Twirl

Chapter 1

Premier date: 20th of January, 2019
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CHAPTER 1

Senior Secondary 3.Tomini was finally in ss3. This was the class one ended it all. This secondary school misery was going to end. She’ll be free soon from nagging teachers, who felt they had some power over your life just because they had a cane. Assignments, punishments, wearing school uniforms, Boring assemblies, horrible lunch.  Oh Lord, there were so many things she couldn’t wait to leave behind. She knew she still had university ahead.

However, university wasn’t like secondary school. There was this sense of freedom one felt after leaving secondary school; like your life was finally beginning. For many, the freedom to live however one pleased without your parent’s eyes looming over you was yearned for. Tomini would love that too; not having to explain some of her decisions, where she was going, what she was doing.

University made you feel like you were finally an adult, like you are finally in the real world. No one forced you to attend classes, to go to church. No one restricted you from going out or wearing certain types of clothes. You were your own responsibility. Well, sort of, because your parents still provided for your needs.

Teens were bound to be rebels, especially when alone to make decisions. Perhaps, this was why Tomini’s dad, Wale Odukoya, made the decision to send Tomini to a private university, a Christian one, where she would be restricted.

Private universities in Nigeria have been tagged “glorified secondary schools”. In religious private universities in Nigeria, the many rules dictate how you should live, what you should wear, and sometimes even what you eat. Worship is made compulsory, sometimes attendance is taken to ensure that students don’t wriggle their way out of worship. Penalties are attached to the defilement of these rules.

Depending on the institution, phones may or may not be allowed, or certain types of phones permitted. Not all private universities are owned by religious organizations, although many of the popular ones are. Things go down differently in the non-religious private universities.

Tomini tried to persuade her dad to let her attend a federal or state university. That was real university, in her opinion. What was university life without freedom? She failed in persuading him, and perhaps it was best that she was going to attend a private university.  Her dad had scolded her. Many wished they had the privilege and here she was trying to throw it out the door.

Private Universities in Nigeria were more expensive than government-owned schools. And the frustrating thing about education in Nigeria was that public schools could go on strikes at any time, most of them indefinite. The academic calendar was usually disrupted by this. ASUU, The Academic Staff Union of Universities, just as the name implies is the body of all academic staff of public universities in Nigeria. ASUU usually called strikes due to the government’s refusal to meet the needs of the academic staff, mostly not paying salaries. The point was to make the government meet their demands. As a result, students will have to stay home until the strike was called off. The strikes could go on for weeks or even months.

Asides that, social vices were more rampant and intense in public schools than private schools. Sexual harassment of students by lecturers was quite common also.

Tomini didn’t know the exact reason her dad was shipping her to a “glorified secondary school”, but she had accepted her fate, and it was probably for her own good. The stability and security, both of lives and academics, was guaranteed to a large extent and she had decided to stop being annoyed by her dad’s decision.

Her mom always accepted whatever decision her dad made for her, and the family as a whole without question. Her dad could ask her mom to put a finger in fire and she would do it without blinking an eye. She respected him so much. Her respect, in fact, could almost be interpreted as fear. Tomini used to notice her mother’s ambience when talking to her dad. If he said something that didn’t please her, she would avoid his gaze and murmur or keep silent.