What does life look like for Gen Z Nigerians everywhere in the world? Every Friday, we ask five Gen Z Nigerian students one question in order to understand their outlook of life.
Marrying while in the University is something that has been happening for a while. It was especially more popular among women in older generations, so we asked five students if they will get married while still trying to get a degree
Here is what they said:
Samantha; College of Medicine (UniLag), 20
Why will I do that? So when my mates are saying they have outings to go to, I’ll be running back home because of my husband? God forbid.
Nonso; Ambrose Ali University, 21
If I get a girl pregnant, I think I might. I do not like the idea of children growing up in broken homes. Other than that, I do not think so.
Zainab; University of Ibadan, 19
Let Nigeria remove the SSMPA then I’ll think about it. Until then; get this bread, get this head, then leave.
Adam; University of Port Harcourt, 20
Don’t kill me please. How many fuck I don fuck wey I go marry?
Fadekemi; Covenant, 21
Honestly, I’m tired of school. School stresses me out. If I see a rich man who’ll marry me and take care of me and my family, I don’t mind. Especially if he has no children and is about to die. Who school epp?
For more stories on student life and Gen-Z culture, click here
It hurts when you set your mind on something and don’t get it — and this is the reality for a lot of Nigerian students who didn’t get the course they wanted to study. If you went through this, you will definitely relate to this:
1. You, filling out your JAMB form confident that you will get your preferred course
My childhood dream is about to come true.
2. When you write UTME and Post-UTME and you beat the university and department cut off marks
You people are not ready!
3. But you receive your admission letter and find out that the university is offering you another course
Wait, what? But I wanted Law
4. You, wondering how you will tell your friends that you didn’t get the course you were so sure was yours
How did this even happen?
5. When you realise that you have two options: accept the offer or wait another year at home
What’ all this nonsense?
7. But you can’t bear the thought of spending another year with your parents
Hell no!
8. And most of your friends are already in school
I can’t carry last
9. So, you accept the offer with plans to get a great CGPA so you can switch departments at the end of your first year
All I have to do is read, get a 5.0 CGPA and get out of here.
10. But you started writing tests and getting grades that could ruin your self-esteem
Ha! What’s happening. How can I get 17/100?
11. Then you realise that the course is not that bad and you’re beginning to like the department
Oh, you devil, I cast and bind you.
12. It’s now the end of the session and you’ve decided that switching to another department is not worth the stress
This is where I belong, biko.
13. You, when someone asks you why you’re still in the department
But what’s your own?
Imagine you could turn back the hands of time. What would you have studied in University?
Take the quiz to find out!
Unbelievable things happen on university campuses. Sometimes, the students are active players in these things. At other times, they can only watch as the situations unfold. This week, I spoke to a couple of students studying at University of Port Harcourt and got them to talk about the wildest thing that has happened to them. From run-ins with lecturers and cultists to extortion by security operatives, these students have some stories to share.
Angela— I fended off a lecturer’s advances and it became a problem
Sometime in my second year, I was at the faculty to attend a class when a lecturer called me into his office. He asked about my CGPA and offered to help me with whatever I didn’t understand about his course. I thought that was it until he reached for his desk and brought out some sweets, which he tried to feed me. I excused myself, telling him that I had a class to attend. He let me go with clear instructions that I had to return.
I didn’t go back and avoided him for the longest time. He asked my course rep to fetch me and dismissed her when we got to his office. Again, I was alone with him. He didn’t waste time this time before trying to kiss me. I was so disgusted that I didn’t know when I yelled at him to stop. He was taken aback and I used the opportunity to flee his office.
A few days before exams, he sent my course rep to tell me that “exam has come oh, how far?”
I knew what that meant. However, I didn’t go to see him. When the results came out, I got an E in his course — I did well in school and I was confident that I was poised for an A.
