UNICAL GATE: ONE DAY ONE CONSPIRACY

 

Dominic Kidzu 

There is no doubt that one of the greatest opponents one may come against in their life's journey is corruption. Corruption has a life of its own, lived by its own dictates and parameters. Corruption knows no reason, no retreat, no surrender, because its corpus is usually deep rooted and its profits high. No one who has tasted the allure and sweetness of corruption will meekly give up the chase, and for some, it is a zero sum game, even unto death.

In the University of Calabar it seems that the die is cast and the denizens are digging even deeper. It is now one day, one cinspiracy. Various ingenious ways are being designed to perpetuate the art of examination malpractices and make it the holy writ of the university. If it is not magic pencils and pens that can be wiped clean and the answers re-written in the air-conditioned offices of some corrupt lecturers, it is drama about writing examinations without electric light. And those who make the prearranged video clips forget that the watching public has brains too. The hall in the background of the video is brightly lit with electric light while the road beside the hall where the video was recorded is dimly lit as well it should be."they did not allow us to finish, despite the fact that there was no light, look at the sky". Should the light be in the sky or in the hall in the background?

Nobody is fooled by the theatrics of a lazy generation of students who have become so used to not reading, working or researching but who negotiate grades on the penny counter. They will go to any length to protect the corruption that has become the mainstay of the pretence of their academic pursuit, including chanting about the Vice Chancellor's articles of dressing. 

Now they are conspiring to burn down sections of the institution, burning a department a day, burning down our common heritage all because the Administration is trying to block various avenues for easy grades and easy cash. The other day it was the department of Mathematics, today it is the department of History and International Studies. Who knows which department will go up in flames tomorrow? They are incinerating the physical structures of the university and the institutional memory of hardwork and good standards, because they do not want to break a sweat in their quest for the golden fleece, while their mentors can nolonger live within the confines of legitimate income. The question however is, where are the securitymen at the university? Are they also complicit in the conspiracy?