As NUGA Winds Up

After the long period of expectant waiting, the Nigerian University Games hosted by the Obafemi Awolowo University kicked-off amidst a lot of fanfare. The series of events which saw a stiff competition among over fifty Nigerian universities brought in its trail a lot of lessons for those conscious enough to observe them.
In the first place, the sporting activities had a goal of discovering and exhibiting various talents in Nigerian youths with which they are expected to deploy in the movement for national development. Again, I believe it is a means of bringing youths together from different parts of the country so they can exchange ideas, cultures and many more in order to further integrate the citizenry. A fundamental question to be asked at this point is; how much of the above has been achieved?
To answer this question, one has just to take a critical look at the 24th NUGA events. For the purpose of talent exhibition, seeing the numerous feat achieved by participating sports men and women, and the fierce competitions engaged in in order to claim their victories, one can confidently say that lots of talents have been discovered and displayed. Without doubt, a lot of them measure up to international standards. Now, if they have enough mental magnitude and character to convert their winning attitude into a veritable tool for national development is a disturbing question in the entire story. Although diverse people had a rendezvous but were the proper ideas and cultures exchanged? Far above bringing people together to participate in events and have a paper-work plan of things to be achieved, it takes a visionary leadership to galvanize the abilities of its people and gear them towards a nationally profitable movement. A sincere leadership is needed to bring people together across board and get them to exchange the best of their ideas. The worrisome question now is; to what degree does the current leadership in Nigeria possess such qualities (vision and sincerity)? Will the 24th NUGA not be forgotten as hurriedly as it came? What can be done in order to prevent this event from being just another carnival?
To the economic side of it, especially with respect to opportunistic traders who came from far and wide to take advantage of a concentrated population. Quite prudently, the management of Obafemi Awolowo University thought it necessary to set aside a part of the university environment to build a make-shift “NUGA market” as they probably foresaw the surge in trading activities. But quite unfortunately, the first ditch this brilliant move would fall into was the exorbitant fee of seventeen thousand naira that was charged per stall just for a period of two weeks! There has been wide-spread complaint among traders and non-traders as commodity prices were on the high to the detriment of consumers. Worse still, traders complained bitterly about the location of the market because it was in obscurity. They claimed that there was no ordinary inclination for people to walk to that area simply to patronize them as it was not located in the path of activities. For this reason, traders found a justification for themselves to turn every walk-way in and around the sports centre into a busy and bubbling market. They all displayed their wares freely on the roads like it was a lawless no-man’s land. Shockingly, the university management did not take any visible action against this “traders’ match” probably because they feel guilty. This then raises a moral question; should we begin to act lawlessly because we feel aggrieved? In fact, why did the university management charge such fees in the first place?
The market situation and many other loop-holes in the organization of the 24th NUGA were blamed on the poor preparedness on the side of the university administration. Now, how have they and we learned to do things better and faster as individuals and a nation?    

NUGA: LET THE GAMES BEGIN

After all said and done, after all hustle and bustle, the D-day finally came and the ball was set rolling. The day of the opening ceremony of the Nigerian University Games, NUGA, hosted by the prestigious Obafemi Awolowo University, O.A.U, was first significantly marked by the august visit of the vice chancellor of Olabisi Onabanjo University, Prof. Saburi Adesanya, to his school’s team.
At 12:00pm, the event earnestly began by the ceremonious entry the host university’s vice chancellor, Prof. Idowu Bamitale Omole alongside the deputy governor of Osun state, Mrs. Grace Titi-Laoye Tomori amid very tight security. Without much ado, it was time for the vice chancellor of O.A.U to give his welcome/open address but unfortunately, in the characteristic and epileptic nature of the Nigerian power sector, his speech was interrupted and delayed for a long time as a result of power outage. The deputy governor of Osun state took the podium after him and after which the duo took their leave from the arena.
When it was time for participating universities to officially make their presence known to the public, the march past/parade was conducted in a style like no other. For being the home and the first university to host NUGA, the University of Ibadan was the first school to march in the parade then all other universities moved in an alphabetical order except the host university which came at the very last. The entire march was so glamorous that the camp of spectators was absolutely exhilarated as they accompanied each university with commensurate praise songs.
The first sporting encounter of NUGA-OAU 2014 was a football match between Obafemi Awolowo University and the Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, scheduled for 4:00pm, immediately after the opening ceremony. At half time, the match ended in a 2-0 score in favour of the host university. At the end of the full time however, there was a 4-1 score which was also in favour of the host university. This was a boost to the morale of members of Obafemi Awolowo University community as they became more confident in their various teams, whereas, the victory struck more terror in the camp of other university teams.            