I told my mum what happened. My mum told my dad. And my dad reported the situation to someone in the school senate and the person took it up. It wasn’t fun for me. Suddenly, everybody knew about it and started to spread rumours. In class, the lecturer started to pick up on me. It was really overwhelming for me. At some point, I wasn’t interested in going to class anymore. It blew over eventually, but being in that situation wasn’t a fun thing. It was too much drama.
AJ — I was almost attacked in my lodge
One of my neighbours threw a party at my lodge. My friends and I hung around for a while before we got tired and went back to my room, thinking the night was over. Around 11 PM, one of my friends barged into the room, sick with worry. The only thing I could make out of what he was saying was that we should turn off the generator.
We turned the generator off. Then we found out why he was so alarmed. In the silence of the night, we heard the flat side of a machete landing on people’s backs, followed by loud screams.
It had to be a robbery. We quickly hid our phones because there was the possibility that they would storm our room too. We also looked for a potential exit point in the ceiling where we could hide if the situation became more than we can handle.
Within minutes, someone was knocking on our window, ordering us to let them in. Everyone froze in fright. We had no choice but to obey. We nominated someone to go out and open the door, expecting the worst.
Then this guy walked in with a machete and a gun. However, It was the chief security officer of my community. And he was there to disrupt the party we were at earlier because nobody bribed him before the party took place. So, he came there to extort people and physically harass them. It was either that or he would call the police on them. He searched the room, looking for weed, but he found nothing and left us alone. My friends and I got out of the situation unharmed, but it was really unsettling.
Chinwa — My friend laced my food with weed
I went to see a friend. She cooked noodles and offered it to me. I didn’t know, but she had laced it with weed. She was supposed to make my hair, but the weed took effect quicker on her. She told me she wanted to sleep and I decided to leave. I had barely made it to the car park before I lost all sense of self. Then I realised what she had done.
I flagged down a cab and offered to pay for all the seats. During the ride, I found out that I didn’t have enough money on me, but I didn’t care. I just wanted to get home. Nobody picked my call when I got to the hostel, so I had to climb the flight of stairs to get money to pay the cab.
It was the most difficult thing I’d ever done. When I finally settled all that, I returned to my room and flopped down on my bed. Now, I couldn’t sleep. I was so out of it that I could have sworn that the room was spinning in frantic motion.
I didn’t know when I finally slept off or for how long I slept. But I woke up with the worst hunger ever. But it was 11 PM and all the shops had closed. I couldn’t get food until the morning.
Ekele — I went clubbing with friends and became stranded
We had just finished writing the semester exam and there was a party at a club near one of the university three campuses — Choba campus. My friends thought we deserved to go out and have fun. I agreed to it after making both of them promise that we would leave early.
The plan was to leave the club around 9 PM. When that time came, my friends were nowhere near ready to go. I contemplated leaving them there, but I decided against it.
We left the club around 11 PM. However, the roads were empty, save for a few cabs. Our campus was about 30 minutes away but we were stranded. Eventually, we saw a taxi and three other people joined us. Midway into the trip, the driver said he wasn’t going to take us to our actual campus — Delta Campus — so, he dropped us off close to the main gate of Choba campus.
Now, it was 12 midnight or thereabout. And we were three ladies walking the streets of Port Harcourt. I’d never felt unsafe like that in a long time. We weren’t going to make it to the campus, so my friends decided that they would sleep at one of their friend’s, but I wasn’t up for that. I decided to spend the night inside the school. Luckily, one of my friends was still writing her exams and was studying at the campus that night. I found her and stayed with her till until morning. Finally, I got back to my apartment, rethinking my decisions from the previous night. I haven’t been to another club since that time.
Belema — I squared up with a suspected cultist
I was watching a football match between my department and a set of guys from another department. We were trailing behind on goals and tensions were already building up. Close to the end of the match, a player on the opposing team made a bad foul on a player from my team.
An argument broke out because of this and it didn’t die down, even after minutes had passed. Out of nowhere, a guy came on the field and declared the match over. He acted like he owned the place and this irritated me so much.
For some reason, everyone just stood there and did everything he said. I approached my coursemates and asked them why they let a “big olodo boy” tell them what to do.
