‘Sex for grades’: Nigeria parliament passes bill to jail offenders for up to 14 years

The Parliament of Nigeria has passed a bill that outlaws sexual harassment in universities.

The bill, which was proposed in 2019, will criminalise sexual relationships between lecturers and students when signed into law.

Lecturers who engage in such relationships with their students could be jailed for up to 14 years.

In the early days of June 2023, some students expressed their dissatisfaction with the outgoing parliament’s failure to have former President Muhammadu Buhari sign the bill into law during his tenure.

The bill was originally proposed in 2016 but did not get a pass from both houses of parliament.

The push for the bill comes on the back of a BBC Africa Eye’s Sex for Grades documentary on Nigerian and Ghanaian lecturers released in 2019.