Nightmare at the Citadel
By: Dapo Simon Ajeniya
Tags: University, Cult, Education, Sex, Bullying

I hurriedly ran, but had to wait hours until pitch darkness to return to the car. This still remains the nature of my nightmares today; always creating scenarios of being crowded, rushed, and jumped and then trying to find an escape route. I am better than Jason Bourne in my own nightly version of the Bourne Identity.

Another time, the Christian inter-campus dance community of Spirit of David was having a vigil/party at our home. It should have gone down as one of the most memorable nights of my campus life. Everyone was happy, joyous but I spent the whole night keeping vigil, preparing for the possibility of an attack by any one of the cult groups especially because there had been a shoot-out earlier that day in school leading to brewing tensions in that small sleepy Ilorin town.

Two decades later, I still find myself checking door locks and windows late into the night when everyone is asleep. Many times I check the door locks in some of the best hotels in the world.

For a long time, I spent the years arriving on campus 5 minutes before my lecture and leaving campus within 5 minutes of finishing any course. It was my coping mechanism. All that structure I created, still didn’t deter them from hounding me to join one group or the other or threatening one to pay financial homage to the boys.

This was the setting in which one was asked to learn the contributions of Adam Smith and Karl Marx to economic theory, the practicalities of cost accounting, and dreadful business statistics. Now, I know I tried.

A couple of days ago, a video trended on social media where recent graduates in 2020 couldn’t accurately spell the word Vice-Chancellor. Still unsure whether the whole video was all scripted, but it is no longer inconceivable that today’s graduates are that deficient. We all had a good laugh, even though many who laughed are still not likely to be able to spell the word even after watching the video. I remember Ali Baba chastising young graduates and the educational system, which is mostly true. See his post here

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CI_Jre_FVTh/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

What I felt was missing from most of the narratives is that no-one talks about the sanity of the environment in which we ask young people to study. Many spend those years having to deal with extreme poverty, poor housing and sanitary conditions, sex for grades, sadistic lecturers, bullying colleagues, hooliganism, cultism, poor medical facilities, and a host of others.

Little wonder, most parents will go broke trying to send their kids across the Atlantic or to any of the private universities and that has worked for many years. I totally understand their choices as my generation was the one that had to deal with the trauma of the Massacre or killing at OAU on July 10, 1999, which was caused because (you won't believe this) one car with students overtook another car driven by fellow students who unfortunately happened to belong to a cult, which ended in a most dramatic plot twist that went on to indict (you won’t believe this either) THE VICE-CHANCELLOR!

Today, From Sambisa to Kankara, to Nnewi to Oshodi to Ado Ekiti, kidnapping and extortion is the order of the day in the country. We all act surprised. In 1999, just a few unfortunate ones joined such gangs of violence. Today, literally on every street corner, one young boy below the age of 12 has been inducted into a group while on apprenticeship to become a car mechanic or furniture maker. Don’t blame him. That is his surest way to survival. If you don’t wish to be bullied, become the Bully! The universities have groomed evangelists of violence across the nation.

This youthful generation of today having been insulated nearly all their lives just witnessed their first taste of terror this last October in 3D via live social media streaming, inflicted upon them by people who are still coping with their own nightmares. So nightmares matter.

When we watch domestic violence play itself out on social media, we are quick to adorn our gender armor; not asking what nightmares are increasingly leading us down this path.

We are literally the only nation I know that people delight in seeing videos of soldiers beating up our policemen, or policemen beating up or civil defense-corps; or defense-corp beating up a miscreant; or a group of people bringing jungle justice down on a petty thief or supposed flying witch. (if you think I am overstretching recall the Aluu 4)

The history of our civil war is long gone, but we are daily fighting in uncivil wars with ourselves. At every turn, you are being bullied by something or someone or some institution. Corruption thrives because it is; oddly enough a coping mechanism for surviving bullying. So now we know that the fight against corruption is going to be a long one that must first tackle the root of all bullying in our land for it to stand a chance.

A lot of people enjoyed the Kunle Afolyan movie citation recently launched on Netflix, but I sometimes wonder how many wounds have been opened for many by watching the movie and reliving their worst nightmare again in HD. You see that movie merely captured a day’s nightmare in a citadel. Now picture between 4–7 years in that institution, you are more than a graduate even if you can’t spell vice chancellor.

In fact, it is a miracle that the Nigerian system keeps churning out graduates. My best guess is that our individual drive to succeed in the larger society is higher than the dreadful nature of education systems. One thing is clear from the nightmare. You can cope, but it doesn’t mean you didn’t suffer trauma.

Choose today to wake up from your trauma.

DSA