A couple of his friends heard this and reported what I said to him. He was mad that I called him an olodo and turned his attention to me. He said a lot of things — about how badly he would deal with me. I don’t know where the strength came from but I stood up to him.
In the heat of the moment, I didn’t realise that my coursemates were asking me to keep quiet. Word was that he was a cultist. Things calmed down only because one of my coursemates called his brother, and for some reason, he was able to call him off.
I wasn’t scared of him at the time, but thinking about it sometimes makes me wonder what I was thinking and where the surge of confidence came from.
Students in Nigerian universities have stories to tell, but hardly anyone to tell them to. For our new weekly series, Aluta and Chill, we are putting the spotlight on these students and their various campus experiences.
A good experience at university and other institutions of higher learning revolves around valuable information. For many people, this process starts before they get their offer of admission. However, there’s only so much anyone can know when they are not in the school community. The moment they become a part of the community, new information often comes to light.
This week, I asked students at 5 different universities to talk about the most important information they wish they had about their schools or courses before they got admitted.
Favour, Covenant University – I wish I knew I could get in trouble even if I did nothing wrong
I heard a lot of stories about Covenant University before I got in, and I thought I was ready for whatever the school was going to throw at me. For a moment there, I thought people were reaching when they talked about how regimented life at the school was. They treated us nicely when we first got in, but the moment we had our matriculation ceremony, a lot of things became real.
It was interesting to see how they made chapel services more important than classes, but I didn’t stress myself too much about that. However, it was scary to find out that I could get in trouble for doing nothing wrong.
During one of the chapel services, I led the praise and worship session. I was so into it that day and there was a lot of energy. After the session ended, one of the hall officers approached me and asked me to give him the name of the drug I took before the service started. I thought it was a joke at first, but it wasn’t. He whipped out an offence form and asked me to fill it. In the end, he promised that he would come back to fetch me and take me for a drug test.
The story travelled fast and it got to the Dean of Students. Fortunately, he didn’t think I was guilty of drug use. He looked for me and apologised about the whole situation, promising to take care of it. I guess he did because nothing happened after that.
Anyway, it would have been great to know that getting admitted to study at this university isn’t a problem but staying till the end of the 4 or 5 years is. There were 209 students in my class when I came in. At the moment, there are only 67 students in the same class. The rest were either expelled or dropped out of school.
I would still make the choice to come to school here, though. I believe that the advantages of studying here outweigh the disadvantages.
Tamilore, Olusegun Agagu University of Science and Technology,— My school community has no power, and nobody told me
My dad sold the idea of going to university in my hometown to me and I agreed. I wrote UTME, applied to the school, and I got in.
That should be where this story ends, but there was a surprise waiting for me. The town of Okitipupa where the school is located has no power supply. The university runs on generators 100% of the time.
Coming to terms with this was a big struggle. I didn’t have a generator when I was in 100 level, so I used to go to a hotel close to where I lived to charge my devices. The worst thing that came with this power situation was the heat. There were lots of uncomfortable nights that could have been mitigated if there was power.
In my third year, I bought a generator. I have to spend more to fund this lifestyle, but the quality of my life has been better. However, I wish someone had told me about the non-existent power situation before I got in. It wouldn’t have changed much, but it would have been good to know.
Fisola, University of Ilorin — My life would have been easier if I knew the university wasn’t as liberal as I thought
My first roommate in university was fun, but she always found a way to get on my last nerve. We were both Yoruba. I am not a fluent speaker. She left me out of most conversations when her friends were in the room. The way they went about it, I couldn’t fit in with them because I couldn’t speak the language as well as they did.
When I eventually moved out of the room and the campus to the college of health sciences, I found out something new. I realised that the thinking of some students at the university was deeply rooted in patriarchy. In my second year, I was in a group with these guys for a class project. I thought collaboration mattered here. I tried to bring everyone together to exchange ideas and find out the best way to execute the project. However, the boys in the group didn’t take kindly to this. According to them, that role wasn’t mine to take because of my gender. They were telling me to know my place and stay in it. This was a big culture shock that I didn’t sign up for.
