Yabatech’s asinine ‘embargo’ and an Insider’s account

Last February, just a few days before Valentine’s, some concerned students of Yaba College of Technology, aka Yabatech, organized one of the most devastating riots in the history of the college, following the death of a female student in the college’s medical centre. The issue then, I think, was that the medical workers had been somewhat passively complicit in the death of the student, who had been rushed into their care earlier, and to whom they had given little or no serious medical attention. I cannot really remember the details of the event, but I recall that everyone agreed that the college was to blame for the poor girl’s death – well, except maybe some members of the college’s academic staff.

Shortly after the news of the girl’s death spread, some students, especially those who had been directly involved in caring for the girl, promptly organized themselves into a riot group. They toured the campus: went from place to place, building to building, leaving nothing but wreckage in their wake. They weren’t exactly mourners, although it was partly grief that united them; they were pioneers of a serious cause. Many of the students who later joined the rioters hadn’t ever met the girl; some might even confess to having not felt a shred of grief – and they didn’t need to! The rage was just enough. They were all too familiar with the appalling mediocrity with which the many institutions in the college were run – and this is coming from someone who has spent the last two years in the college.

Now, my mission isn’t to justify the cause of the riot, – that, I think, is self-evident – I’m only interested in bringing to light a recent happening which takes its root from that incident months ago: the ‘embargo’ on the final results of all graduating OND students. This ban, placed on the first and second semesters results of this year’s graduating students shortly after the results were released some four weeks ago, a sort of punishment for the sins of the riot, prevents the students from printing the results.

I am still in disbelief of this new development! If we are to look beyond the sheer inanity of this ‘idea’ of punishment, as well as its flagrant needlessness, we are left to wonder: is this really what has become of the once great Yabatech, this sad eye-for-an-eye, or, as some would call it, do-me-I-do-you, business? And, really, whose idea was it?

For what it’s worth, let me say categorically now that the popular concept of Great Yabatech, or Yaba the Great, is nothing but a carefully-constructed and resilient façade; nothing but a rumour, deliberately cooked up and continually spread, decade in, decade out, by specific people whose job it is. You see, Yabatech has a very efficient propaganda machine, disguised as a Public Relations department. I know this first-hand. The Public Relations Officer, Dr. Charles Oni, knows how to do his job. When the riot happened in February and various media houses stormed the college, Dr. Oni said some really interesting things to them – things that most of us students didn’t exactly agree with. So: thanks to its P.R. department, Yabatech has a very good public image. Much of what the outside world knows of the college comes from the media, and much of what the media is fed is controlled, regulated. And this has gone on, I think, for too long; so long, in fact, that it is almost refreshing to have an opportunity to give a candid insider’s account.

But, where to begin? It’d be a devastating lie to claim that I’ve always been this clear-eyed about the college. At some point, I, too, believed the popular narrative of greatness that was efficiently circulated all over the country. You know, how an uncle or a father’s friend would come around and say things like: ‘Have you thought of applying to Yabatech? Such a brilliant school. My friend’s daughter is there. Yaba the Great! It was the very first tertiary institution in Nigeria! Even the famous University of Ibadan is an offspring of Yabatech.’ Of course, these wonderful advisors weren’t anything if not persistent – and they always seemed to ‘know someone there who can help with your admission.’ There were also so many stories that illustrated their point; stories in which Yabatech graduates are given some opportunity denied graduates of other polytechnics. So, when I filled my Jamb form a few years ago and chose Yaba College of Technology, it was with high hopes. I had made the right choice! I was going to a good school!