…..OAU & its panicky crisis management.
Why shutting down Great Ife when students should have been given 2-3 lecture free days to mourn their colleague whose sickness was alleged to be mismanaged by the university’s Death Centre, or is it Health Centre?
Since the school now has a Student Union, after an illegal long ban, the protest in solidarity and mourning of the deceased student would have given the authority and the union the sad opportunity of a learning curve in crisis management, if the university wrongly thought mourning of their student colleague had become a crisis, which to my mind, is not.
Crisis is to be managed not escalated like Buhari escalated insecurity crisis in Nigeria by his obvious Fulani etnocentrism and insistence on archaic open grazing in 21st century despite its attendant bloodbath and land grabbing. Closing a cosmopolitan school of Great Ife status with a military order to students to vacate their halls of residence is an escalation of crisis.
First, it’s illegal and heartless for a caretaker to tell his tenants to vacate their rented apartments because they are mourning their deceased colleague when their rent has nor expired.
Two, it’s too risky and too costly to subject mournful students to compulsory, unplanned traveling to their homes (for those who have homes to go) with the risk of road accident, abduction by accredited and non accredited bandits. The university has, with this closure, turned the economically sapped students, parents and guardians into prayer warriors so as to reach their homes safely and return to school after reopening safely. Meanwhile, bandits also pray, so prayers may jam prayers in conflicting missions. So why the avoidable stress?
Well, don’t let me write this because Great Ife is not like others and I don’t think the authorities will descend so low. Commercialisation and profitisation of crisis. The university authorities may decide to commercialize the crisis by levying an illegal reparation levy on the students under the pretext of damage of unknown and unseen university property. Reparation levy is invented as palliative money for the boys, Awon Arabi Professors in the caucus of the VCs in our universities
I once attended a PTA meeting in UNILAG during the VCship of Prof. Ibidapo – Ibe (RIP). I represented all fatherless students of UNILAG and I disguised in an oversized Agbada like the delinquent Oluwo with Demoskenky as my Royal PA and bag carrier to evade security scrutiny. They allowed us inside the hall with full respect, (You know most Nigerians adore vanity). And unluckily for the university the beautiful moderator who was echoing the VC’s professorial lies to the parents on the crisis that led to closure of the school, allowed me to speak.
I asked the VC in my oversized Agbada in Chief Eleyinmin’s mode simple questions to justify the illegal reparation levy imposed on students after closure:. “Mr. VC sir, I am High Chief Babatunde Daodu.., in the first press release by the university authorities, you publicly claimed that the protesting students did not damage any university property, you also claimed that the protest was organised by few disgruntled students who had been identified, so why is the university changing his words here and imposing levy on students? And by the way, why are student representatives not here so that we parents and guardians can listen to them for balanced opinion because in iny own Yoruba culture, there’s a maxim that ‘Agbejo enikan dajo, Agba osika ni” (any leader who only listens to one party in dispute without listening to others before arriving at judgment is a wicked leader.
“Mr. VC sir, it occurs to me that the university is commercialising and profitising the students’ peaceful protest, this is not good sir” (I then cleared my throat thrice to look more important like Obasanjo) . “The danger ahead is that when next students protest, you are telling all of them to participate in the destruction of the university’s property since all of them are going to be levied. Mr. VC sir, this is not good for crisis management…”
Suddenly, the hall turned into a thunderous applause and the hitherto hypnotized parents and guardians woke up from their slumber and started raising their hands to speak out. The VC was a smart man, he didn’t allow any further debate because he knew the table had turned against the university’s concocted lies to make money from crisis.The VC looked at me with total contempt for coming to say the truth, may be because of my Agbada, his security would have seized the microphone from me.
He abruptly ended the meeting after reeling out what he called our “Resolution” without our adoption and endorsement. Later I learnt that Prof. Ibidapo-Obe was one of the children of God who was in the fond of doing kurukere kurukere to prayer centre, but saying the truth he could not stand.
I would have loved to visit the university cool room to relax but I told my emergency PA, Demoskenky, to drive me out of the university immediately before the perplexed university hired armed policemen regained their senses and arrest High Chief Babatunde Daodu and Adeola Soetan of DSM together. That would have been headline news and distraction from the main issue. I am Daodu for being the first son of my parents and my other name is Babatunde because my parents believed I was born as a reincarnate of my grandfather. High Chief? Anybody can be High Chief in Nigeria, visit Ijebu land, every house has an Otunba.
Great Ife is not UNILAG, I want to believe, so, the VC should not dissolve the union or imposed reparation levy because so far so good, the students have conducted themselves peacefully without damaging any university property to the best of my knowledge in the enviable tradition of Great Ife! Please don’t impose levy or dissolve the union. High Chief Babatunde Daodu is still alive, hale and healthy to attend PTA meetings. Reopen OAU Now!
Culled from Facebook page of Adeola Soetan
