OPINION

AWO HALL ROBBERY - A MISTAKE OR INCOMPETENCE?

In the early hours of Friday, 12th of July, Obafemi Awolowo Hall was invaded by a group of seven or eight men, armed to the teeth with knives, guns, and other lethal weapons, intending to cart away as much valuables as they could and wrecking harm to the students in the hall. The first students who had been robbed had willingly opened their doors, certain that the hall porters were the ones knocking, only to be greeted with their worst nightmares waiting for them.

On the events that took place that dreadful night, accounts differ. Some claimed that many people had to jump from their rooms to the ground to avoid being assaulted. Yet other sources claimed that a girl was stabbed. It has now been confirmed by VNO that firstly, the robbers appeared to only focus on the finalists' block, and although no one was raped, the to-be-raped victim jumped from the third floor of her block to the ground floor, and broke her leg. Apart from her, various other girls, from various other floors, also jumped rather than face the armed men even before their rooms were reached. We have to keep in mind that Obafemi Awolowo Hall is the biggest female university hall in the whole of West Africa, with six or seven floors per each block.

The most surprising thing about this event was that the robbers seemed to have known beforehand that security was as negligible in Obafemi Awolowo hall like a bicycle was to a fish. Numerous reports gotten from the witnesses suggest that the thieves really "took their time", waiting to ask for passwords to phones, laptops and ATM cards. At one point, the robbers actually jeered at the girls to "go and call their security men." It is fairly obvious that the robbers knew that the girls were left unprotected, and even if any girl had the chance to run, there was nobody to call for help. For the two hours the robbery took place, the girls were all screaming at the top of their lungs, begging for a rescue. However, no one came.

Obafemi Awolowo Hall has a long history of being so lightly guarded at night that robbers are assured to have a smooth entry whenever they plan on coming. This is not the first time robbery has taken place in the hall. Most of the other thefts have been silenced and hushed up, but thankfully, this caught the attention of everyone else, perhaps because of the guns that were brought in to worsen the case. Obafemi Awolowo hall is lightly guarded by porters in front of the hall, and with almost nothing but a broken fence at the back. If this isn't a call for robbers - a mixture of no security, a gate directly in front of bushes surrounding the hall, and defenseless girls - then what is? Some reports say that the few security men that were present were actually tied up before the robbery began, but this does not even begin to readily explain away the fact that the robbers had been so certain about not being apprehended while they worked, they even felt comfortable boasting. If the robbers had been unsure about nightly security patrols in UI (Abefele) coming around and meeting their comrades in chains they would have hurried up with what they were doing, and not have settled down for the rides of their lives.

Another surprising thing about this event was the internal memorandum that was circulated through school the next day, claiming that it was a minor theft operation and that some girls sustained minor injuries and had been discharged from the University clinic. As a person with many family members who have had bone dislocation, I certainly doubt that a broken bone is "a minor injury" and that it requires only a few hours before a patient would be discharged. I'm also not convinced that an operation that went on for hours and involved residents losing their valued possessions and in some cases, even coming away with PTSD, is minor. It is unclear if the management is adamant to not let the general public know how unsafe it is to be a student residing in Obafemi Awolowo hall.

Two weeks ago, the university management banned the use of motorbikes in the school. This decision has been met with vitriol from most of the students, who have found themselves trekking long distances when left without the aid of their trusted bikes. The consensus was that the school had done this to reduce the rate of theft in the school. This leads us to the conclusion that the emergence of thieves after this decision is a direct kink to the management‘s mandate and they should recognize how inadequate this mandate is if we want to curb the issue of theft in the university.

Since the management does not seem to think of the welfare of students as paramount and no obvious additional measures have been put in place to check these unfortunate occurrences, the students of the university can only be advised to keep their guards.

IF I COULD BUY TIME

 Have you ever wondered what you would do if you could just buy some extra time? You sleep late because you need to read lest you‘ll fail, you wake early lest you won‘t be allowed into the morning class, you dare not stab classes because the 75% attendance mandate is staring at you, and you wonder if it‘s possible, by some means, to just buy some extra time to add up to the 24 hours that are seemingly not enough. Well good news, there‘s a person who does give time to students who truly need it. Read on to find out the person.

Before you get introduced to this person, you need to understand that this person totally understands what you go through daily, how time seems insufficient, and is very willing to help you out. However, a rare and scarce commodity like time has a very great price, as expected. Moreover, to acquire time, you need to have the right currencies which are diligence and determination and you need to have them in ample supply.

Unarguably, this gracious supplier of time is no other person than you. Yes you! If you need extra time to cope in vet school, visit yourself. You would be perplexed and ask, how can that be done? It‘s simple, just follow these principles.

Firstly, you must learn to prioritize your activities based on urgency and importance. There are basically three categories here: those that are important and urgent, those that are important but not urgent and those that are not important and not urgent. Moreover, you need to be focused and be responsible for how you spend your time, don‘t waste time on the unnecessary things, you cannot waste time escorting all your roommates to their lecture theatres just because you happen to be less busy at that time. Spend time profitably and remember always the currency – diligence and determination.

In addition, you‘ll need to be consistent and develop a workable timetable that guides your activities throughout the day and make conscious effort to maximize the little bits of extra time profitably during the day and night.

In conclusion, for all these to be effective you‘ll need a substantial amount of diligence and determination to be more productive in life, even beyond the school environment. ―You can‘t make up for lost time. You can only do better in the future.‖ - Ashely Ormon. Remember, the future is now.