A university lecturer, Dr Olawale Lawal has described the “sex-for-marks’’ scandal, involving Prof. Richard Akindele of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile Ife, as a damage to the academic community.
Professor Akindele was alleged to have asked a female student for sex in order to help her pass exams.
Lawal, a lecturer of Diplomacy and Foreign Policy at the Lagos State University (LASU), speaking to journalists in Lagos on Saturday, advised Nigerian academics, and stakeholders in the university system to ensure justice in order for such a thing not to happen again.
Lawal advised lecturers to help maintain the standards of university education by shunning undeserved gratification to students.
“Bargaining for marks through money or sex calls for serious scrutiny and is highly condemnable, because it mortgages the standard and quality of our universities.
“If we mortgage standards, then the certificates we issue will be devalued and the graduates we produce, whether doctors, lawyers or engineers, will be half-baked and pose dangers to our societies.
“Issues such as sexual harassment in the university are better handled through the university administrative system, and no university will tolerate such from its academic staff.
“Now, the issue has been made public and the lecturer cannot escape unscathed; but even the student will bear a moral burden.
“It will take some effort to rebuild the image and reputation of that university afterwards,’’ he added.
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