Something is killing Nigerian students, right in the institutions where they are supposed to be learning skills that will make them useful to themselves, their families and the nation. It is not violence, cultism, hunger, illnesses or terrorists.The things that is killing them is the very thing that should be keeping them alive and fit to fulfil the purpose that brought them to the universities in the first place – Hospitals, clinics, doctors, nurses and the whole medical apparatus.
The most recent murder committed by these supposed life savers was witnessed on Tuesday the 8 of September 2015, the black day on which a potential first class graduate of theUniversity of Lagos (UNILAG), Miss Oluchi Anekwe, died after an unfortunate accident involving electric cables.
The original story was that she was electrocuted to death after the 330 KVA cable belonging to the Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) fell on her. First blames went to the UNILAG authorities, then the attention turned to EKEDC. No one knew that the school medical team had something to do with the loss of such a rare national asset as Anekwe.
She is not a lone victim, as other like Miss Kelechi Precious of the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT), Mayowa Alaran of the University of Ibadan (UI) and Kolawole Fatai Morenikeji of the Ladoke Akintola, University of Technology (LAUTECH) Ogbomosho, have all gone to ‘waste’ in similar manner.
Before we go into the facts and assumptions about their deaths, it is important to state that, speaking as candidly as possible, Nigerian tertiary institutions are on a zero level when it comes to welfare of the students they are set up to serve. When it comes to health and safety, one can hardly point to one excellent institution, more so with the State and Federal Government owned ones.
HOW DID THEY DIE?
The case of Mayowa Alaran, a 200 Level student of Human Kinetics at the University of Ibadan (UI) is still fresh on his colleagues’ minds. The facts are not very clear, as students and management present a different version of events. What is certain is that Alaran slumped while watching the UEFA Champions League match between Barcelona and Bayern Munich with fellow students at the Independence Hall of residence.
Students allege that they rushed him to the University Health Services, known as Jaja Hospital, where nurses on duty requested for his clinic card and matric number instead of instantly attending to him.
He died before the issue could be resolved. But the university had a less damning version.