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For years, managers of the University of Calabar continued to roll in their own putrescence, like pigs in a sty, luxiriating among the dirt very much in the manner of worms, while mixing illiterates in a cauldron of half baked broth which they served as graduates. No knock-need narrative can change this truth, because it is self evident. It is only now, after more than a decade, that the world is beginning to look at the institution with some measure of respect because quite a lot has changed since Professor Florence Obi became its Vice Chancellor. And I am in a position to know.
Now things are beginning to look like old times again and students have returned to the classroom both to attend lectures and to study. It is always dreadful when I recall how examinations were written in hotel rooms and living quatres on Goldie Street and elsewhere in the city. Do we really forget so easily? To do so will be rank mischief. No, we have not forgotten. We are just prosecuting private wars for jaded kings, and dear old Unical will always be the worse for it.
Are students required to register for courses, yes. Do they do so, most of the time, no. Before the last exams the portal for registration of courses was shutdown in good time, to enable departments plan for the exams with the correct numbers. The battle cry went, up. “Oh Professor Florence has no heart, how can she shut down the portal for registration”. And 24,000 many of who could not register sat for supplementary examinations. Yes, you read me right, 24,000 students!
So this time she ordered that the portal be left open for a little longer to enable students register for all their courses, main, elective, et all. And until it is shut down as it was yesterday, no department will know the correct numbers and no concrete timetable could be drawn up. Boom, “exam timetables are not out and students have been made to stress too much.” Common now, who is ringing the bell and who is wagging the tail?
For those whose minds are preset in a particular negative direction, Professor Florence Obi will always be guilty even before she is charged. But such is the way of the world. As a growing child in my village, I read an inscription on the tail board of the lorry ‘Gongoro’ that used to come on market days – SUCH IS LIFE. It was only when I grew up that I came to understand the true meaning of that cryptic phrase.
Do you know that the integrity of the exams have been further enhanced by the addition of barcode on the answer sheets and the strict supervision of the process? Professor Florence Obi has done very well and because of her work ethic and achievements, many more women are likely to be given higher responsibilities in the coming days even if you eat your heart out or not.
RAMSEY BASSEY writes from the University of Calabar.
