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Before i delve into the subject matter, it would be apt to succinctly explain the making and the historical antecedents of this great institution of higher learning, albeit brief.
The University of Benin with two campuses comprising of Ekenwan and of course the Ugbowo, the main campus. It was established as an institution of technology in 1970, but later accorded the status of a full-fledged university by National University Commission (NUC) on 1st of July 1971, if my memory serves me right.
That said, before i get accused of beating around the bush and not going straight to the point, let's quickly set the ball rolling by listing the experiences.
Readers can agree with me on some, while some will disagree saying these are experiences not akin to Students of University of Benin.
1. Hall 4 Boys and Beans
Hall 4 is one of the halls of residence for boys popularly known as Abuja. Residents and visitors alike of this Hall would testify to this. The boys seem to prefer beans than any other class of food, hence at a point the girls started referring to them as simply beans. The first and only aroma a first time visitor to Hall 4 would always perceives is beans and nothing else. They even put their beans on fire and go to class hoping to return after an hour
or so.
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2. Night class and Preachers
Yes! Night classes in University of Benin are very popular among students particularly the
nocturnal group of students. What is however, baffling is that night classes that ordinarily, should be meant for reading and other scholarly activities, get taken over by "born again Christians" with deluge of sermon from one bible quotation or the other. I recall vividly how two of my roommates complained consistently about the nuisance nature of these preachers. One famously tagged them "The kill Joys"
3. Hall 3 Boys and arrow/banter
I learnt this was how the famous comedian, Bright Okwocha, aka Basket mouth cut his comedy teeth. If you are a Resident of Hall 3, you have to be blessed with the gift off the garb or else relocates else where. The boys in this hall do not know joy at all when they are in their element, particularly sparring against girls residing in Hall 2, also know as Madam Tinubu hall. Their rivalry was so intense that some girls stopped visiting Hall 3.
4. Hall 2 Girls and shotput
This is not to denigrate my alma mater, University of Benin possesses state of the art facilities including a befitting toilets. But the million dollar question is, why do girls, or better still, why do Hall 3 girls prefer shotput? Form those who don't know what shotput is, it is a situation where someone excrete into a nylon bag and fling it like the infamous Olympic shotput athlete, C.J Hunter.
They don't care if it lands on someone's head or in Mama Ngozi's pot of Egusi soup. It became so rampant and bad that areas within the Hall became more of a stench. It was that bad!
5. Boys bathing outside even during visiting hours
Bathing outside is not quite unusual per say, indulging in it during visiting hours particularly when ladies are still roaming the vicinity is so not cool. In Hall 4 where I can speak authoritatively especially after it was my only hostel through out my stay on campus. There was one particular incident when I was seeing off a female visitor only for the poor girl to see "Adam" bathing with his machine glaring like an LCD TV. The guy in question was even happy to flaunt his arsenal for the global village.
Lest I forget, the University of Benin is famously referred to as UniBest. Just saying, no haters please.
Clement Ogbemudia, Journalist/Writer and a proud Alumni of University of Benin.
You can follow him on Twitter @Vintageclem
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