THE OAU PROFESSOR AND THE HOT PANTS: THE LEGAL MATTERS ARISING

Recently, an audio recording of what purports to represent a lecherous conversation between a student of OAU and her professor teacher has been circulating online. The female student was heard impetuously asking the professor for confirmation of the illegal allotment of marks to her failed scores in exchange for sex. The professor was also heard asking the student for sex in exchange for what appeared to be 7 marks if she were a non-medical student, or 17 marks if she were a medical student.

The position of the law is more precarious than what is envisaged. There are a lot of legal and ethical questions begging for answers. These questions may have answers, but not all the answers are legally meaningful in this circumstance.

I'm not an expert in audiology but the investigation of this snippet of audio evidence may not prove that this piece of evidence was not maliciously created by the student in question and her equally lecherous boyfriend.

The first reaction that comes to mind in this kind of case across developed jurisdictions is that the professor is debauched and of perilous sexual appetite. Nothing is usually said of the female cotraveller. After all, the professor should be like a father to her and not a hawk. This reasoning would have been a perfect one were sexual appetite perfect desires. On this note, I would delve into the questions.

Let us presume, without conceding that the tape is true.

1. Who initiated this process; the student or the professor. If it were the student, why would she ask for pass mark when indeed she failed the exam. Why curry favour with Mr Professor to the disadvantage of other students that equally failed. If it were the Professor, why would he want to pass some who failed because of sexual gratification. On this point, the professor messed up. Did the girl mess up too?

2. Is the student of age? Does this constitute attempted rape? What is the name of the offense committed by the Professor? What is the prescribed punishment?

3. Is there a special relationship between the professor and the student requiring some liability if this relationship is breached.

4. If it is the student that initiated this nosedive, is there some contributory complicity on her part that is relevant for discussion? Is there any laid down rule by the University for reporting this kind of predation by teachers or the unholy invitation to feminine amagedon by the female students to their lecherous teachers?  Did this girl or the Professor follow those rules,  if any?  Why did she choose to go online with her private conversation, if any? Was this recording made available to the University authorities before now and they did nothing about it? Is anybody out to destroy the professor?

5. Did the students actually fail or the professor intentionally failed them because he was lecherously admiring their gluteus architecture? If the student actually failed, why would she want to force the hand of the professor by painting a picture of predation? Could volenti non fit injuria apply in this situation? If the professor suo moto failed this hardworking student just to have a taste of her wetness, does the school have a working mechanism of redress for oppressive failing of students by evil lechers in our Universities?  Did the girl in question explore that option before luring the professor into the impetuous phone conversation?

While we await the outcome of the committee set up by the University to look into the matter, there are a few things the Nigerian populace and the University committee need to bear in mind.

1. The level of technological advancement in audiology has escalated. It will be obvious that the committee can never resolve or determine with certainty that that recording was actually the voice of the professor. This simply means that the committee cannot determine if Mr Professor actually made that lecherous move. So the committee would certainly and reasonably resolve the determination in favour of professor; unless Mr Professor admits the accusations, or the student proves the trajectory, the situations at the calling and receiving ends of the conversation with valid witnesses to time and personalities with utmost certainty. We all know that only God can do this. This is without prejudice to the probabilities of the admissibility of this evidence in Court.

2. The second option are the network providers. This is also a dead end. The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended in its Chapter IV secured private communication of citizens.

Section 37 of the Constitution states:

"The privacy of citizens, their homes, correspondence, telephone conversations and telegraphic communications is hereby guaranteed and protected".

The above independent provision is modified by section 45 of the same Constitution thus:

"45. (1) Nothing in sections 37, 38, 39, 40 and 41 of this Constitution shall invalidate any law that is reasonably justifiable in a democratic society
(a) in the interest of defence, public safety, public order, public morality or public health; or
(b) for the purpose of protecting the rights and freedom of other persons".

The question now is if there is any Act of the National or State Assembly that empowers the Court, security or any agencies in Nigeria, to demand for call logs, or the network providers to release call log, on the application of one of the parties that conversed on their network, or a third party for that matter, in the current circumstances.

The network providers are apparently forbidden by the Constitution to release such call log. This again ended the enquiry before it began.

The Nigerian situation is yet another thing. The idea in the heads of those commissioned to enquire into this matter will go a long way to determine the outcome of the enquiry. The fight is better focused on prevention, rather than on cure. This is because cure for this malady is akin to attempting to cure an incurable cancer: it takes the host along with the disease.

©Awkadigwe Fredrick Ikenna (MBBS, LLB, MWACOG, DSC)
Email: awkadigweikenna@yahoo.com

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