High School with its frills and thrills! Seniors were always held in high regard, they could do no wrong, they could do and undo, whatever action they take goes without further probing. Being a senior student meant being entitled to free services from juniors. At the bellowing of a senior, all junior students keep mum. Every junior seeks to curry favour from the seniors. Junior students hastily look forward to the day they’ll be ushered in to the rostrum of seniority.
Do these stories strike a chord with you? It most likely does, except if you didn’t attend school in Nigeria or you attended a high school where there were stringent policies to curtail the master- slave relationship between senior students and junior students.
Reminiscing through my high school days, I recall what it felt like to be both a junior student and a senior student. Although, I did not exactly experience first-hand, the cruelty of some of the senior students, thanks to my being a day student at the time, but I watched as my colleagues were made to kneel and gather whatever money they had to whet the whim of a senior student, any perceived revolt would lead to the junior being belted to submission. Wrong doings were always attributed to junior students, that is, all junior students are guilty until proven innocent. Most of the time, it turns out that investigations reveal that such wrong doing was perpetuated by a senior student. Of course, no apology would be tendered to junior students.
Seeing all of these things some of my colleagues and I swore never to follow the path some of our seniors trod. However, like a horse let out of a stable, the spirit of the outgone seniors possessed my colleagues as they began treating junior students below the belt. They meted corporal punishments on junior students with so much confidence that they even dared any junior student to report them to any teacher and indeed, when such reports got to the teachers (the only ones seniors could possibly dread), the issue dies a natural death, unless parents of the affected students are involved and even at the instance of a proactive teacher that gives an unbiased judgement that favours a junior student. The concerned junior student suffers a worse fate in the hands of the seniors and quickly made an example by the senior students.
I tried fighting this trend to a standstill but it was like waging war against raging tides. The best I could do was protecting junior students from the hands of my colleagues, if the concerned students quickly run to me for help or if I chance upon any corporal punishment about to be administered on any junior student. Frankly speaking, I relished how juniors cringed before me and gave me respect borne out of fear, all of these because I bore the tag “senior”.
Years later, it is interesting to know that in the pursuit of tertiary education, positions are swapped. One-time seniors could become juniors or even colleagues, putting everyone on the same pedestal. Even more thrilling to know were the speculations that seniority ends at the high school stage. Alas! I would witness yet another modified version of seniority.
Zik Hall, no doubt is one of the greatest halls of residence in the University of Ibadan, in fact, there are stories flying around that guardians or parents try to influence their wards’ given halls of residence to Zik Hall because of its colossal stature, beauty and fame. Nevertheless, there has been a big question mark over what is known as “elderhood” in the hall. From the checks conducted and inferences from obvious signals, any Zikite who is in his final year of study in the university, has held a leadership position within the hall or in their department of faculty and is resident in “D- block” qualifies to be an “elder”.
The strain in the relationship between the supposed elders and other Zikites surfaced when a regular Zikite was fetching water from D- block reservoir (this became a natural occurrence, since the water reservoir at the back of C – block suddenly stopped flowing with water). A popular “elder” in the hall, soon challenged the regular Zikite to quit the water reservoir because, “there is no water”, this was happening while the water was already flowing into the bucket. Perceptibly, the rashness of the request must have made the regular Zikite ignore him, inflamed by the silence, the “elder” switches of the tap; provoked the regular Zikite begins yelling at this elder, a slap was the next thing that came from the “elder”. Sensing that tempers were starting to fray at the seams and that an altercation was imminent, Zikites quickly waded in. The concerned regular Zikite in askance to what he done to deserve such undignified treatment was determined to defend what is left of his dignity, whereas the “elder” had gone of pursuit of a plank which he was already wielding , threatening to beat up the regular Zikite to pulp as a punishment for his incontinence.
The issue ended and the dust settled, the fiasco rekindled the memories of high school seniority. I immediately met with some stakeholders of the hall to enquire about the legality of this trend. In the words of a certain hall legislator, “Elderhood is not constitutional but of traditional, hence it must be respected, however, everything has to b done with utmost discretion”. Another erstwhile Zik Hall legislator stated “Elderhood is a tradition in Zik hall but it is largely unconstitutional, all that Zik hall has are regarded as assets that should be accessible to all Zikites, Zik hall assets are not the exclusive property of any member of the hall.”
From the feelers, it is apparent that the “elders” are trying to revive the nobility attached to D- block as a sacred fortress. While this in itself is not a bad aim but caution should not be thrown to the wind in the name of trying to achieve this.
May the unity and greatness of Zik Hall not wane or fail. Long live Zik Hall.
– Seven the Scribbler
