A DIALOGUE WITH MY UNIVERSITY

 

 

 

I sit on a brown rug in a friend’s room to put pen to paper for this week. This is because my computer developed a fault over the course of the outgone week. That is a major motive I had to resort to the alternative that provided an avenue to type. Recalling the words of a friend who is a campus politician, “God catch you, you no go see anything write this week”. Well, there seems to be an alternative, he would be amazed seeing this on the ‘newsstands’.

However, on this day that I attempt to write, like many other days, I appear to be stuck in the head, as thoughts, hunches and inspirations of what to write seem to be far away from becoming reality.

Due to this, my mind swiftly raced to the Students Union, its recent week celebrations, my mind leapt to the excited and energetic neighbours of mine, the Nnamdi Azikiwe hall of its recent feat over contemporaries from Obafemi Awolowo hall and our growing babies from Bells University. Thoughts of the year gradually drawing to a close also comes to mind. By and by, I seem not to have any brain child to bring into mother earth.

I’m human afterall.

Then, it struck! A lightning! It’s been long I’ve had a chitchat with my University.

Let’s dialogue, UI.

As I leave the UI landscape in few weeks to come, I have come to realize that times have changed, things have changed, neonates have grown into teens and individuals that were sucklings in politics and other spheres of the University have turned out to be gladiators, ever ready to engage in verbal and intellectual combat.

Among the noble men of Bello, we have seen beautiful orators, men who have proved their worth in Public Speaking contests. Amongst the Mellanbites, creative and dazzling footballers have sprouted, dishing the finesse of the round leather game when they are called upon. Independence hall houses the best of campus pressmen in modern times. Zikites, still famous for their aroism, still blaze the trail in Sports. Queens still dazzle with their ravishing beauties, Idiates and Awoites still known for their ‘wifely tendencies’. Kuti still groom fine men, while Tedderites still bring fame to Tedder hall. St. Annes, St. James, Imoran hostel et al are still famous for what they were known for!

The University of Ibadan I knew as a fresher and a sophomore, still appears to be same in times of landscaping that gleefully welcomes all Dick and Harry into the University, its cosmic ‘beauty’, the dreaded disciplinary measures- the feared Students Disciplinary Committee (SDC), its coercive apparatus unit with its trademark uniform, the dreaded almighty TSUNAMI that makes beautiful ladies, fine boys and their direct opposites wallow, the shady dealings in the famed Kenneth Dike Library and other cornered places in the dead of the night, the unending queues in all facets of the University- be it on a verge of registering a course or on a course to purchase ‘akara’, the University’s regard for respect reciprocity amongst others.

Looking far and wide the University terrace, the beautiful lawn along the Oduduwa road which speaks volume is an ambience of its own. ‘The aesthetic beauty of the University has also been greatly enhanced. About seven to eight years ago, the case was completely different as the University of Ibadan had to contain with badly maintained structures, pothole riddled roads and infrastructural decay,’ posited Promise Ihezie, a former campus journalist.

The unending queues in University, as seen years ago, still shine like a silver-coated serpent. Days ago, I and a colleague were in Mellanby hall to do the needful, to fill our bowels, to eat and be merry. The woman famous for her ‘beancake wizadry’ was our first point of call and we marched to the appropriate quarters. However, we had to do the expected, what we once did as 100hundred students. We queued for our meals!

In the political sphere, we’ve had the likes of Tokunbo Salako, Edosa Ekhator, Babatunde Badmus champion the Students’ Union course, and there have been ups and downs ranging from “No-cooking policy’ to No/one/two weeks break before exams’ We’ve also had series of protests and strike actions embarked upon by students over issues on electricity, water and other social amenities. Not forgetting the Bomb scare that engulfed the Unibadan community and security was subsequently enhanced.

As it seems, the first semester happens to be the era where political comrades were at their best, trying to assiduously serve those they lead. On the other hand, the second semester appears to be the period of looting public funds.

Funny enough, we’ve also witnessed the case of an attempted suicide that was intended not to lead to death as a lady gulped the contents of a bottle of lacasera, purified with hypo after an intimate relationship she maintained was abruptly cut by her lover.

Well, many can admit that the University of Ibadan is passing through a period- a period where the transition of Vice-Chancellorship would soon take place, we can clearly and boldly assert that as students and as management, we can do more.

Though I cannot refute the fact that the atmosphere is a component to learning, it will be absolutely erroneous to place surplus prominence on the environment to the impairment of the quality of what goes on in classrooms. Attempting such will be synonymous to painting a vehicle without giving adequate concern to the condition of the engine. In the end, what will move the vehicle is not the body but the engine.

One of few changes noticeable in the University is the provision of wireless connection facilities in all halls of residence. That is a plus, a step in the right direction. As generally known, one cannot be a complete student without being regularly updated and such opportunities are today tucked away in the internet and as such any well-meaning University should make the provision of internet facility a major priority, and since the University of Ibadan has done so, that is a thumbs up from me.

However, these facilities seem to be deficient in one way or the other, as these WiFi facilities are either not available or not connecting. Provision and adequate functioning of adequate internet facility should be given major priority. This is one aspect that is lacking in the University of Ibadan and is not unconnected with the poor global ranking of Nigeria’s leading University. And I therefore beseech authorities in charge to look into that andadvocate that while so much focus is given to making the University of Ibadan one of the most beautiful in the world, an even higher emphasis should be placed on the quality of learning, and mapping cum following out strategies that will ensure that it remains the FIRST and the BEST.

As a final point, as the Prof. Isaac Folorounso Adewole’s administration gradually draws to a close, I recommend that the University of Ibadan be run as a progressive process where everybody who comes into office strives to continue, build and improve on what the preceding administration has done. Instead of looking for loopholes in the outgoing administration, the present administration should try and consolidate what err the previous had achieved.

I’m Ore Afolayan.

I think I have spoken.

 

ORE AFOLAYAN

 

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