On 1 August this year, six Nigerians were selected as winners of the 2018 British Council Future Leaders Connect cohort. A global fellowship where exceptional young people from around the world will come together for a number of days and link to the UK Houses of Parliament, meet with inspiring leaders and policy makers and discuss the most significant global issues facing the next generation globally.

 

In an interview with YNaija, two of the winners, David Ashaolu and Oluwaseun Osowobi, give insights into their policies and plans.

DAVID ASHAOLU

Why is it important to focus on children to ‘change the world’; as you put it: ‘One child at a time’?

The children are no doubt the future. The population projections, especially for Nigeria, should be a cause of concern for anyone interested in the socio economic future of the country. Our current society is the result of direct and indirect actions of generations before us. They focused on creating an enabling and safe environment for us, the future inhabitants. I however do not think this strategy can ensure a secured future.

What I propose is, instead of focusing on the environment by building a working system and structures for the future generations, we should focus on the people who shall inhabit the earth. We should build today’s child because he shall become the earth’s landlord tomorrow.

Building the child involves imbibing in them the right attitude. We equip them with information that promote tolerance, integrity, resourcefulness and other values we desire in ourselves and the future generation – values that will sustain the economic, social and political structures we are building. Where the people are well trained, they will establish and maintain enduring institutions.

For example, in a habitation where children are mandated to observe cleanliness and orderliness, that is, if they know there are consequences for littering and reward for proper waste disposal, that society will be clean and tidy in the future because this attitude would have become part of them. But if we ignore clean attitude in children and rather focus on engaging sweepers and sanitation officers, the environment will never be clean and resources will always be expended on sanitation for years to come.

What systems desperately need changing or revamping as regards creating a better world for children?

The educational system needs desperate attention especially, the non-formal sector. So much attention is given to the formal educational system that we abandon the impact of non-formal socialization in building the child. Children pick a lot from adults around them. Home, I believe, is where we teach children moral virtues. My personal experience is that a student is likely to compare what he learns in school with what he sees at home. Note that what we see stick longer than what we hear. And since a child has more familial ties with his home buddies, he tends to tilt towards what he sees at home, even if it is at variance with what he learns in school.

Focus must also be on the formal educational sector to inculcate and embed compulsory moral education in the children. A big role has to be played by teachers and instructors. Children find in their teachers, role models whose opinions are laws. Same or higher moral standards should apply to instructors.

If children get moral training in the school and experience same at home, the training will be holistic.

In your opinion, what new approach should be made to educate and/or the syllabus to imbibe this new culture of change?

Children learn by example. They produce expectable performances also when incentivized and are highly motivated. If we highlight and reward good behaviours in our schools as a deliberate policy and punish bad behaviours using new and inventive means, we will achieve the change we desire.

 

A radical approach would be to limit the extent of interactions of children to their families. The unfortunate truth is that parents are not well brought up either. As mentioned earlier, the past generation had focused on building institutions more than they focused on building the individuals. So what we have is badly behaved individuals ruining perfectly built institutions into ruins. Since no one can give what he does not possess, the parents lack the capacity to inculcate acceptable behaviours in their children.

 

If the formal education system can guarantee a high moral standard based on discipline and integrity, we could perhaps encourage more boarding facilities, so that the school would have more opportunity to teach the children what the society requires of them. Schooling hours can also be extended to accommodate moral lessons and technically reduce the time students spend with family members.

 

Who will be the custodians or good examples to guide the children?

All agents of socialization have the duty to project good examples to the children. However, there is more responsibility on the family, the religious institutions and the school. The Nigerian family is ill equipped at providing this solution, as they lack same. Religion, on the other hand, is almost certainly inherited from the parents. The onus therefore largely rests on the school, which can provide good examples and legitimately enforce same in a language a child understands.

The school has an advantage because through positive government policies, the acceptable cultural balances can be introduced and monitored.

Monitoring the content taught to the children is very important especially in a heterogeneous, multi-cultural and multi-religious society like Nigeria. Morality and culture are relative and nebulous. There is the need for a universally acceptable code of conduct which can be achieved through proper syllabus content conceptualization.

 

Talk us through your process of creating right regulations and guaranteeing consequences for bad behaviour. What challenges do you envision?

Nigeria is a country where impunity reigns. Impunity simply means lack of penal consequences for bad actions. When children grow with the impression that they can get away with untoward behaviour, they become very difficult to control. And they will definitely constitute menace to the society in the future.

On the other hand, there is deficit of laws and regulations prohibiting all forms of unacceptable behaviours. Criminals always look for loop holes in existing laws, and ways to circumvent them. For example, until 2015, cybercriminals had a field day in Nigeria as no laws prohibited cybercrimes. Also, most of the laws in Nigeria are obsolete and need immediate reviews.

It will be appropriate for our legislators to review our penal laws to meet contemporary situations, especially in this information age. The reviews should take inputs from members of the public and stake holders. When reviewed, they should be publicized so as to generate the required awareness. Most importantly, the laws should be applied strictly and to all persons equally.

Achieving this would require more than political will. An upright and independent judiciary is another challenge. Law enforcement agents must be ready to apply the laws without fear or favour.

When people know that penal laws are regularly reviewed and strictly applied, the fear of retributive criminal sanctions would prevent criminal actions.

 

OLUWASEUN OSOWOBI

 

How bad is the situation of sexual harassment in Nigeria? Is it well in the fringes of our society or a major problem?

