ASUP insists on boosting awareness drive to curb sexual harassment

From Femi Oyelola, Kaduna

A Senior lecturer in the Department of Accounting, College of Business and Management Studies, Kaduna Polytechnic (KadPoly), Ibrahim Yunusa, has stressed the need to strengthen awareness and enlightenment of students as pinnacle to prevent them from falling victim to sexual harassment
He asserted this during the 3rd series of seminars of the WeForThem (WFT) project organized by the NGO, Empowering Women for Excellence Initiative (EWEI) for members of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic (ASUP), KadPoly chapter yesterday.
He averred that the WFT project is very interesting, educative and informative, and believed it will contribute to curbing the menace through a documentary of the project.
He opined that the documentary of the WFT project seminars as proposed by EWEI after production should be properly disseminated in the Institution when students are being oriented or matriculated.
The don therefore wants the documentary to be used for the enlightenment of all students of the Kaduna Polytechnic. According to him, many times it is because of the level of enlightenment of most students that makes them fall victim to sexual harassment.
“Reaching out to especially the new students through the documentary will go a long way in curbing and preventing the menace in public spaces.
“So, there should be proper dissemination of key takeaways of the seminars”, Yunusa said.
The Welfare Secretary of ASUP, Kaduna Polytechnic chapter, Abdulsalam Aminu Abubakar, said the union has a policy of being very careful when it comes to dealing with cases of sexual harassment.
According to him, ASUP as a union is there to protect its members but does not protect sexual offenders. “If a member has committed the offence, the union will support the Management of the Institution and authorities and ensure such member is dealt with.
“The union has a policy of shaming, and dissociating itself from sexual offenders. We’re parents and have children who are all coming up through the system.
“The union neither supports nor protects such offenders, rather it encourages partnerships such as EWEI’s to protect our children,” he stated.
Abubakar further stressed that sexual harassment does not stop with females only, but the men also suffer the same fate.
He assured that the union would help in protecting the students.
EWEI’s Secondary Focal Person for the WFT project, Mendie Jeremiah, in his presentation on understanding community in the context of sexual harassment in public spaces, said the essence is to improve the capacity of participants to identify, map, and harness the available community resources/assets in the fight against sexual harassment within the Kaduna Polytechnic and beyond.
He said it is to provide a pathway for participatory advocacy by leveraging the existing resources to advocate against sexual harassment in the institution.
According to him, community mapping can encourage people to become powerful advocates for the transformation of the spaces in which they live and become more civically minded in the process.
Earlier, in her remarks, EWEI’s Primary Focal Person for the WFT project, Salome Yakubu, informed that the remaining seminars with ASUP will be held outside the Kad Poly premises, and wished the participants fruitful engagement.