THE APPALLING RESPONSE TO CORONAVIRUS IN THE UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN.
Since March 2020, the world has been thrown into upheaval by the Coronavirus pandemic, caused by the SARS-COV2 virus. Discovered in Wuhan, China. This virus rapidly spread through all the continents, causing a global pandemic and necessitating a global lockdown. The virus has led to a change in the world as we know it, as nose masks and hand sanitizers appear have been inserted into the lives of the regular person. Because of these, sales of these items have quadrupled over the last year, and though the initial panic has died down, coronavirus has shown itself as a force to be reckoned with.
Although the Nigerian government instituted a national lockdown, the city of Ibadan, strictly speaking, did not adhere to this rule. Even so, all schools were shut down for months to prevent against the spread of this virus, the University of Ibadan amongst them. Afterwards, when schools were reopened, the government demanded that all schools adhere to a rigorous standard of cleanliness to prevent against further spread of the virus. Face masks and hand sanitizers, as well as social distancing, were to be instituted in all the schools.
Not surprisingly, most schools discarded this demand, but nowhere is the response to the COVID-19 pandemic as appalling as the University of Ibadan itself. For one, the university appears to believe the coronavirus only infects people who turn up from 7AM – 10PM at the school’s front gate, as people without face masks are allowed to freely enter the school beyond this time period. In addition, people are allowed to freely leave the school without facemasks. Students do not need to wear their face masks to be permitted entry into the school. Rather, all they need is to show the security officer at the school gate that they do have a face mask, and they would be freely permitted. Also, the security officers do not adhere to the face mask rule themselves, most of them not wearing their masks over their noses, while some appear to have totally discarded their masks. The security officers are also lax with their responsibility, and on occasion, will grant entry to students without face masks with a little bit of pleading. In addition, the hand sanitizer dispensaries in the University of Ibadan are few and far between, and most of them, including the one situated at the front gate, don’t even work. This is a source of great concern for a university reputed as one of the best in the world.
On the other hand, the university’s virtual lecture app, Moodle, was inactive for the first five weeks of the semester. This caused a huge disruption in the academic calendar, and students are not still certain on whether this would be rectified. In lieu of this app, departments and faculties have started hosting lectures on Zoom, in order to meet up with the semester’s workload. This could be taken as a step in the right direction, but unfortunately, the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine clinical students still have to attend their clinical posting in person. At these clinical postings, face masks are not compulsory and hand sanitizers are nowhere to be found. This could be a breeding ground for the spread of Coronavirus, but the university does not seem to be too concerned about this. In the neighboring Faculty of Pharmacy, students attend physical lectures, directly disrespecting the university’s rules, and no disciplinary action has been taken. One has to wonder whether other faculties will follow this disobedient example, rather than grapple with the rigorous stress of holding a lecture online.
One can only hope that the University of Ibadan will start to take effective measures against the spread of Coronavirus on its campus but if these can happen in the first and the best university in the country, happenings in the other universities are better imagined than experienced.
Comments
Post a Comment