Should someone lose three academic sessions over a two minute sex tape especially when it was leaked by someone mentally unstable under rehabilitation? Jesus wouldn’t want this.
“The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.”
The story in the preceding verse is known to almost all who have read the Bible or have chanced across the story of the woman brought before Jesus having been caught in the act of adultery. The man she was having sex with has no record till now because much like Nigerians have acted since the leaked sex tape, the lady has been the target of the shaming.
The resolution of Jesus on that day, which is relevant as a church institution is concerned in this occasion – “let he who is without sin be the first to cast a stone” will be applicable in this instance.
Coupled with the words of Jesus, the expulsion of the lady whose name has not become public has no basis in law. Sex is not criminal. The location has been confirmed by the school management as not being within the school premises. Thus, their desire to punish the occurrence raises curiosity.
In that trending video online depicting two students of the missionary school having sexual intercourse, the lady visited the man, who had earlier been expelled for a reason the school management deliberately did not mention in their release. Perhaps, fearing that the reason for the earlier expulsion won’t be good for the image of the school.
The school has absolutely no cause to take punitive action based on several reasons which would be mentioned later in this piece. The first and most cogent being the fact that the jurisdiction of the school management does not extend to the location where the action took place.
The management of the school seems to have taken action as a result of the need to salvage their image and make such sexual intercourse appear condemnable especially being a faith-based institution.
Babcock management only needs to consider that when several ministers of God narrate their salvation experiences, they give stories of when they were in the world and how they were loose. Let’s imagine this men of God were in the world at a time when cameras abound, many of them won’t have completed their degrees if similar punishment was meted out on them. They may have slid into depression and a deleterious lifestyle.
The problem of leaked sex tapes is a problem of the age. Similar things couldn’t have occurred in 1960 even though a lot of youth premarital sex took place then. There was at that time no cheap Chinese or expensive American phone technology with which the thousands of leaked nudes all over modern media have been captured.
The management should take cognisance of the fact that sex may constitute an offense in the code of the school but not in the law of Nigeria which permits sex between consenting adults. The law of Nigeria is supreme and any other law is void to the extent of inconsistency. Section 1(3) of the Nigerian constitution states “this constitution shall prevail and other law shall to the extent of inconsistency be void”.
Premarital sex or fornication may cause frowns for the religious management of an academic institute but they are not a legal issue that should warrant dismissal since the action occurred outside the school away from the jurisdiction of the management to take punitive action. Punishment enough has been served through the media shaming she has already undergone.
Further truncation of her academic efforts for an act which several youth indulge in is not only improper in law but is also not Christianly and might isolate her further from the religious views which shaped an institution that punished her for what she would not be punished for in a place like University of Ibadan or Obafemi Awolowo University where such tapes have leaked frequently over time.
In University of Lagos, on the bare road, some students were caught similarly on tape and their school is yet to expel them and would most likely not. Why should the fate of someone in Babcock who has paid far more be different for the same offense? Are they not tertiary students in the same country?
Is this lady being made a sacrificial lamb by the management of Babcock in order to show that they have moral standards?
Well, people know better and many music artistes have already sang of the exploits of the university students in various hit songs.
Zlatan, a music artiste, most notably when he sang in “This Year”. In that song, the musician sang “awon Omo Babcock, mo ri ishe owo yin o”. Which means, he has seen their deeds.
Olamide, a popular artiste also sang similar thing when he sang for the university’s girls and said “school wo lo ti wa na, OSU abi Ife? Abi Babcock?” In the song where he described girls that sneak to parties, Olamide inquires if the lady is from Osun State University OSU, OAU(Ife) or Babcock which is the third likely place.
The save-face attempts of Babcock management using this lady to show how hard they punish moral violation is already late. It can’t meet the music which is already in the market.
The school management has acted in a way that is not sustainable if it comes under legal action. If the lady does not slide into being ashamed of doing what many have done, she can sue for her reinstatement. Several legal icons across the country would be willing to take it up for free.
Should someone lose three academic sessions over a two minute sex tape especially when it was leaked by someone mentally unstable under rehabilitation? Jesus wouldn’t want this.
Koye-Ladele Mofehintoluwa writes from Ibadan, Nigeria. He tweets @koye_tolu, [email protected]