I’m not sure I’d have been able to beat ‘Sex for Grades’ trap – Baako

Veteran journalist Abdul Malik Kweku Baako Jnr is doubting his ability to beat the trap set by BBC in its Africa Eye’s ‘Sex for Grades’ documentary.

He noted that any individual could have easily fallen to the ruse used by the investigators in the documentary to expose sexual harassment in two universities in West Africa.

The ‘Sex for Grades’ documentary, which was aired on Monday, portrayed alleged cases of sexual harassment at the University of Lagos (UNILAG) and University of Ghana.

The BBC sent female undercover reporters to the campuses of the two universities where it reported that they were sexually harassed, propositioned and put under pressure by senior lecturers – all the while wearing secret cameras.

Two lecturers at the University of Ghana, Professor Ransford Gyampo and Dr Paul Kwame Butakor, shown in the documentary and accused of engaging in sexual harassment on campus have since been interdicted by the university.

Speaking on the issue on JoyNews’ current affairs programme, Newsfile, Mr Baako, who is also the Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, noted that anyone could fall victim in such a situation.

“I might sound hypocritical. Me sitting here, I’m not sure if I would have been able to beat the trap. I’m sure if I might succeed in beating such kind of trap. The animal [in me] might come for the fall…that’s the problem we all have,” he admitted.

He further noted that “I’m being hypocritical if you ask me whether I’ve not done something that could easily have put me in trouble…”

Mr Baako, however, believes that there some lessons to be learnt from the exposé.

“Whiles I do not want to judge the individual Prof Gyampo I’m saying that these things perhaps are lessons that we should reinforce our moral armoury in such situations so as to be able to avoid it….it is not easy,” he told the host of the show, Samson Lardy Anyenini.

The BBC said it picked reports from students who have been victimised in similar scenarios in relation to the subject matter in the hands of the same lecturers [Gyampo and Butakor] mentioned in the documentary.

The veteran journalist was of the view that “the cure for this so-called entrapment is integrity.”