The FUTO sex romp tragedy

The debauchery in the country’s higher institutions is fast becoming limitless given the spate of stories of gory and patently immoral conducts being constantly associated with students and lecturers.  Four students of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO) in Imo State recently brought this major concern about impiety to the fore once again when they allegedly engaged in unusual and wild sexual escapades under the influence of illicit drugs in their hostel. By the time the police arrived at the scene of the incident at Sunshine Lodge in Ihiagwa having been earlier informed of the conduct of the students by the caretaker of the hostel, tragedy had struck. Two of the students, both male and completely naked, had died while the remaining two, a male and a female, also nude, were  found unconscious and taken to the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Owerri.

The male student reportedly died later at the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU) while the condition of the surviving victim is still being closely monitored. The Imo State Police Public Relations Officer, Orlando Ikeokwu, confirmed the incident and pointedly indicated that the students used sex-enhancing drugs during the orgy in their hostel. The unfortunate incident mirrors the extent of decadence in the society and it is rather scary that the youths being educated to bring about salutary changes to the society are charting a new but dangerous path that is bound to lead to further rot. This testament is unsettling not only because of the appalling extent to which the society’s value system has collapsed, but also because the future, based on the current trajectory, promises to be worse.

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One curious thing about this incident is the disproportionate male-to-female ratio in the shameful and fatal conduct and this has brought another angle to the narrative.  Not a few are wondering if the tragic sex romp between the three male students and a female student was consensual or not. Many are asking the question as to whether the female student could have willingly submitted to that kind of arrangement or situation. Or was she a victim of gang rape?  Only the medical doctors at the FMC, Owerri, and the female student can provide an answer to the question. It is hoped that the lady survives and regains good health quickly so that Nigerians can have her perspective to the narrative. Also, there are different accounts of the number and types of the remnants of hard drugs found at the scene of the incident but one constant item on the list is Tramadol. But Tramadol has been banned, so how come students and other citizens still have access to it?

Virtually all the avoidable ills in this society are down to pervasive indiscipline which has become an existential challenge. And the earlier the problem is construed in that context, the better for everyone. The vice chancellor of a prominent faith-based private university in the South-West geopolitical zone recently expressed his frustration about the uncooperative attitude of some parents to the efforts by the school management to instil discipline among students of the institution. It is really a terrible and dire situation. Strangely today, many students go to school with an objective quite different from scholarship in mind. They do not focus on their studies but engage in non-academic activities and other excesses that have the capacity to ruin their lives forever.  Some of them succumb very easily to the influence of peer groups whose members engage in nefarious activities that put their lives and those of innocent students at risk.

Excessive exposure to social media that has become a veritable platform for all sorts of crimes and awkward behaviours has been blamed for the dangerous tendencies of many students of tertiary institutions. However, the truth is that exposure to social media may have worsened the situation but violent and uncivilised conducts were part and parcel of tertiary institutions in the country before the advent of social media. In any case, social media and the internet typically contain a mixed bag of information which a disciplined mind can filter to obtain what is of value. Perhaps it is time managers of the education sector began to take a second look at the seemingly unbridled liberty that students have to make critical choices.  The freedom enjoyed by students would appear to have become excessive even as they continue to fall progressively behind in the pecking order of discipline. We urge stakeholders in the education sector to seriously consider a stricter approach to the training of students in tertiary institutions.  Under the present arrangement, the emphasis is on learning while the behaviour of students is hardly scrutinised. Yet upon the completion of their studies, they are issued with certificates proclaiming them as fit both in learning and character. Therefore, situations and conditions in the institutions that will help to increase the level of supervision, especially of the behaviour of students, should be created because the tragic sex romp at FUTO is definitely not an isolated case.