Damilola Olumurewa

A verbal harassment ordeal of a female student in Zik Hall and Independence Hall

Over time, the two famous boys’ hostels, namely; Zik and Indy have answered the popular claims of their being notorious and ignominious. Having had the privilege to be situated near female hostels like Queen Idia Hall and Awo Hall respectively, they have come to misuse the opportunity by constantly throwing verbal-harassing and intimidating words to girls that tread or walk past their hostels. Different complaints have been made over this unreasonable habit the Zikites and Kantagaites have cultivated and it’s becoming alarming.

Recently, I found myself passing in front of the great Independence Hall known as Indy and suddenly I saw a set of boys with no shirt on and some with ragged trousers standing aimlessly on the railings of their hostel trying to get the attention of girls that happen to walk pass their hostel. They did this by shouting, yelling, and dishing out wired eds to each of the girls based on their body shape, posture, or dress mode. Their attitude had a semblance to that of mad people we occasionally see on the road and I wonder whether that could ever be cured. As I approached their hostel, I wasn’t surprised when I also fell victim to the harassment and body shaming because this wasn’t the first time I would experience such. But this time, it looked more or less like a premeditated oral war against me. To cut a long story short, I was embarrassed and ashamed and this experience made me wonder whether the university is raising animals kept in a refined cage, having a semblance of the living, or whether the school is raising real human beings.

The fact that these guys haul insults and make jest of students mostly girls who happen to walk past their hostels (Indy in particular) all in the name of ‘catching cruise’ and fun leaves one to wonder whether the level of our sanity was used to allocate hostels because why will someone intentionally sit in front of his hostel and await people pass just to make fun of them. Understandably, these guys are in their territory, their comfort zone. Hence, they have their freedom, but it’s no excuse to misbehave. Given that their hostel is open and has little or no restriction gives them the right to act as Lord over themselves and whoever steps into their territory. Sometimes, I thought of why these two hostels (Zik and Indy) have little to no restrictions judging from the unavailability of gates to the entrance of the hostel especially. This has given these guys a sense of entitlement, fostering their irrational behavior.

Moreover, It occurred to me that I wasn’t the only one who had fallen victim to their display of madness. A girl, (she begged to remain anonymous) who also trots Zik and Indy Hall gave an account of her own experience. It happened that she had turned a deaf ear to the call of a certain set of jobless guys at Zik who called her all sorts of names like ‘baby’, and ‘fine girl’ just to get her attention. Her refusal certainly got on their nerves and it automatically unleashed the beast in them. They started raining all sorts of sexual insults and invectives on her which eventually made the girl hasten her steps just to escape all the insults and curses. She stated that this incident damaged her mood for the rest of that day and it made her decide to take a longer route to class for her not to experience that scenario again. Her story amongst others is an example of bullying and harassment at their peak emanating from the kites.

To cage these set of boys who engage in this bullying act because not all the guys that reside in these respective halls are guilty as charged, we just happen to have the judas(s), porters assigned to these halls should make sure the guys who are caught in the act of bullying girls and students should pay a fine as punishment, this would instill some fear in them as no one likes the idea of paying a fine. They should be taken to the student disciplinary committee because acts of verbal bullying, harassment, and body shaming should not be tolerated lightly. This solution to some extent will work effectively if these guys are watched and monitored closely by their porters because it seems that their actions could be spontaneous sometimes, they can just wake up and start hauling intimidating words to the unfortunate him or her that happens to walk past them.

Lastly, it would be of great joy if the proffered solution would prevent this set of maniac guys from breaking loose completely from their cages and most especially, it would be of great delight to watch them regain a little bit of their receding sanity.