Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - OAU Students: Prisons better than our hell

Thanks, Ikhide, for posting this artile.

Let me start as caveat to my response: the image in this article could not be Oduduwa Hall as shown. I'm not sure exactly which Hall it is. But that is just a mere BTW. . . 

Having read this depressing article, all I could say is, "O ma se o! How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished!!!" This same Great Ife campus of the 70s was a paragon of beauty and, without any gainsaying, no campus in Nigeria, possibly in all of Africa, had a bragging right of being within a close range of its glorious physical presence. The celebration of entry into Unife campus was nonpareil! I was a student there. I worked there as a lecturer. I have friends and old classmates who still faithfully serve this same University. This campus has been done a great deal of injustice. When I went there for a visit a short while ago, it was depressing. Most of the same buildings of the 1960s and 1970s were still there without ever been renovated, not even repainted! Many were in ruins. The only beautiful and apparently new edifices located in the choice area of the campus were churches, chapels and a mosque that looked like a replica of the one in Mecca! My heart protested that image; but protest without power is a mere blowing of hot steam. This is all an indictment on our nations' leadership that has a zero respect for higher education and a reprobate mind towards the future of our nation. Great Ife should be in the rank of Ivy League universities, being a first generation university. Imagine if even the least of Ivy League Universities were to be treated with this level of disrepect? Hell would break loose! Yes, Ivy League Universities are private and University of Ife (OAU) is public, but this is even the more reason why it should prick the conscience of the nation and its leadership. I pray and hope that the new government of President Buhari will see wisdom in revising this depressing trend of higher education in Nigeria. How on earth would a student learn in these environments? How would an instructor teach effectively, let alone engage in quality research? This problem is endemic in all first generation Nigerian universities. No wonder why they say the bulk of Nigerian graduates are unemployable, lacking the needed skills for quality productivity and contribution to any level of development! I think it's time for a change of fortune for higher education in our land!

Other than the government, I think all of us alumni of these Nigerian universities, especially those in the nation's leadership, should cover our faces in shame because as the people say, "When the rodent is of age (and the bushes no longer provide its meal), it seeks solace in the milk of its own children." What in God's green earth are we doing witnessing the desolation of what used to be our intellectual habitation? It beats me!

Michael O. Afolayan

From the Land of Lincoln

On Thursday, November 26, 2015 4:13 AM, olakassimmd via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Where are the OAU/UNIFE alumni in all these mess?

-----Original Message-----
From: 'Ikhide' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
To: usaafricadialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Wed, Nov 25, 2015 6:26 pm
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - OAU Students: Prisons better than our hell

Thursday, November 26, 2015

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Feature

Prisons better than our hostels – OAU students

By Abdul-Hameed Oyegbade, Osogbo | Publish Date: Nov 22 2015 8:29PM | Updated Date: Nov 23 2015 4:45AM

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Oduduwa hall is popular for the wrong reasons.

Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, which is owned by the federal government is one of the first generation universities in Nigeria, and it prides itself as the  leader among other universities in the country.

In fact, the alumni of the university often claim that OAU is the most beautiful campus in Africa. Founded in 1961 as the University of Ife by the regional government of Western Nigeria and renamed Obafemi Awolowo University on 12 of May 1987, in honour of the first premier of the Western Region of Nigeria, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, OAU is ranked as the most productive university in Nigeria by the National Universities Commission (NUC).

 The campus has an eye-catching landscape built on about 5,000 acres out of a total of 13,000 acres of  land belonging to the university. Unfortunately, some of the facilities that once portrayed OAU as a beautiful campus, especially the students' halls of residence, are decomposing and the rot  bedevilling the university is now  enormous. The beauty  of the OAU students' halls of residences has  given way to decay due to neglect.

There are 8 halls of residence including Fajuyi, Awolowo, Angola and E.T.F for male students, while Moremi, Akintola, Alumni and Mozambique halls of residence are for female students. Signs of wear and tear were very visible on the long stretch of  buildings when Daily Trust visited.

The living condition of the students in these halls of residence is pathetic. At the Awolowo Hall, our correspondent observed that the toilets were in bad state in most of the blocks. In one of the toilets, the closet had broken and the bathrooms reeked of fermented urine.  The students lamented that the university authority was not carrying out renovation on the hostels. The motto of the university is, "For learning and culture" but owing to the bad condition of their hostels, the students have parodied this motto to "For learning and suffering.""

http://www.dailytrust.com.ng/news/feature/prisons-better-than-our-hostels-oau-students/120709.html

- Ikhide

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