THE Lagos State University, in collaboration with Aston University, Birmingham, UK, has held a British Council-funded listening session to get the opinions of selected staff and students of the Lagos State University (LASU), Ojo Campus, on issues relating to sexual violence and its prevention on the campus. The session, which was held on Monday, July 17, 2023, and themed “Prevention of Sexual Violence on Lagos State Campuses, had 13 members of staff from the Departments of Sociology, Fishery, Philosophy, and English Language in attendance. A total of 16 students were also in attendance from various Faculties and Departments in the institution.
Facilitators for the event include Dr Olawunmi Oni-Buraimoh, Associate Professor in the Department of English, LASU, Dr Abayomi Bello, Lecturer, Department of Theatre Arts, LASU, Ann Adidu-Lawal, Baobab Women’s Human Rights, and Catherine Adewojo.
The listening session was anchored by Ann with an introduction by Oni, where she enlightened the participants on the purpose of the session, that is, to gather their opinions about their awareness of sexual abuse in the University and possible preventive measures to curb the issues. The session was divided into three parts, that is, staff, male, and female students.
When asked about what they liked about Lagos State University, the male student participants enjoyed the fact that they are getting more experiences socially and academically. They like that the school offers networking opportunities with affordable tuition.
For the Female students’ session, they also liked the fast academic calendar and the fact that there are opportunities for students to explore socially and academically.
Thereafter, the participants were told to deeply reflect on instances of sexual violence they may have witnessed or heard on campus and the group collectively discussed these situations.
At the end of each participant’s session, they were administered some questions like “How safe do you feel you are on campus?” “Do you know where to get support and help if you have experienced any inappropriate behaviours?” and “What do you think would happen if someone reported a problem on campus?”
A significant number of participants in each session answered that they feel quite safe on campus, they know where to get support if they experience inappropriate behaviours, and that the reported problem would be investigated and properly addressed, although a certain amount of participants claim that the person who reported the problem may be victimized.