Fabiyi Damilare Caleb, Fadaca as he is politically known, was the hall chairman of Nnamdi Azikiwe Hall in the 2023/2024 academic session. In this exclusive interview with Zik Hall Press Organization, he narrates his experiences as a UI student while also explaining some of the challenges he faced as a student leader in the hall.
Zik Press: Can we meet you?
Fabiyi: I am Oluwadamilare. Caleb Fabiyi; most people know me as FADACA, a recent first-class graduate from the Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Faculty of Public Health, University of Ibadan. I graduated as the best student in the department and the faculty. I held over 15 leadership positions progressively as I moved from 100 level to 500 level at the University of Ibadan.
In my first year, I was a member of the social committee of Nnamdi Azikiwe Hall, and I was given the award as the most committed fresher in Nnamdi Azikiwe Hall. I served as the floor representative in Nnamdi Azikiwe Hall and the clerk and majority leader of the Hall’s legislative council in my 2nd year.
In my third year, I served as the Hall Secretary of the hall and the public relations officer in my department. In this same year (2023), I founded two organisations, an NGO and co-founded the EcoCIS Club (Advocates, Enlightens and Seeks Intervention for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Schools, Markets and Rural Communities). I have been serving as the Executive Director to date. Secondly, I founded Public Health Data Watch, a public health social enterprise with educative data insights and short research publications as the non-profit arm and contract health analytics as the for-profit arm. I have been serving as the Editor-in-Chief full-time.
In my fourth year, I served as the majority leader of the Hall’s SRC members at the Students Union, also serving as the chairman of the academic committee of the same council. In my final year, I served as the Hall Chairman of Nnamdi Azikiwe Hall and the Pioneer President of the Students One Health Club, University of Ibadan.
I am passionate about the environmental epidemiology of diseases, especially neglected tropical diseases and health equity. I am significantly concerned about how most of them can be prevented through increased access to quality water and proper sanitation and hygiene facilities.
Zik Press: Can you describe your journey to UI?
Fabiyi: Okay, so my journey into UI was more of a convenience sampling. I wanted to do medicine at UI. So I chose UI, and then I got quite a good score in JAMB, but when I got to post-UTME, I didn't score quite well, so I could not get medicine. So I chose environmental sciences to cross to medicine in 200 level. And then I was meant to cross because I still had a very strong CGPA after 100 level, but I didn't cross any longer because I had a reformation of purpose. I had to change to preventive medicine instead of clinical medicine due to what COVID-19 brought. People were wearing nose masks and some of that; I preferred preventive medicine rather than clinical medicine. So that was my journey into UI; that was how it started.
Zik Press: Okay, how did you find the process of settling down into Zik Hall?
Fabiyi: Well, when I got to Zik Hall at the very first instance, I thought it was similar to what happens everywhere. I saw that ‘ok, Zik Hall is dirty’ and all that. But when I came in, I just really noticed the culture of hierarchy. There was hierarchy because at least we were closer with the elders, and then we knew about the elders' culture and all. But settling down was not that bad. I was on the floor of the hall chairman then. I was on B32, which was where the old chairman was. So I was really brought into the activities of the hall. I became a member of the social committee, for which I later was given an award as the best member of the committee. And then I settled down very easily because I was on the floor of the hall chairman. So my needs were really attended to as early as possible.
I really learnt from the tradition of the hall very fast.
Zik Press: Okay, can you describe your journey towards becoming Zik Hall Chair?
Fabiyi: As I said earlier, I was on the floor of the old chairperson. So from then, I already decided I wanted to be the chairman of Zik Hall from then. So as I started working towards it, I contested to be the floor rep of the hall. And I won the election. I think I won with the highest vote then. And I became the majority leader of the house and also the clerk. So moving on from it, I wanted to become the vice hall chairman, but at the end of the day, I became the secretary of the hall the year after.
And then I just grew in my political career. And then when it was close to elections then [for hall chairmanship], it was very competitive because I had two strong opponents then. But at the end of the day, I emerged. Because since it was something I was prepared for, I was studying the environment of the hall. So in a way, I had more information on the problems of the hall. And I tried to bring up practical solutions to it. Because the problem I noticed was that most times in the hall, the problem is that administration is disjointed. When this person finishes, this person does not continue from where this person stops. So that's why I brought up the idea of let's have a document that can document all the problems. And then when somebody starts from here, this person continues from where this person stops. And there's advancement from then.
Zik Press: Okay. Thank you very much. Please, can you tell us some of the challenges you faced as Zik hall chair and how you tackled these problems?
Fabiyi: Okay. Let me start with the cleaners because that's like the biggest problem I faced. I noticed at first that we have very few cleaners. We have just four cleaners cleaning the hall. But in actual fact, when I resumed the hall in 2019, there were more than 12 cleaners that were cleaning the hall. So it affected a lot of things. The toilets are always smelly. You see maggots in the toilets and things like that. So what was I going to do? I had to meet the dean of students. He said I should meet the contractors in our halls.
