Rights & The Workplace: Is harassment the new normal?

How exactly are we in Nigeria treating sexual harassment especially in the workplace.

Living and working in Nigeria everyday, we go through a lot of things that are not necessarily normal, and in some other countries would be totally unacceptable or even illegal.

With growing awareness on workplace harassment globally, it seems like we may finally be approaching the age where speaking out yields support and respect; even if not these, a conversation at the very least.

While this is great, what we see is the outspoken people in power (e.g. the former BBC editor for China, Carrie Gracie who recently resigned on the grounds of pay inequality), or those in countries where freedom of speech, human rights in general, and women’s rights specifically are boldly upheld.

However, even in the United States, which seems to be a strong force in this area, with a legal system that to some extent protects the “Average Jane”, it took a lot of women many years to come out and expose the likes of Harvey Weinstein, Al Franken, Roy Moore and Bill Cosby.

 

Golden Globes 2018

Before getting ahead of ourselves with this movement which has infiltrated the social media space with hashtag campaigns such as #metoo, #whywewearblack and #timesup, why don’t we take a step back to consider what really goes on in our everyday lives.

What happens to average people in general, as well those who live in countries where women do not necessarily have a voice, or are shut down by the general public and even other women for speaking out freely about their grievances?

 

Harassment in Nigeria

Let’s bring this home, back to Nigeria, where our President famously publicly disclosed, “I don’t know which party my wife belongs to, but she belongs to my kitchen and my living room and the other room”.

While I do not agree with the way the First Lady may have undermined her husband’s leadership abilities in a statement to the BBC that provoked his statement in retaliation, the sheer crassness of his response did indeed indicate to me a lack of effective leadership skills and self control, which in my opinion is in itself a form of harassment.

If this is what happens at the highest level of leadership in our country, shouldn’t we be worried about what goes on in the daily lives of the average Nigerian woman, (and even men in many cases) who cannot make a statement freely about derogatory treatment?

Living and working in Nigeria everyday, we go through a lot of things that are not necessarily normal, and in some other countries would be totally unacceptable or even illegal. However hostile an environment we find ourselves in, we would still see one or two people who wouldn’t bother refuting such conditions as what has now become the status quo.

So really, what about those work environments in which harassment is pretty much infused in the culture? There are certain industries where is it not uncommon to hear that superiors expect their subordinates to subject themselves to certain forms of harassment including verbal, physical and sexual in order to meet their targets.

Some of these subordinates themselves even come to realise that they need to do whatever it takes to get the work done in order to hold on to the job that they so struggled to get in the first place, or obtain a promotion.

 

The voice against sexual violence

Do we just continue to simply just survive in such hostile environments; and normalise verbal, physical and sexual abuse just because “that’s the way it’s always been done” or “this person can be excused for that act of abuse because they naturally have the temperament, but yield results at work” or “I went through it, so you must go through it” or “no one has ever been caught or penalised for doing it”?

Taking this away from the work place to households, the amount of harassment and abuse is either becoming more unbearable or we are only just becoming more aware and outspoken about it, especially through the open platform that the [social] media provides in today.

Nevertheless, the mere reality is that people are and have been suffering, especially in silence and are only beginning to gain some boldness to speak out. This is so ironic in such an environment as Nigeria where we seem to be very social and in each other’s faces, but are not really actually talking to each other or about these issues which eventually move from an external situation at the workplace or household to an internal problem which affects our mental health.

Unfortunately, the consequences for such actions of the culprits of hostile environments are very little or non-existent, and these people may continue get away with them until they themselves decide to stop or change. For the victims, it is important to check on ourselves and on each other to ensure that we are actually okay.

Written by Oyin Egbeyemi

Oyin Egbeyemi is an engineer-turned-consultant-turned-educationist, runner and writer.

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