IFEANYI IBEGBU
As early as 7am on Thursday, the 7th of May, a peaceful demonstration began from the halls of residence on the university campus and proceeded from the school campus on to the UI- Ojoo road, in response to a series of events which found the University Health Services, also known as Jaja clinic, proving to be an inefficient medical centre, the most recent of them being the death of a Mr. Mayowa Alaran, a 200 level student of Human Kinetics and Health Education, and a resident of the Great Independence Hall the previous night.
According to an eyewitness report, and contrary to most of the controversial rumours, the deceased slumped while watching a Junior Champions League match with colleagues, in the cramped Junior Common Room of the hall, which had the only source of power supply (a generator) to run the television in use. When Mr. Alaran slumped, he was carried out of the congested room and was given first aid treatment, CPR, mouth to mouth resuscitation and even Ventolin Inhaler by medical students, to which he did not respond. Meanwhile, an ambulance had been sent for, but he was eventually conveyed to the clinic by a car which was gotten by residents of the hall, before the ambulance arrived. On arriving at the overcrowded clinic, he was given a bed and his friends were asked numerous times for his clinic card or card number which they were unable to provide. The apparent purpose of this request was in order to examine his medical history and thus, establish a relationship between it and his present condition. There was an attempt to resuscitate him at the clinic, but the oxygen tank to be used was empty, and Mr. Mayowa Alaran finally gave up the ghost there in the clinic. His file was eventually sorted for, and with no medical history correlating to the situation that night, the cause of his death was established as suffocation in the congested Junior Common Room of the hall.
This tragic event stirred up much concern from students, who have witnessed many other cases like that of Mayowa, and the accumulation of these grievances led to a decision, made in the early hours of Thursday morning, to stage a peaceful demonstration as a means of expressing these grievances to the school administration. The result of this decision was that classes were suspended for the day, and students trooped out in masses to make known their complaints by way of the demonstration, which ended with a Congress that took place at the Students’ Union Building, where a number of issues to be addressed were itemised and proposed to be presented to the school authorities for immediate implementation. Some of the issues are: the provision of ambulance to halls of residence, the payment of a condolence visit to the family of the deceased, the resolution of water scarcity in halls of residence, the amendment of erratic power supply in the school, the renovation of halls of residence and their facilities, an end to the monopolisation of Bread and Water by the University, and a stop to the victimisation and dehumanising treatment of students by porters in the halls of residence. The Congress is set to re-convene on Monday, the 11th of May.