NUGA: THE COUNT-DOWN CONTINUES

It was another morning again on the 13th February, 2014 when students of Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU, and delegates to the 24th Nigerian University Games, NUGA, woke up to another day of waiting for the games to commence earnestly. As part of preparations and to beat off the boredom, all teams went out early in the morning to keep their adrenaline high and in the process, people from a wide range of places mingled with each other and got along quite well. The possibility of emotional matters cannot however be ruled out as some young men particularly had their eyes on ladies.
On the economic plain, many businesses had sprung up at almost every corner of the university campus especially around the sports complex while they were generously patronized. If this does not defeat the purpose of the university management’s decision to set up a make-shift market for the period of the games is another matter entirely. In the make-shift market itself, traders could be seen moving into their allotted stalls and putting up goods and wares such as food, drinks, clothing, furniture etc. with their patronization also going on. Meanwhile, notices were already put up at the market first, with respect to the modules operandi of traders in the market and secondly, for the prospective sale of the materials used to construct the market stalls immediately after NUGA. (Find copies of both notices attached to this piece).
Hard ware traders were not in any way the only business people present at the event. In just one glance, one could see a lot of banners advertising numerous businesses such as banks, telecommunication companies and beverage producers. Some of them threw the environment agog with blast of music from their tents as they gave incentives to attract the student population to their services.
Away from the hustle and bustle of the sport arena to the residence. Some delegates in the halls of residence were commendable abided by the rules of the host university community while some others simply walked in the opposite direction. From about the second night of arrival, there had been cases of people smoking within the halls of residence, an act strictly forbidden. As a quick response, members of the defunct students’ union security committee embarked on a tour to sensitize and stopped the guests from such and similar acts as it would no longer be tolerated. Worse still is the frank decision of some delegates--from University of Nigeria, Nsukka and Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye for instance—to continue to have their bath, not in the bath rooms provided but outside, in the full glare of the public. This became a source of embarrassment to many students of OAU as they have not ceased to complain.
The opening ceremony for the games have been slated for Saturday 15th February, fingers are crossed and all available hands are on deck to make the day and indeed the entire event a memorable one.
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NUGA: Arrivals, Fun, Fun, Fun.

The 12th of February 2014 started like every other day at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife except that there was something special in the air, Nigerian University Games, NUGA. Taking a trip to the sports complex of the school as early as 7:00am, one would find several members of TeamOAU carrying out their daily rigorous routines in preparation for the games. Footballers took the peach, athletes ran their races, fighters aimed their kicks and every other one to his/her own kind.
In the midst of all this were also present various security and para-security teams in their different shades and colours. From the Nigerian police force to the Federal Road Safety Commission, Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps, and Man “O” War were all available to light up the environment.
As time went on, the show of the day began as sporting delegates from various universities across the country began to make their marks on the land-scape of Ile-Ife and ultimately, OAU. Among the first arrivals of the day were delegates from Benson Idahosa University, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Kwara State University and Niger Delta University University. At the university sports complex where every delegate team arrived before they were allocated to places of rest, the home students threw the environmental mood into an ecstatic jesting with the popular tradition called ‘aro’. All visiting students were made to feel at home among fellow students, dispelling every fear of intimidation whatsoever. An additional spice was given to the round of events with the sudden entry of the university vice chancellor, Prof Bamitale Omole, into the arena. He was met by a crowd of his jubilant students who hailed and cheered him almost to a point of embarrassment.
After the student-oriented welcome displays and delegates had been allocated places for accommodation, then began another phase of the night. It appeared that management of the host university was not fully prepared for the large turn-out of guests which they were receiving as there later generated confusion with respect to where and how certain delegates would be lodged. As at the time of writing this report, lots of delegates are sleeping at the Adekunle Fajuyi (Faj) hall café on the pretext that they arrived late into the night and that their accommodation issues would be resolved in the morning.
It is however noteworthy to state the following: 1. That lots of mattresses were purchased by the university management for the comfort of delegates (some of which are been used at Faj café). 2. That there was a slight drama early in the afternoon when delegates from Benson Idahosa Universuty tried to gain access into Obafemi Awolowo (Awo) hall. The delegation was repelled by “Awoites” as a result of the disagreement they had with the university management the previous day over a failed attempt at forceful eviction from the hall of residence with the aid of armed mobile policemen.
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NUGA and BUSINESS

