The interviewees Photo credit: Sophia Adinlewa
By: Sophia Motunrayo Adinlewa
Paul Dawodu, a final year student of History and International Relations, expected the Benin Electricity Company (BEDC) to supply adequate electricity to read for his Monday paper, "Feminism (His 418)", little did he know his only source of light would come from a faintly glowing phone flash and torch.
He held the mobile phone and torch desperately, trying to make sense of his forthcoming examination. Despite the odds, he endured, and was determined to succeed, against the system that seemed to have failed him.
For Paul, the moment was an eerie experience and a grim reminder of the harsh reality students faced everyday in the hands of Akungba BEDC after paying a whopping amount of money for electricity supply.
The second semester 2020/2021 examinations of Adekunle Ajasin University started on the 15th of January and ended on the 15th of February, 2023.
Meanwhile, every month, each hostel pays Akungba BEDC not less than N4,000 and N6,500 respectively.
In Paul's words: "It was the darkest moment in the history of Adekunle Ajasin University (AAUA), when students would stay in complete darkness during examinations.
"This is the story of AAUA students and their unwavering spirit to overcome the darkness that is shrouding their education struggle."
Also recounting his experience, the former President of the department of Sociology, Theophilus Adelekun, described the moment as painful.
"To charge my torchlight and cellphone, I had to walk a long distance to school only for the school to switch on the generator for an hour and it was annoying because I expected more."
Theophilus further expressed displeasure towards the unorganized timetable by his department.
Lamenting, he said he felt the pain more because he had to write two examinations a day.
"I remember a lot of people murmuring about this, imagine a 100 level of this same department, offering 3-core courses on the same day, not fair!". He said.
For Daniel Oluwatobiloba Adebayo, a 100-level student of Guidance and Counseling department said, "the issue of no power supply throughout the examination period was frustrating."
Also, he stated that the cashless policy made it frustrating as most charging centers where he charges his gadgets only accept cash.
"Aside from the stress of getting food due to no cash in circulation, to charge my torchlight to read for examinations was tough because I had to give cash to operators of commercial charge centers."
Similarly, Samuel Oyolola, a 200-level student of Mass Communication said "one thing that vexed me was the fact that students were not allowed to use the 2 hours allocated to each paper."
"Upon the frustrations faced before getting a place or gadgets to read, lecturers do not give us the two hours before asking us to submit. A lot of us were unable to finish the tackles of revising.
"To add fuel to the fire, the cashless policy too affected me a lot, having to queue way earlier in the morning, so, I can at least get money for transportation because I live far from school, and sometimes, I have to trek for about 20 minutes to get to school and if I was unable to get shuttle on time, that is another stress entirely.
"Moreover, finding a place to charge too is a problem due to fuel scarcity as most people could not make use of their Generator and I had to move from my house to school to charge my phone and torch, even though it is not completely safe, to prepare for night class."
However, John Olamide Atansuyi, from the department of Religion Studies, who said it was the first time experiencing the wickedness from the side of BEDC, opined that 'what doesn't kill makes someone stronger.'
AAUASU keeps mum
As at press time the Students Union General Secretary, Adeyefa Tolulope, popularly known as Elite could not provide this reporter the steps the Union took in addressing the epileptic power supply during the examinations.
Four questions were sent to the General Secretary with the electricity supply topping the list but he answered the other three and failed to attend to the first one.
Further text and calls to get Elite to react to the issue proved abortive and the WhatsApp receipt of the messages sent to him as at the time of filing this report marked blue which indicate the message was read by him.
Echo Media also reached out to the Students Union Welfare Director, Odole Mojisola, known as Voice but failed to reply to the messages sent to her.
After acknowledging the message sent to her, she assured our Reporter of attending to her questions with a voice note but as at press time, she is yet to reply and failed to pick the calls out across to her.
Her reply: "Can I send a VN tomorrow cuz it's late already and I wouldn't want to disturb those resting?"
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