are therefore more prone to accusations of taking advantage of the vulnerability of a female for sexual exploitation.

In view of the reactions and plethora of comments on the Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan case, especially on social media, I am of the opinion that members of the public may be mixing up sexual harassment with sexual exploitation and abuse. It would appear that one of the reasons of those who find her claims to be incredulous is that the offence of sexual exploitation and abuse as defined by the United Nations cannot be said to have been committed by the Senate President, in the absence of compelling evidence.

I therefore remind such people to note that Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan is not claiming sexual exploitation and abuse but alluding to sexual harassment, irrespective of the circumstances, morality or likelihood of her claims.

Conclusion

Finally, as we debate the propriety or otherwise of these allegations, I strongly advocate that we familiarize ourselves with the technicalities of what constitutes sexual harassment.

This admonition is directed more at the male gender, particularly those who find themselves in positions of authority, to enable them comport themselves at all times, to avoid becoming an accused and save themselves from the ordeal of having to prove their innocence.