I expected the university to be a place where everyone could be the best version of themselves without dealing with any form of subjugation. I got that wrong. My life would have been easier if I knew that before I got in.
Mojolaoluwa, University of Lagos — I wish I researched my department before I accepted the admission offer
I applied to University of Lagos to study Medical Laboratory Science, but I didn’t get it. Instead, I got Human Kinetics and Health Education. The Health Education bit drew me in, and I thought I could do with it.
I could not.
The first class I had at school was at a swimming pool. The scary part was that I had to dive into the pool. I almost drowned in a pool when I was nine years old, which made me develop a phobia for swimming. Now, I had to swim to pass a course.
Also, I hated all forms of sports, but the Human Kinetics part of what I’m studying requires me to participate in a lot of sports. There was an exam I practised so hard for. It was a track and field course, and I was supposed to do a triple jump and a long jump. I’d barely started running before I tripped and twisted my ankle. Also, when it was time for the Javelin throw, my stance was so bad that the javelin travelled a short distance before it fell flat. This was an exam, and if there wasn’t a theory part, I probably would have failed the exam.
I had no idea that this course would be very physical and I wish I had done more research. I probably would have still accepted the offer, but the reality of it wouldn’t hit heavily as it did.
Precious, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture — It would have been great to know that I wasn’t coming here to solve problems
I wrote JAMB three times before I got admitted to study Mechanical Engineering at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture. I was disillusioned with the whole process at this point. When my provisional admission offer arrived in my mail, I had a brief moment when I thought about deleting the mail, but I got over myself, accepted the offer and went off to school.
I had many thoughts about how my time at the university would go, but I didn’t know I was coming here to cram scientific formulas to reproduce during exams. All my life, I thought Mechanical Engineering was about creating value and solving problems, but these didn’t happen.
There was this school project I had to do in my third year. I was supposed to build a machine, but I had no idea how to get it started. For starters, I couldn’t even weld anything together. Not that I didn’t want to, but there was little room for practicals. Before that time, we had a class on welding and the technician wouldn’t even let us near the tools. According to him, he wanted only people who had welding experience because he didn’t want anyone to damage the machine. Yes, this happened in a supposed place of learning.
I think I would have prepared myself better if I had known that I wasn’t coming here to solve any problems. And maybe I would have made different choices too.
Are you currently studying in Nigeria or elsewhere and have a story to share about your life in school? Please take a minute to fill this form and we will reach out to you ASAP.
Can’t get enough Aluta and Chill?Check back every Thursday at 9 AM for a new episode. Find other stories in the series here.
1) Everyone spends a shit ton of money preparing to slay with their outfit.
Because dinner and award nights are the MET Gala of universities, and you don’t want to caught slipping.
2) Squads get together to decide on if to buy a table or pay solo entrance fees.
“That table thing is cool but e expensive gan oh.”
3) The organisers hand out ballot papers so people in the department/faculty can vote for the different award categories.
“Victoria for qualify but she no get nyash like that.”
4) Then the organizers meet with the nominees secretly and inform them that the award belongs to the highest bidder.
“We know you deserve it. We just want you to use your wallet to prove to us how much you want it.”
5) This is how people buy drinks in advance so that their tables will be full that night.
The key is to buy plenty cheap drinks so even though your table is full, all the drinks combined would be like N4530.
6) This is how squads link up before the dinner to take pictures on the struggle red carpet.
“This money I spent on this outfit can’t waste.”
7) Whenever someone wins an award:
Say bye bye to your outfit.
8) When the “special” artist comes out to perform:
“Let’s just cheer so he won’t feel bad.”
9) When the main show ends and the afterparty begins:
“To the windows, to the walls! TILL THE SWEAT DRIPS DOWN MY BALLS!!”
1) When you realize that you’re going to have an extra year, you will want to die.