As preparations for the 24th Nigerian University Games, NUGA, went and still goes on in the sporting and infrastructural phases, all was not limited to the two as participants would be in need of commodities such as food, drinks, wears and more things at one point or the other. As expected, many traders would look forward to benefiting  from this rear opportunity.

For the purpose of NUGA, the management of Obafemi Awolowo University has set aside an area of land at the sporting area as makeshift market for interested business men and women to carry out their various activities. But this move, particularly the choice location did not go down well with the registered traders. Their complaint was that the location was too far from the residence of the sport participants.  Speaking with me was a man who identified himself simply as Okani. He said, "I came from Lagos and I've been doing business at several sporting events such as the last NUGA at UNIBEN, National Sport Festival in Lagos, West African University Games, WAUG, at Ilorin and several others. The problem with this place and why we are not happy is because this location is too far from where the sports men and women reside. They will only come to this area during the day when activities are on, but after activities, there will be no one here, so how do we make sales? In other places where we go to, we are usually allotted spaces close to the residential areas." Speaking with a couple of women too who identified themselves as Evelyn Uzo and Ada and claimed to have come from Anambra state, they said that though the trading space is large but obscurity was a major factor.

The opening ceremony for NUGA has been scheduled for Friday 14th, all business preparation are in top gear and some are already feeling disadvantaged even before the beginning. The ingenuity of traders to overcome such challenges is actually worth looking out for. How other businesses located in the halls of residence accommodation the participants plan to utilize the opportunity is a special point of interest. Arms are folded as we watch other dynamics in the relationship between NUGA and its business opportunists.

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Forces Storm OAU Ahead of NUGA, Protests Among Students and Guests Arrive

Ahead of the 24th Nigerian University Games, NUGA, which is scheduled to be held at the Obafemi  Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, men and women of some security outfits have been deployed to the school in order to beef up security which would be much needed during the sporting events.

In the early hours of Tuesday 11th February, 2014, a large contingent of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps were already on ground, largely at the sport arena with a few parading the university campus.
Things however took a dramatic turn when hundreds of  men of the Nigerian Police Force (heavily armed mobile policemen inclusive) stormed the school and headed straight for the Obafemi Awolowo(popularly called AWO ) hall on the order of the university management to forcefully eject students from the halls of residence. Information has it that Awo was chosen as the first point of operation because of the particularly radical nature of students resident there. But the story did not go down in a negative for the "Awoites " as they did blocked every entrance into the hall and refused entry to any policeman or university staff who accompanied them. The drama went on "Awoites " singing the school's anthem and other anti-oppression songs.
Their argument and reason for their display however was not an unwillingness to leave the hall at that time or a refusal for it to be used as a lodging for NUGA participants, but that it was wrong for the university management to threaten them out of the hall with harmed men and they bent on showing that such moves were never going to work.
The school's chief security officer, Dr Paul Ogidi and other university staff there present later decided out of frustration to leave the hall with their police escorts and go to other halls instead.

Their next point of call was the Adekunle Fajuyi (popularly called FAJ ) hall. There, members of the school's security committee addressed the hall warden while the large force of policemen waited outside. The security committee members told the hall warden that they were there to let the police takeover the hall of residence for the period of NUGA so they can provide adequate security for the participants. The hall warden and other hall staff nevertheless argued that it would not be necessary to bring in policemen to the hall and all needed spaces for the expected athletes were ready. On that note, the military occupation of Faj hall was quietly repelled.

Later at night, the previously cut power supply was restored and the sport contingent for the University of Nigeria, Nsukka arrived, being the first visiting team at OAU NUGA 2014.

