Recently appointed Vice-Chancellor of the Ekiti State University, EKSU, Prof. Samuel Oye Bamidele, has opened up on how he has managed to overcome temptations from the opposite sex and has suggested punishment for lecturers who cannot overcome those temptations.
The Prof. said in the course of his career, he has been tempted by female students, just like any other male lecturer.
In an interview with the Nation, Bamidele said, “Some students will come with the intention to tempt you, trying to make eye contacts, and I will say, what are you trying to do? For you to be able to overcome temptation, you must resist it.
“I want to say that every human being is tempted at one point or the other. And maybe I should say it today, the power of being a Christian is that God will give you the ability, the unusual supernatural power to be able to overcome temptation without falling into it.
“There is a difference between temptation and falling into temptation. For example, we are all men here and that makes it good. Supposing a woman is here now, the atmosphere will not be the same.
“I will not say I have not been tempted in the sense that maybe an amorous person comes in, wanting to show a quarter of her breast. I will say, ‘Excuse me, go out and dress properly. As a lecturer, you can’t come into my office like that.’”
The VC who is also a senior pastor of the Deeper Life Bible Church further noted that some people don’t resist the picture of temptation, hence, they run into it.
He said, “So, I want to say that to God be the glory, since I gave my life to Christ, I have not been tempted to the extent of falling, touching another person’s wife or student; never, never. And it is not only girls or women that cause temptation; some are tempted with money.
“They supervise students and collect money on projects. I supervise Ph.D students and I don’t take anything from them. You cannot even try me. So, all those ones, if you can keep yourself from being attracted by women or by money or material things of this world and you are contented, it will be easy for you to overcome temptation.
“But summarily, every human being will face temptation at one point or the other, but the power to overcome that temptation can only come from Christ.”
Asked what measures his administration is putting in place to prevent cases of sexual harassment of female students by their male lecturers, he said, “We are going to work on that.
“We are trying to put some things in place that will checkmate some lecturers that cannot keep their libido, and to that extent, we are going to go through management and then the Senate to fashion out some strategies to protect our female students from sexual harassment. That one is being planned, I may not feel out everything now.
“Things are changing in this university and that is the truth. The head matters. If there is seriousness at the top, everybody will fall in line. They know that if I catch you sexually harassing female students, you will be in trouble. If as the vice-chancellor I am also one of those carrying girls and ladies around, I won’t have the mouth to tell those who are doing it to stop or sanction them in line with the rules.
“Now, it is no longer going to be business as usual. Some regulations will come out in a short while to checkmate all those things in terms of the dressing of the students, because students also can be harassers.
“Female students can harass male students by their amorous outlook. We want to checkmate those things and for the staff, admin, teaching and non-teaching, we are going to have some codes that will create a level of restriction as to how they can harass female students,” the pastor added.
It would be recalled that a bill for a law which prescribes five-year jail term for lecturers who engage in sexual relationship with students was passed for first reading in the Senate on May 4.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Ovie Omo-Agege (Labour-Delta Central) and co-sponsored by 46 other senators, seeks to completely prohibit any form of sexual relationship between lecturers and their students.
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