GOD NO!
2) Your sorrow will intensify if the course(s) you failed are courses you have no chance of actually understanding.
Because you know your brain.
3) This is you watching your classmates graduate and leave you behind.
Just smile and wave.
4) You’ll eventually find other people who also have an extra year and you’ll be like:
I’m not alone! GROUP HUG!!
5) If you lived in the hostel in previous years, you will stay in town to avoid people.
I don’t know anybody there abeg.
6) This is you laying low anytime you go to school so you won’t have to explain to anyone why you’re still around.
*cue Mission Impossible theme song*
7) But every single time you step foot on campus, you will run into EVERYBODY you’ve ever known.
HOW DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING?!
8) And every time this happens and you explain, they’ll be like, “Eeyah! Sorry! Take heart. All is not lost.”
I just have an extra year. I didn’t lose a loved one.
9) This is you picking easy elective courses so your GPA won’t crash.
I must not graduate with Certificate of Attendance.
10) This is you when your exams are coming and you still don’t know shit.
God why??
11) You will briefly consider paying someone to write your exams for you.
But you remember that it’s immediate expulsion if you’re caught so you remove your mind from there.
12) You’ll write the exam and commit everything to God.
ABBA FATHER! DO NOT FORSAKE ME!!
13) Then the worst part of everything will begin. Waiting for your result to come out.
High blood pressure will almost kill you.
14) This is you when your results come out and you pass.
MAMA I MADE IT! IMMA GRADUATE!!!
15) Unless your story ends differently and you fail again.
That’s a story for another day.
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Nigerian lecturers are not the most loved set of people. However, we feel that these categories of lecturers deserve that coveted heavenly ticket.
1) Lecturers that tell us the part of the lecture notes to read.
Not the ones that’ll give area of concentration that will end in tears.
2) The lecturers that don’t take attendance.
We the association of class skipping people are grateful.
3) God specially bless those who review and upgrade results.
“Lecturer xx says they are upgrading from 45.”
4) The lecturers who don’t spend one minute longer than their time in class.
Blessed are they who do not shalaye after their hour has been exhausted. For they shall inherit the kingdom of Zikoko.
5) The lecturer that doesn’t use you to do their own project.
I prefer not to speak.
6) Blessings to the ones that organize revision classes close to exams.
Those classes have been saving class stabbers since 2011.
7) The lecturer that is generally approachable and isn’t somehow.
Especially when they are your course adviser and you’re having difficulties with school.
8) Special blessings to the ones that share lecture notes so you don’t have to write.
Unlike some that treat their lecture notes like the best thing since daddy Bubu’s first campaign.
If you attended university in Nigeria, chances are that you can relate to one or two things on this list.
Let’s take a walk down memory lane:
1) When the whole room starts sharing one bucket, one tube of toothpaste, one iron.
2) And sharing slippers too.
3) Then, you no longer hide your nakedness after having your bath.
4) Sometimes, you all gather to watch a new series together. And you actually pause when one person goes to urinate.
5) Or, you watch football together.
6) You have cooked and eaten the blood covenant of concoction rice.
7) Or a full pot of beans.
8) The first fart is a bonding experience.
9) Especially when you are all chilling in the room after stabbing a class.
10) Nothing beats the feeling when everyone in the room fails the same course.
11) Nursing your roommate back to good health during an illness.
12) Then teasing them about being a big baby after they have recovered.
13) Missing them when you go home for the holidays.
14) Saving seat for each other in class when you eventually attend.
15) Buying hand outs and helping them photocopy lecture notes. Then also helping them sign attendance.
16) Whispering the answer to number 5 on a difficult test even though you “don’t usually do this.”
17) Not being ashamed to be seen with them in public anymore – they are kind of aii.
18) Hustling for water together. The actual ghetto.
19) Finally, saving their number on your phone. With their name instead of roommate.
Entering into a Nigerian university comes with a lot of stress and top on the list is the JAMB exam.
How many times did you write the exam before you got admission?
