ON UI ‘SICKURITY’: WHETHER OR NOT THE VC’S PECAUTIONARY MEASURE IS A KNOCK OFF IDEA

Securing the lives and properties of individuals is a dream, perhaps, never to come true with thousands of people reported to be indiscriminately losing their lives and respective authorities having their hands at akimbo, staring at the problem like a mystery too complex to solve and coming up with fruitless suggestions. Discussions on way out of this dissipating situation keep happening in circles and fingers are constantly pointed on who is/are to blame for this failure. Despite the huge allocation of the national budget to security to ameliorate the incident of crimes; it still did not yield any positive result. Apparently, the security situation in Nigeria appears or remains insurmountable and many people have argued that government at all levels has not done enough by not confronting the situation head on and dealing with it decisively. Others on the other hand, have argued that the situation had a political undertone or inclination calculated to serve the interest of certain particular gods, who have been dissatisfied and disgruntled about the political manifestation of the state. If as a national level we keep casting aspersions and are unable to find effective solutions to security problems in a tech-savvy era, then we really do have to appease the supernatural forces to come to our rescue. The ‘no way out of this security syndrome’ as also infected tertiary institutions all around the country. A university is a mini community where security issues should be tackled without longevity but we have situations whereby a university like ours consistently makes the news and is not able to keep the reputation of the school soaring on a clean and safe slate.

The university has a solid history when it comes to matter on robbery and threat to lives and properties amidst students and staff, right from the Boko Haram threat in 2016 to the robbery incidents that had perpetuated halls of residence in the past couple of weeks. In true essence, the July 12 robbery of Awo hall was not a robbery case that should have caught the school off guard. In a situation whereby we have a hall whose outward and inward appearance looks as old as mankind itself with only a few changes made in respect to her renovation and a fence calling out to criminal perpetrators, it is only likely they will definitely be bound to devils clothed in shepherd wears. The police force of the state came around to assert their functionality and give a laudable speech which barely holds any water now. Whatever happened to the wonderful ideas that were sprawled out by students that day with the hall warden, whatever happened to the assurance given by the school authorities? What we had to ourselves again was another robbery incident that happened right under our very noses on the 12th of August, 2019—an incident that happened like a child creeping quietly to steal meat from his mother’s pot. Everyone had gone around minding their business only to have the news surface from a reputable newspaper in Lagos( The Punch) that yet again, a female post graduate hall, Abubakar Hall was robbed. How convenient that our rotten woes spread faster before it circulates among those who breed it? What could be more alarming, lecturers and even the VC himself is not left out from the whole robbery plot as they have also if invaded themselves but of course, our dirty linen cannot totally be cast out in public.

How safe are we when robbery incidence in the school surface likes a normal event. We attend lectures the following day like nothing had happened at all and the school in their own effort also tries to conceal or curtail the seriousness of this situation and portray to the world that proper measures are taking place. How do we sleep soundly, when the halls next to us or opposite us are silently reap of their necessities and scarred with the trauma of being faced off with guns and other weapons of fear?

Unlike the use of armed and police force in the country, we only have to ourselves aged and untrained men whose dire need to return to their families at the end of each day is pivotal. We are at the mercy of untrained men who are not wield with guns and expectedly, leaves us vulnerable to the menace of criminal-minded individuals. We do not have cultist activities in the school—an era that could have gripped thousands of mind and make us have our hair stand as we move around but as it is, fear is now the other of day. The greatest fear of an individual or a student in this case, is to be in the know that his or her environment is no longer safe—this here is a massive problem, a problem that cannot be solely solved by a decision to prohibit male visitors from entering the female halls, scrutinizing female visitors or mandating curfews around the affected female halls. Most certainly, in dealing with insecurity, it is important to find the root of the problem and not apportion blames. Everyone, students inclusive, has a role to play as regards their own individual safety. This ‘traditional approach’ as we have tagged it by the VC is no new solution and definitely not the most effective one. Prior to the whole robbery incidents, porters, particularly in the female halls of residence pervasively take turns to scrutinize who comes in and who goes out of the hall. Males’ entries to the hall had never been one that has gone unchecked when the porters are on duty. If at all, the root of precautionary act is to be taken, why not start with the Abefele men- the so called security personnel?—an upgrade on the security personnel. These men should either be replaced or equipped and trained to deal with alarming situations like this and at this point, we could used with some of those police men that filed in like troops during the Awo Hall robbery saga.

Apart from the upgrade of security personnel, the school should involve students and not put them at the sidelines. Setting rules or boundaries on female hostels can only do little to curb insecurity. Male Students have shown great zeal and energy in tackling the situations; they have the ideas but cannot carry them out. The fear of SDC they say is the beginning of wisdom but of what shall it profit the university if the entire universe eagerly anticipates catching on sour stories emerging from the school? With the absence of the student Union body, it would only be logical if the school management can actually include them in decision-makings, listen and act on their advice. This in collaboration with the rules outlined by the Vice Chancellor will be a knock off idea—a real step to actually ensuring security on campus.