DIARY OF AN UNDERGRADUATE

I am a Nigerian, proud to be a Nigerian, but not proud of Nigeria. Four years ago while I was still an ss2 student in secondary school, the thought of leaving secondary school in one year was beautiful, fantastic and overwhelming. My joy however always came to a point of dwindle when I remembered that the idea of the universities in Nigeria I had was a daily-mare.

I sat for the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board [JAMB] exam with great reluctance which was calmed by the fact that at that time, I was left with no choice but to take a first degree in a Nigerian university. Although the stories about the university system in Nigeria crippled my courage, I walked on the hope of an anticipated peaceful and happy experience.

Less than one year after the JAMB exam, I gained admission to study in one of the universities in Nigeria. From that moment, the stories changed and what I began to hear sounded a lot different from what I once heard. Everyone seemed to proclaim that I was in the best university and my choice to study in Nigeria was the best. From all indications everything I heard was true so my hope for a peaceful and happy experience glimmered in the presence of reality and I was sure the entire experience was going to be heavenly.

For most of the beginning of the experience, it was heavenly and now, two years into the four year race, fate and hope have made a twisted exchange. I have come to realize that cultism, drugs, sex seeking lecturers, aristoe hunters, dirty environment and its likes, are not the only challenges a university student is faced with because even their eradication still leaves a sea of other problems.

In many of our universities today, it is almost completely impossible for any student to work and learn as the system is so tight and inflexible. Only a few lecturers are student friendly thereby making the already rigid system ‘rigider’ as students engage in a war for the survival of the fittest. Lecturers most times see mass failure or generally poor grades as a means of showing themselves off as tough-no-non-sense people in order to arouse fear in the minds of the students.

Long hours of shabby and very boring lectures have become a trademark while students have very little time for themselves. Imagine if you have to study mathematics by 4pm or later than that after a long day of so many lectures, or stand in the laboratory from 1pm to 5pm [or longer] all in the name of practical classes. Practical classes where only a few get to see or perform these practices while the others literarily sit and mope as a result of insufficient equipments to practice with. The entire system is so crazy and sickening.

Many times a typical day in a student’s life is characterized by rushing off for lectures that most times will not hold, standing or sitting uncomfortably in overcrowded classes with a lot of heat, shouts, scolds or snobs from angry or depressed members of staff, annoying long processes and ambiguity that frustrate, stories of missing scripts, result mix-ups and others like that. Everyday adds a new member to the list of people who just want to ‘graduate peacefully’.

Christians and Muslims find solace in God, Atheists in themselves, while the others hold on to whatever help they can get. In the midst of all this, ‘we still survive’ and manage to wear our happy faces. We keep quiet and as usual nothing is done.

I am both tired of the situation and disappointed that nothing has been done to bring about any change at all. Something has to be done very soon or else at this rate of deterioration, if the education sector is not re-branded soon enough, then I wonder what future we leave to live in.

-Chizitere Ojiaka.