So I met the contractor, and I discussed it with him. He (the contractor) said he's been on the same payroll since 2013 or 2014. And then the new contractors that they employed have been on different payrolls. So what I tried to do was, how do we solve this problem of having more cleaners? He said you get them to intensify on cleaning the toilets. I said we need to have more cleaners. But he said he couldn't employ them because they were paying them, I think; it was even less than #15,000 then. I think it was #12,000.
So what they did then was that they increased the number of cleaners. For example, we have four cleaners. They collect the pay for each cleaner. So they pay those cleaners. I think they pay them the money of two people. That's the reason why they still have them. So there was a problem of saying those cleaners also don't want more cleaners to join. Because if more cleaners join, their pay reduces. And if their pay reduces, most of them leave the job because it doesn't pay them any longer. So the work was not effective because there was a smaller number of cleaners. And at the same time, the contractor was willing to pay them more to get more cleaners.
So that was the problem. The problem can really be solved if all hall chairpersons come together and demand a higher pay for the cleaners. And of course, higher pay for the contractors. And let's have a particular number of fixed cleaners. If there's going to be 12 in all the halls, let it be 12. So that those people can really be monitored and ensure they do their work properly.
So I tried to solve it by getting the council of hall chairpersons for every hall to not sign the book. Because every hall chairperson signs the book of the cleaners to pay them off. But it didn't work out because most of us didn't really get the radicalism to fight that battle to the end. So it can also be solved because I discussed with my predecessor about everything. So that was a challenge I faced. Even though I was not able to solve it. But it can only be solved if everyone comes together to fight it to the end.
And secondly, one challenge I also faced when I was in my administration was that we were not easily able to reach our alumni body. We were not able to reach them. So there was a new alumni body that was formed last year. So they had to register with the CAC. These were all the formalities. So when I came in, I said, Let me present the document I did [the NEEDS document]. I also called the contractor to do a budget for all the problems that were in the document. It was about 55 million naira.
So we submitted this document and the budget to them. For them to do a meeting and see how they can put together money to do it. So I had to just wait, after about a month or two, they were not coming forward. We had to divide our plans into three phases. The first phase was phase one. Things we could do from those documents, from our own hall dues, which was, of course, very insignificant.
So we did everything we could do in phase one. Then in phase two was what we could do in partnering with the hall management and some other individuals in the hall. So that's how we were able to do some things, like the hall management was able to get funding for more tanks in A block. They did the alumni toilet. And later on we were able to do the JCR and the SCR. And then we were able to get individual donations to do the waste baskets and also the lighting of the Zik hall. So those are the things that were in phase two. But phase three is where the main things were, like, you know, recently the renovating reading room of the hall, changing the light bulbs on different floors, changing the toilets and some other things, which we needed funding for in millions of Naira.
But since we were not able to get the alumni body to start launching the activities, there's no way that can be solved. But what I did was that I had to develop the plan into phases. So we had to do what was in our own hands to do and then leave them to do what they needed to do since they have the documents and they have the costs. So hopefully in the next few weeks or few months, if they are able to get them up. One more thing I also did there was I started messaging people individually since the body was not working as a whole. So I was only messaging individual alumni. And that's how we were able to get the baskets and the floor lights done.
Zik Press: OK, thank you very much. Can you elaborate on the alumni body? Why do you think we don't have an impactful alumni body given that this [an alumni body] is present in some other halls of residence?
Fabiyi: I personally still think most of those alumni bodies really relied on Iroko [late Professor Ajewole Opeyemi] as a person. Because when I was the secretary of the hall, I met Iroko. And then we tried to bring different people together to restore the [alumni body]. At that time, Iroko was quite busy.
And then also, another problem also started because the last time that Zik Hall had a significant alumni gathering was in 2013, when Zik Hall had its 50th anniversary. That was when people like Buhari and El-Rufai, more than five governors, came to Zik Hall that particular year, and they donated a lot of money for the renovation of the hall. So after that event, there was an issue between the management of the hall and the hall executives on how they donated funds and some other things. So the person that really had the last link to most of these alumni teams was Professor Iroko.
So when we came in in 2022, when I was the secretary there, we tried to get him to help us develop the alumni body. And that was the place that was started till Iroko died. Because in 2023, now that they were registered with the CAC, they were ready to start launching. Because Iroko was the trustee of the alumni body then. But when he died, a lot of things got crushed. A lot of links got broken. So what I think can be done, really, is to start with what I did, to start with the people that were immediate to us, people that graduated in the last few years that I could reach. Then from there, we can link upward to see other people. And this year alone, a single alumna gave us about #250,000 or #200,000 for our hall week. So imagine how much the hall could get if all these alumni people came together to give back to the hall.
