For students of English Department and the Faculty of Arts in general, the first semester of the 2018/2019 academic calendar was as if it would not come to an end.  This was due to the manner in which the examination time tables were scheduled.  Although we were the last to finish the exams, we are not the last to have resumed. The second semester is already two and half weeks old, and lectures timetable is already out.

semester of the 2018/2019 academic calendar was as if it would not come to an end.  This was due to the manner in which the examination time tables were scheduled.  Although we were the last to finish the exams, we are not the last to have resumed. The second semester is already two and half weeks old, and lectures timetable is already out.

Given the fact that we finished late, many students must have gone home on at least a week holiday, to get refreshed before coming back to face the curricular and extracurricular activities. Yet the demand of the limited time on the calendar has rendered such hopes a pipeline dream.

Students are supposed to be back on campus again to face a semester which is loaded with curricular and extracurricular activities. Aside the usual lectures, assignments, tests and subsequently examinations, there will be a lot of social activities calling for our attentions as we move round the four walls of the campus. Already, the 2019 convocation has commenced and students are helping themselves with the usual daily free rice and drinks. One other notable social activity is politics.  Following the unlocking of the big padlock of suspension on the mouth of the Students Union by the Olayinka-led administration, the campus is fully charged with political campaigns as aspirants have begun canvassing for support from students and other relevant stakeholders. The race to the Kunle Adepeju House is so intense that every candidate is trying his or her best to outwit the other ahead of the polls.

Consequently, the walls of some buildings on campus are on the receiving end as many have been defaced with campaign posters, billboards and fliers of aspirants whose beaming faces beckon on passers-by to “vote for” them as the next student messiahs that would usher in heaven on earth.

This is no time to dabble into the argument of who and who is the most qualified to become the next “crop of student leaders that are willing to cooperate with the management” as the Dean Student Affairs was allegedly quoted by Premium Times. Nevertheless, we urge NASELSites and UItes in general, to distinguish between wolves in sheep clothing and well intentioned students who want to take the Union to the next level (not that which Nigerians are enduring under the leadership of President Buhari, who is always on flight around the world like a tourist).

Similarly, in NASELS, some aspirants have also seized the opportunity to bombard fellow students with mouth-watering promises. Personal and group WhatsApp pages, Facebook and Instagram accounts are awashed with heaven-on-earth promises concocted in jaw breaking dictions to lure electorates.

Next is the usual funfair of Jaw War, hall, departmental and faculty week’s cerebrations as well as dinners that would sooner or later rent the airwaves as the semester ages. Very soon organisers would start going round the nook and crannies of the halls of residence with loud speakers, mounted on the back of vehicles to announce in thunderous sounds and screams amidst supersonic music, the benefits that those who want to attend the parties would reaped from them. This to the sociable or partying freaks would be an avenue for them to explore the funfairs that accompany such social occasions to the fullest. On the contrary, to the social misfits, they may consider these wastes of time, resources and energy. Whatever the perceptions may be, the fact still reminds: these social activities are a part and parcel of campus life. And one can either embrace or leave them. It is not a sin, if one decides to have a feel of them or not. The important thing is that in the course of partaking in the aforementioned social activities, the application of wisdom is key. For too much of it without caution, might sweep one off the road, thus losing sight of his or her primary aim of been in UI.

We are not against being sociable. It is a part of school learning experience. The curricular and extracurricular activities constitute a total and complete education. But striking a balance between the two as a student is paramount since negligence of one for the other would result in a catastrophe.

Therefore in as much as we explore the fun provided by social activities, we should also be wary of “tsunami and erosion’. The two are real and every UIte, except freshmen, understands what it meant to be “tsunamised” or ‘eroded”. For freshmen’s sake, tsunami or erosion are sociolects terms used in describing students who due to their inability to meet up with the stipulated Cumulative Grade Points  Average (CGPA) at the end of a session, are given the unsolicited and compulsory advice by the University Senate, to withdraw from the university.

We are not saying this to instill fear in the minds of anyone. Rather, as goes the saying, to be fore warned is to be forearmed”.  This is but a candid charge on our part to those who would want to jeopardise their primary aim of coming to the First and Best University in Nigeria by chasing after the allurements which the social activities offer during second semesters of every academic year to the detriment of their studies.

Furthermore, now that we are back, we the editorial board is poised to be up and doing as we keep our readers abreast of the happenings on and off the campus. We hope to have an enriching experience as the semester and the sessions would gradually come to an end.

© NASELS PRESS 13th November, 2019