24th NUGA Games, OAU and Militant Students

For the simple and quite uninformed, NUGA is the acronym for Nigerian University Games. A bi-annual sporting event among Nigerian universities which aim, I think, apart from being a noise-making jamboree and student gyrations, should be a mean of bringing Nigerian university youths together for a particular education and societal integration through sports. This event also should be one that would build in the youths of the university communities a spirit of sportsmanship on an intellectual level in other to be able to translate such into an active nation-building tool. Furthermore, a population upsurge in a host community will be an economic advantage for local business owners as students alone cannot benefit from such in isolation. This great sporting activity however had its first outing at the Premier University of Ibadan in 1966.
And here we are. The Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife had won the hosting right of the 24th NUGA games with a lot of excitement, expectations and sheer pride on the part of several students for probably no other reason than the fact that a once in a student life event would be held in theirs and they would tell tales of same to even generations yet unborn. The hopes of a set of students were however dashed as they graduated before the D-day due to the continuous postponement of NUGA by the university management as a result of unpreparedness and the non-availability of infrastructures. Times and times again, rumors were echoed of the approach of the long awaited event only for the larger community to be disappointed again. The five months long show-down between the academic staff of Nigerian universities and the federal government did not also help matters,—oops!—maybe it did. At a point, the games were slated for October 2013, right in the middle of the FG-ASUU tussle. The university management led by Professor Idowu Bamitale Omole could probably have been forced to hold the event then, but the obvious was that the needed infrastructures were not just available and an embarrassment would have been inevitable. To OAU management, the ASUU strike was nothing short of a saving grace and another pretext to postpone the long awaited NUGA. For some students who left their various comfort zones in that period and travelled to Ile-Ife just to witness the sports, there was nothing more annoying than that particular disappointment. But for the terminal students who should have graduated in the strike period, they had a hope of seeing the games—if they are very interested is another question entirely.
The strike eventually ended, school magically resumed and February 12th-22nd, 2014 was chosen for the final D-day. As part of preparations, the university management in all “wisdom and prudence” ordered all students resident on campus to evacuate themselves and valuable belongings latest by 12pm on the 7th February so as to give the residence a facelift for the comfort of expected guests.
This move, as may be expected, generated a lot of heat among students with some issuing a blatant refusal to comply. Their arguments:
°NUGA is an event held for the benefit of students and not the university management or staff, therefore, the purpose would have been defeated if students were not on campus to partake of the benefits.
°When a sporting event is held, the home team needs the support of their fan base. If OAU students are not available to sheer their own, who will?
°How on earth can we hear that a landlord asked his tenants to leave the house, while their tenancy hasn’t expired, because he wants to throw a party and would be expecting some guests? OAU students paid accommodation fee for a session, so, they believe, it would be an injustice to send them out while the session still runs. There are even rumors that the university management had received allocations for the hotel lodging of expected participants.
Some students on their own part, even from the 6th had begun to move their properties out of the halls of residence to friends’ place in the staff quarters and Ile-Ife township so much that by evening on the 7th, the mass exodus was very visible. As a means for the management to show its seriousness, on the 8th, there was power cut in all student rooms. Then the drama began.
It was a time when some students had to show their tenacity and dare-devil traits as a good number of students still stayed behind despite the “get out” order, power cut, and even rumors of the deployment of mobile policemen to forcefully eject students. In Obafemi Awolowo hall popularly called ‘Awo’ for instance, lots of students can be seen going about their their daily life and spicing it with the traditional “aro”. In fact, on the 10th, a stray antelope met its waterloo when it journeyed into the hall. In Adekunle Fajuyi hall popularly called ‘Faj’, the story remains pretty the same, but no antelope. However, it was a different story in the female halls as the evacuation order had more effct. The relatively gentle female nature may be an explanation for that.
For students who stayed behind, certain spots in their halls of resident became the new centre of activities. In Faj for instance, the café, upper buttery/television room, and “photocopy area” as popularly called, all became what can be called room annexes as students could be seen charging their devices, ironing their cloths, playing musical instruments and even cooking (since electricity is the conventional medium of cooking in OAU). The situation could be nevertheless stressful as some students are forced to go far into the academic area to get the most basic of their works done with electricity. The argument here is that the university management has been insensitive to the plight of students by asking them, presumably, to go home for a period of two weeks not long after resuming after six months. What about students who came from a long distance? They asked. What about the expenses to be incurred? They asked again.
Some renovations are on the way, infrastructure projects are being finalized, NUGA approaches faster, the resilience and resolution of OAU students are about to undergo more test. Management or students, who will bend or break? Only time can presently tell.