So what I was able to do was that the pastor of my church, particularly, was a former secretary of the Student Union and an alumni of Zik Hall. So I told him to link me with those that were in his set. And he also was in Iroko's set and also a friend of the Deputy Governor of Lagos State, who is also a Zikite. But these guys are hard to reach. And if I'm not able to hold those that were their friends, then you cannot reach them.
So what I'm working on now is to go through him; through him, he has maybe given me some numbers. Those people have not been fully responsive. But I'm hoping that through him, I'm able to reach those old generations of alumni. And then those that I knew in the past few years, who will start building the community and start giving back as much as we can. So maybe when those guys see things from people that are as close as doing things, they will be encouraged to now come back and give back to the hall.
Zik Press: Thank you. Let's move on to the issue of a bigger student union and student politics. Do you feel that students, with the way things are going or the way things have been going for a while now, really have a say in issues that affect them?
Fabiyi: Well, I would say that students will always have a say in issues that affect them. And the problem that I think it doesn't appear that students have a say is because the students have lost their consciousness. Several times, when I've had time to engage people, I've told people that the student union as a whole, the students in front of it, there's a reason why the students in front of it, is because the union is nothing without the student consciousness. So if the students themselves are not enlightened, there's no strength that the union has, because the union is meant to be the voice of the students.
So the problem really is that the student body are not even conscious of their rights. And if people are not conscious of their rights, there's no way they can have a voice because they don't even know what to speak about. So I think the biggest problem which needs to be solved when it comes to student leadership is to make sure that people know what their rights are. During the last administration, this last year, there have never been protests before this year, at least, since 2016, 2017, or 2015. But when the protests started from the Zik Hall cafeteria, it was even a debate among people. It was a dare: can we actually have a protest? Can we make a demand for this thing? People were like, even some people were like, Ah, you can't have a protest; you guys are not going to do anything. But when someone came out, and the person started singing, and people started coming out in their 10s, 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s, and 70s, and people gathered en masse. Hundreds of people had gathered.
We moved into Independence Hall, people came out, and then before you knew it, a lot of people had gathered, and then protests started from there. So that was how it started. So it just takes a few conscious people to energise those who are not conscious and ensure that the proper demands have been requested for, and then people know what their rights are and demand it.
Zik Press: Okay, thank you very much. Let's move to the part of academics. Can you describe how your academic journey went? How were you able to manage your other commitments with the pressures of academic studies?
Fabiyi: Okay, thank you very much. So, well, the kind of person that I am, I would not deny the fact that I assimilate very fast. And on the other hand, I'm someone who is very meticulous when it comes to time management and discipline. I'm very meticulous. So when it comes to balancing different things, I remember when I was contesting for the Zik chairmanship, and then someone was asking me that I was already leading two organisations, and then I'm someone who would like to still maintain my results. Do I think I can manage everything? And I told the person that the way I see things is that things don't get easier; you, as a person, get stronger. So if I was on the 100 level, I was able to be on a very strong CGPA without doing anything; on the 300 level, when I knew much more, there was no way I should not be able to combine more things to maintain the same CGPA. And then to a level also, combine more things and maintain the same CGPA.
The trick that I use personally is that time is time management. And one thing I use is the concept of priorities and urgency. If something is urgent and it's not a priority, I delegate it. If something is a priority and it's not urgent, I'll just schedule it. If something is a priority and it's urgent, that's what I do. And if something is not urgent, it is not urgent and not a priority; I try as much as possible to reduce the time for that kind of thing.
So the trick, I would say, basically, is I go through my time management, and I go through my priorities, because you cannot even manage your time without your priorities, because you end up doing things that are not that important for you to do. So the solution I would just say I do is I manage my time properly, and I have priorities. And of course, God helped me through it, because, of course, there's a part of me as a person, having the spiritual strength to help me get through, because it was not easy.
Apart from the fact that I was trying to manage my time, I had priorities; at the same time, it wasn't a bed of roses, but at the same time, it worked out well, and then I could go through that.
Zik Press: My question for you is about the image problem of Zik Hall, especially in recent times. Do you even think Zik Hall has an image problem in the university community, especially among the students now?
Fabiyi: Well, I will not disagree on the image problem, but I want to really understand where your question is coming from.
Zik Press:Apart from the fact that maybe it is the last election, just everyone is against Zik Hall. you just think we are now having an image problem in recent times?
Fabiyi: Well, I will not disagree with you. I will agree that we have an image problem, which in the new sense was one of... Because one of the biggest image problems that we have is as regards the welfarism of the students in Zik Hall.
That's one of the biggest image problems that we have, because when you see people talk about Zik, they talk about things like, Okay maybe Zik is this, Zik is that... Because even when I was speaking with my... with someone who had a career from Zik Hall about 20 or 30 years ago, he was like, Zik Hall is the headquarters of ruffians in UI. That was what he said.
