By Pelumi King
The Student Union Gyration was finally back after a hiatus of 5 years. It portended to be as exciting as possible. The graphics and designs also supported that theory. The SU assured something bigger and better in the gyration. It was even themed “Shutdown”. It can be seen that from the theme “Shutdown” that the event promised to be what it portended to be “a Shutdown” but was it a shutdown?
The gyration started 2 hours late. This has become the new norm of the university. Many students are very confident of arriving “late” to an event because they already know that the event will start late. The Gyration started in the normal style. The DJ, DJ Gabi introduced the fun-fare with music, and Hype man Tunchie opened up the affair with his hyping and hosting. People did not start coming in till around 6:30 pm to 8 pm. One thing was sure though, by 8 pm, SUB Foyer was fully packed and the events had fully started. Hype man Tunchie did the best he could do. Mc Twinkle and other hype men also came to show their stuff at the events.
Was the SU Gyration different and better than the rest? Certainly not. The event was certainly the UI standard. It was not in any way different and better. It did not live up to its billing of being a shutdown. It even appeared that the crowd was not even lit up by the other activities of the gyration. What the crowd seemed to have gotten excited about was the Shedibala challenge and anytime hit music they liked was played. All the hyping could not get the crowd to be active in the program.
Several gyrations have happened before this most notably from Halls. Not many Faculties had done gyration before now with Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Technology and Faculty of Technology being the most notable ones. If you take Independence Hall, Kuti Hall, and Nnamdi Azikiwe Hall, the gyration was lit. Independence and Zik Hall’s gyration were awesome. It lived up to its billing and hype. There were a lot of activities that kept the crowd going. It was not just about the music. They did not need the Shedibala challenge to keep the crowd going. There were enough palm wine and enough fun fare to last for the whole night. The DJ was also awesome. The Executives knew what the residents were expecting so they delivered.
Independence Hall and Zik Hall brought some artists and had some performances, unlike the SU gyration. It was also well and better organized than the SU gyration. They did not have to think up programs on the spot or use multiple hype men. Only Hype man Tunchie was stated on the flyer to perform but it turns out that he was not the main hype man in the event. He may have started and opened up the show but he did not end it.
There was also a lack of proper stage and crowd management. Some people that were not either hype men, artistes or member of the backstage team were on stage. There was also another incident. The stage they chose was not very visible. When they were doing the Shedibalabala challenge, audiences had to run to the front to have a proper view of the challenge happening on stage. That is where crowd management comes in. When members of the audience started making their way to the front, there was no one to effectively manage the crowd. All they did to manage the crowd was violently pushing them back for them to infringe the stage. They pushed the crowd back, the crowd also pushed back. It became almost like a pushing contest. It was a miracle no one sustained any injuries with the pushing on. The whole place became calm after the challenge.
There were also issues with the DJing. DJ Gabi is an amazing DJ no doubt but members of the audience did not like the way he was abruptly changing the music especially as they were getting into the rhythm of the music. “The DJ should just leave the music in one place and allow us to enjoy it before changing the song,” an audience said. DJ Gabi tried but he was below his high standards in the gyration.
The SU gyration was not different and better than the rest. One can even argue it was even below par from the rest most notably Independence Hall and Nnamdi Azikiwe hall gyration. Given that it was organized by the SU, it could have been better, different, and much more well organized. The students were anticipating something bigger, better, and more amazing than the rest, too bad that it was just like the rest. The next SU executives can learn from this and perhaps make the next one better.
