Telling our Stories: Sexual Harassment

sexual harassment

Adedamola Akintokun

400-level Medicine & Surgery

Lagos State University

Sexual harassment amongst students of tertiary institutions in Nigeria appears to be an under-researched and under-reported topic for many reasons, prominent among them being the victim’s fear of backlash and the disbelief of others. An impassioned search turned up only two relevant articles on the topic, one of them severely outdated. This highlights the need for new data to provide answers to age-long questions and ask new ones. Pendical, a group of medical students with research and literary interests, recognising such a need, surveyed the psychological effects of sexual harassment on medical students across schools in the country.

Contact was established with resource persons in various universities, through whom a form was sent to the medical student associations. This form was completed online by voluntary respondents who remained anonymous. Of the twenty-six respondents, 73.1% were female and 26.9%, male. They comprised 2nd to 6th-year medical students from ten medical schools, including the University of Lagos, University of Nigeria, Lagos State University, Bowen University, Ahmadu Bello University, University of Ibadan, Bayero University, University of Benin, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University and Ebonyi State University. The respondents were in the age range of 17 to 26, with a greater number (69.1%) between 18 and 22.

The form enquired about the types of sexual harassment experienced by the respondents, with options such as ‘suggestive words’, ‘groping’, ‘sexual assault’ and ‘rape’. The numbers on each option were alarming, with suggestive words (61.5%), groping (53.8%) and rape (23.1%) being the top three. 

Excerpts from some of the stories shared by the survivors show that the offenders were close relations, friends and even partners in romantic relationships, and almost nothing was done afterwards to bring justice to the victims who had to shoulder the burden almost entirely, because of the fear of speaking out.

“So, the day I finally caught him as he pulled my underwear and touched me all over, I held him and screamed till my sister came along. Well, they didn’t send him home (I don’t know why—maybe because he was family) but I always resented men from then on and hated physical touch of any kind, no matter how harmless”.

“It was through online chats and he started sharing nudes of himself”.

“I was coerced and then raped by my recent partner”.

When asked if they spoke to someone about the incident, 53.8% of the respondents answered negatively, 11.5% responded with a ‘Maybe’ and 34.6% responded positively. These positive responses mostly involved the victims confiding in their friends or siblings without any significant consequences for the offenders or treatment for the victims.

“I was devastated but stayed cool as it wasn’t the first time it was happening”.

“I became very distant from everyone…everything irritated me. I felt dirty”.

“Rant. Cry. Hate. Attempt suicide”.

There are various reasons for conducting this survey but the most important is telling the tales of these survivors. Through their shame, denial, hurt, resentment—effects that these events have had on their mental, emotional and physical health; effects that have gone unaddressed—there is without a doubt still so much to be done as individuals and government entities to stop this recurring menace and create a society that allows victims to speak up and report offenders, with no further harm coming to them, whilst providing them with the necessary care.

“Forgetting is difficult. Remembering is worse.” – Anonymous

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