So when you see things like being rough, being radical,that's what they associate with Zik Hall, particularly. Apart from that, I personally don't see those other things as concerning. Things like being radical, being very vocal, I don't see it as a problem. What I now see as a problem these days is issues like the facilities deteriorating. Because if you look at places like Zik Hall and Indy hall particularly, the rates at which the facilities are deteriorating are not commensurate with some other halls in this career. That is the truth. Because if you go to places like Kuti, maybe Tedder,Mellanby or Bello Hall, you can't compare the facilities that you have here. Their toilet facilities and water facilities can't be compared to what we have here in Zik Hall.
So that is what I see as a concerning image for Zik Hall.That is a real problem. About the problem with personality. The personality of Zik Hall generally is being vociferous. So, the summary of what I am saying is that I can't see taking the personality part as an image problem. Zikites are radical; they are noisy. I don't take those up as an issue. But what I really see as the problem right now is the reality of the fact that the facilities are deteriorating, which is not the same thing in other places. We need to take cognisance of that and really make sure that that is solved as soon as possible.
Zik Press: Yeah. Okay. For this current breed of executives and legislators that we have in Zik Hall, what steps do you think they can take to further improve the living facilities of Zikites and to further promote their well-being?
Fabiyi: Okay. So, what I would say particularly is they need to really, at least, the one thing that I think was deficient in my own administration, which I think is where they can continue from, is building a strong alumni base. I tried it, but it didn't work out. So, I have reasons why it didn't work out, which is what I want them to take from and learn from. The present body of the government that we have, they are not forthcoming. So, what I would recommend to them is to make steps to start exploring new bases. At the same time, I think I can really influence that as an alumnus already. So, I also try to maybe speak to the warden and even get on that platform, which is the alumni platform that they have today, and maybe try to see the problems that are existing there.
Personally, I'll try to do that. But from their own end, I would say they should also try to build individual relationships with most of these alumni. If they build relationships with them, at least there are strong ones that can link us up to others, which is like the Dean of Students; Professor Adebiyi, who is a former hall warden, was also privileged to be assistant hall warden. They should build a strong alumni base. And also, at least, of course, that's what I was deficient in. But things that I was even able to achieve –– they should also continue from there. Things like developing their plans into phases, because if they are not doing that, they will be chasing castles in the sky. And at the end of the day, those small castles might not even be achievable.
So, at least start from the low-hanging fruit. Do what you can do first from the money that you have, then from what you can get from the management, from the school management. At least, I tried to get a new borehole to Zik Hall, but the reason why the borehole did not work out was because the contractor then told the Dean of Students that the borehole behind the JCR had enough water to sustain the tanks behind the JCR and the tanks in front of the cafeteria. So instead of getting a new borehole, they invested effort in fixing and restoring that borehole. And upon restoration, they discovered that that borehole did not actually have enough water. So, what I would just say is, at least, if I knew that early enough, we would have gotten a new borehole. Because the Dean of Students was willing to do that for us.
But now we were able to do more tanks at A Block and then solar for D Block. So, if a new tank is built that can supply B Block and C Block, I think the water problem of Zik Hall should be solved to that extent permanently. So, they should develop their plans in two different phases.
Start sending out letters, starting sending out sponsorship requests to brands and some of that. I think I really discussed some of these things with them before they took administration. So, I believe they should consider that particular line. So, that's my advice for them. They should start working on their plans early enough. Thank you.
Zik Press: So, this is a personal note for you. After school, what are you doing next?
Fabiyi: Well, as a person, I am someone who is more, for now, shrunk into academic life. So, once I finish my – I'm going to service now. Once I'm done with this, I plan to do my, maybe, PhD or master's. But I'm able to get a straight PhD, fine, or a master's in environmental epidemiology, which is a place I'm passionate about. So, that's my next step. Let me see. My proposed next step for now, which I hope that God helps to put into work and let me achieve. That's my next step as a person.
Zik Press: Okay. And a final note. Do you have any words of advice or parting shots for our readers?
Fabiyi: So, what I would say is, at least for people who are students, I would say that they need to get their priorities in order, at least. And the most important priority of anyone who is in a school, at the very first point, is academics, which they need to really put eir own priority. And then, the second thing is, they can now balance this with other extracurriculars to really shoot, because it's what makes your stay in the university worthwhile, and it's what makes school pass through you. That's if you are a student.
And then, if you are also a graduate like me, I would just say you can take so many opportunities and then be open to using knowledge that you have learnt in school throughout your stay at the university, because at least we've learnt a lot, and you can't just keep waiting for opportunities to come and meet us. We can now position ourselves for those opportunities as graduates.
Zik Press: So, thank you very much.
