IN yet another exhibition of the moral decadence, abnormality and illogicality fast gaining traction in the country, a female student of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University recently assaulted one of the university’s lecturers, Dr. Chukwudi Okoye, of the Department of Theatre Arts and Film Studies. The assailant, Precious Goddy-Mbakwe, a third-year student of the Department of History and International Relations, reportedly pounced on the lecturer for having the temerity to ask her to give him the right of way on a walkway in front of the Faculty of Arts of the university, where she was recording a TikTok video! It is unclear what came over this rude student because the encounter should not have resulted in a physical combat. Besides, the young lady, apparently a tomboy, knew she was unlikely to win a physical battle with an able-bodied relatively young lecturer, yet she went ahead to engage in a largely unprovoked assault on a lecturer of a university where she is a student!
That a student could throw decency and decorum to the wind so whimsically to commit an egregious affront on a lecturer on the altar of a TikTok recording that is neither related to the pursuit of her course of study in the university, nor sanctioned by the authority of her department speaks volumes about the depreciation of moral values in every segment of the Nigerian society, including the Ivory Tower. Again, it is bad enough that any student would assault a lecturer but it is even worse that a female student did that. Societal expectations place more on the female, and rightly so, as the more important of the two parents that a child has. What kind of a parent would this apparently ill-mannered student be to any child?
Recently, we addressed the abomination committed by some secondary school students in Kogi State who disguised as cultists to attack their Physics teacher, whom they beat up mercilessly until he slipped into a coma! While the young ages of the students and their limited experience in life could be adduced as reasons for their huge mistake, but certainly not to explain away their atrocious action, what can anyone say of a full-grown lady who is a third-year student in a public university? It is comforting that rather than blindly siding with one of their own, the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has condemned the incident and called for a thorough probe. The university authorities, too, waded into the matter. The acting Head of Information, Public Relations and Protocol of the university, Injelita Louis, signed a statement confirming that the vice chancellor, Professor Joseph Ikechebelu, ordered a full scale investigation into the incident, assuring members of the university community and the general public that justice would be served. The student has now been expelled from the university.
The story is most unfortunate, especially with the clear video evidence showing that a lecturer was at the receiving end of an assault by a lady and a student in a university where they both lecture and study respectively. Perhaps the intention of the student was to disrespect and embarrass the lecturer or provoke him into throwing caution to the wind, and thereby implicate him. For if Dr Okoye had forcefully defended himself or responded physically to the attack on him by Miss Goddy-Mbakwe, the latter could have been badly hurt and that would have changed the narrative.
The incident necessarily prompts a few questions. Why would a student be making a social media video on a walkway? Why was she engaging in extracurricular activities at a busy hour to the point of constituting a hindrance to the free movement of other members of the university community? Why couldn’t a member of the university community, and a lecturer for that matter, be accorded freedom of passage on a walkway without a fuss? Why beat up a lecturer or launch an attack on an older person in a supposedly civilised community where members are well educated and exposed, and so are expected to appreciate the significance of decency and decorum? If university students with the benefit of their exposure and learning do not have character, what then do they have? Or has this student, in particular, forgotten that the certificate of proficiency that is issued at the expiration of any course of study is usually predicated on the issuer’s satisfaction with the beneficiary’s record of performance both in learning and character?
When did the society descend to the level where students are raising their hands against their teachers or lecturers? In the days of yore, a student dared not protest being flogged by his teacher, let alone raise his/her hand against them in retaliation. While corporal punishment may have understandably become old-fashioned in a learning environment, it is a good reason physical attack or even verbal assault on a teacher or lecturer should remain the height of absurdity and abnormality that should not be condoned but seriously punished. Otherwise, lecturers and teachers could become an endangered species within the learning environment with dire consequences on the quality of instructions on both academics and morality. Perhaps after realising the enormity of the avoidable problem she had led herself into, Miss Goddy-Mbakwe, in an apparent afterthought, reportedly claimed that she didn’t know that her victim was a lecturer even though she had admitted that fact much earlier.
She was also said to have claimed that the lecturer held her inappropriately but had no evidence to prove that. The aberrant student is by no means a good ambassador of her family. She exhibited defective upbringing which might have arisen from the inadequacy of informal education, notably home training, or she was simply unteachable. Something must be wrong with her background for her to have behaved so horribly in the public. And she is not alone: a lot of young people have problem respecting the older generation. This is a frightening inclination amongst young people and it is a sad commentary on the Nigerian society and its future. A critical aspect of the duties of teachers/lecturers is to act as pathfinders to students in learning and character as well as calling them to order whenever they err, not the other way round.
The only way to rein in the pernicious tendency of flipping roles between students and their teachers, especially the burgeoning show of disdain for the latter by the former, is to ensure that severe sanctions attend every untoward incident. That is why it is really pleasing to learn that the committee set up by the university authorities to investigate the unpleasant encounter between Goddy-Mbakwe and Dr Okoye submitted its report and recommended the expulsion of the unruly lady from the university. And the university’s Senate approved the recommendation. No one is happy that the academic pursuit of the young lady may have come to an abrupt end, at least for now, but the truth is that she inflicted the misfortune upon herself by putting up an aberrant and bizarre behaviour in a civilised community. If serious offences start attracting serious sanctions, many will learn to stay within the precincts of the law, decency and decorum.
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