According to Pan African Medical Journal in 2016, sexual assault was recorded in 93.9% females in Lagos, South-West Nigeria. This represents a substantial number of women and girls in this region who have either experienced rape, domestic violence or sexual harassment within the home and public spaces. Almost everyone has one sorry story to tell, either about themselves, their friends, family members or acquaintances across the nation’s campuses. In Nigeria, sexual harassment is one of the most common forms of assault women and girls experience within tertiary institutions. Request for sexual favours or sex in general by (male) lecturers in exchange for marks is very prevalent and cuts across various States in Nigeria. It is about power of lecturers and absence of laws to mitigate against this issue. Students are either bullied to engage in the degrading act or are failed without remorse should there be a refusal. Graduating with a fairly good result on the benchmark of refusing to demean your body to the pleasure of another is so grievous and it limits the access of such students to compete for high paying jobs.

Sexual harassment is not just limited to higher institutions, it is also prevalent in the workplace and market places. Most women and girls have not grown in their career or have lost their jobs because they refused to succumb to the pressure of exchanging their bodies for growth. Sexual harassment is an economic expense which keeps more women out of job or even underpaid. Similar to tertiary institutions, there is no national law aiming to prevent or address this issue

Just last week, a conversation on social media showed that interestingly, a lot of women are daily harassed in the marketplace with male traders failing to see why it is wrong. I saw the story of a lady who refused to be touched and a man within the market said “na your type we dey rape for corner;” meaning it is your kind that we rape. Refusing to be sexually harassed comes with a threat of rape. Women are indirectly being forced to pick the lesser evil, which keeps them fearful, sometimes out of the market and requiring to be accompanied to the markets.

In your experience, what is the common denominator in preserving the culture of sexual harassment against women?

The common denominator in my opinion is hunched on the absence of gender equality. There is subjugation of the rights of women and girls in the society and as such, violence against women thrives. It is a general consensus in some men that women are beneath them and this creates ways for extreme measures in their dealings with women. It is terrifying that research says that one in three women will experience physical or sexual violence in her lifetime and we all know, majority of the perpetrators are men and familiar to the victim. This data

What laws so far have been passed to better protect women, young girls against issues of sexual harassment? What has been the biggest challenge with passing the laws?

One of the laws that slightly touches on preventing sexual harassment is the Violence against Persons Prohibition Act (VAPP), which has been passed into law but yet to be adopted by most local Houses of Assemblies. While this exist, it does not holistically address sexual harassment and in 2016, the Sexual Harassment in Tertiary Institutions: Prohibition Bill was introduced by Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, a bill prohibiting sexual relationships between lecturers and students and provides the framework for addressing sexual harassment on campus and importantly, mandates that sexual predator lecturers are sent to prison for their barbaric acts. Although there are limitations with this Bill, it creates a start-point for addressing this issue and an opportunity to further improve on the response mechanism.

This Bill has been challenged by ASUU (Association of Staff Union of Universities), among other things, on the arguments that it is discriminatory because sexual harassment happens in other sectors not just tertiary institutions. While there is need to also capture other areas such as sexual harassment in the workplace, it does not negate the fact that sexual harassment in tertiary institutions needs to be addressed. This argument poses a question of ’does it make it any right that it happens at all?’ interestingly, there are certain Nigerian universities that have enacted laws on dress code – policing how adults dress – but a law to regulate how lecturers interact with students is strongly frowned against. This clearly shows where the problem really lies.

While this law has been passed by the Senate Assembly, but has not received much support from the House of Representatives.

How important are male allies to the process of fighting sexual harassment against women?

Men are vital elements in fighting sexual harassment against women by supporting women and promoting awareness among their peers among other things. Last week, I was harassed in a market by a man and I did not fail to use the opportunity to educate him about how sexual harassment is wrong. Interestingly, some men supported me and insisting that sexual harassment is not acceptable. Men are needed as allied to initiate open and honest conversations with other men teaching them on what are and are not the acceptable behaviours towards women’s bodily autonomy. In addition to challenging their peers, men need to evaluate their action and inactions promoting sexual harassment, and in the process be empathetic towards the stories of survivors and not discounter it.

Men are crucial in understanding the cultural systems in place that perpetuate sexual harassment and redefine mechanisms that deals will deal with this issue. This however cannot be done without teaming up with actors and stakeholders who are committed to eliminating sexual harassment and assault. Men’s involvement in the cause will ultimately encourage more people to become active allies for the cause.

Respecting the rights of women and girls must be entrenched in the society as a norm and anything opposite should be unacceptable and this will only be achieved with the active participation of men as allies.

Talk us through the challenges so far in your advocacy, lessons you have learnt and the way forward.

When I initially started this advocacy, there were a lot of pushbacks from people who do not value gender equality or those who generally do not believe that a woman or girl can never asked to be raped, weak laws, ineffective judicial systems and response mechanisms, support from government etc. In this process, I learnt communicate my advocacy in an effective way, be patient with the process, work directly with the group the issues affect the most in creating strategies that are most effective and collaborate with coalitions to engage government towards achieving gender equality in Nigeria.

As I advance, my focus in on building the capacity of the next generations of advocates as we need the numbers, center my work for the next year on behavioral communication change and work with Government agencies and stakeholders to review existing non-functional laws and systems to create new strategies or improve on existing plans.

My current advocacy plan is for the passage of the Sexual Harassment Bill, work with ASUU on establishing its provisions and empowering students to serve as gatekeepers who are holding government and institutions accountable. I will also continue to work through my organization, Stand to End Rape Initiative (STER) and my team members to provide psycho-social support to survivors of gender-based violence and scale-up existing programs that teaches men about consent, gender equality and their role in ending gender-based violence among other things.