MEMOIR:UNIBEN, 1982 by NWACHUKWU CYPRIAN O.

 MEMOIR:UNIBEN, 1982

How and where do I begin this write-up? Let me first say from the beginning that I am not a professional writer. Firstly, if what I am about to write doesn’t flow the way it should, please forgive and try to make as much sense as you possibly can, from the jumbled up facts. There are quite a lot of endowed writers in this unique class. Secondly my experiences in Uniben in 1982 may not be that detailed because I got into Uniben by direct entry which of course happened to be after the first two thirds or more of the year had gone past. So those who started the year 1982 in Uniben would definitely tell a better story. Prior to gaining admission into Uniben, Benin as a town didn’t mean much to me, other than the town where luxurious buses going to or coming back from Lagos do stop for passengers to eat.

Oh, how I used to look forward to those tasty dishes with the very well cooked meat that the hotel/eateries/ restaurants etc, used to prepare each time I was travelling or coming back from Lagos.

When I got my admission letter, while staying briefly with my uncle in Lagos, I came to the Admissions Office/ Exam and Records Office, at Ekenwan Campus to begin the preliminary processes of the later-to-turn-out long drawn battle for registration.  There, I ran into a female student who had then been recently offered admission into the faculty of pharmacy, I think, through direct entry as well. She advised me to go pack my things into campus immediately and start processing the registration formalities while attending lectures; confirming to me that lectures had started for the students who were admitted into medicine through PD (UME). I went back to Lagos, packed my things and came back to Benin, almost immediately. I had not secured accommodation on campus then, so I had to temporarily reside with some of my cousins in town somewhere off Sakponba road, from where I started attending lectures.

In between lectures, I would rush out to go and do one or two things concerning registration and accommodation on campus. I had missed a few lectures in the various courses while waiting for my admission to come through. This period was particularly hectic and unsettling for me.

I was attending university lectures for the first time in my life. It dawned on me that an hour’s lecture is like a week’s lecture at the secondary school level. Those who came through PD (Pre degree course) would have got used to the university lecture system by this time.

Eventually I secured accommodation at Ekenwan campus because by the time I came in, accommodation spaces had been exhausted at Ugbowo Campus. I was shuttling between Ekenwan and Ugbowo every day except on weekends, of course with the ‘Marcopolo’ luxurious school bus shuttles, which I think were quite efficient then, at least going by Nigerian standards.

While lectures were going on, interactions with other student became more, and I became aware via unofficial statistics of the failure rate at the 2^nd MB exam was enough to give me nightmares and insomnia.

Some of our class guys would ask me where I was staying, and when I say Ekenwan campus, they would tell me that those who live at Ekenwan campus during the 2^nd MB year do not usually pass the exams. Some others would say that those who came in by direct entry don’t pass the 2^nd MB.

So there I was, having two unfavourable factors against me, apart from facing the challenges that every other person from our class was facing. Then the famous (or notorious) “tripod stand” policy at the second MB level did not help matters.

(Tripod policy meant that failure in one of the three courses; Anatomy, Physiology or Biochemistry meant you repeat all three the following year. You cannot proceed to the next level until you have passed all three examinations for a tripod cannot stand on one or two legs).

My stress level was ceiling high. Throughout my first year in the medical school I never had the courage to write letters with the UBEMSA writing pad, in case stories and faculties changed after 2^nd MB.

The academic pressure was simply indescribable. When I left Lagos in a hurry to come and start attending lectures, I thought that within a couple of weeks, I would be able to visit Lagos again and pick some other of my things. I ain’t seen nothing yet. To put it bluntly, I was simply trapped by the wave of academic pressure.

Apart from eating to remain alive and doing the basic natural human activities, I forgot that I existed, not to talk of Lagos, or visiting there.

My uncle was away on his annual vacation in Jos when I came back to Benin in hurry to resume lectures.

Even though the telephone exchange office was at Ekenwan campus, where I was residing I couldn’t afford the luxury of time to go and make a call to Lagos about what was happening to me in Benin.

Days dragged into weeks and weeks into months. In the meantime, my uncle had finished his vacation and gone back to Lagos. He kept expecting that I would soon visit to intimate him on how I was coping.

When the wait became unbearable, he decided to come check me out one Saturday.  That period was not this era of mobile phones.

Firstly, he didn’t know that Uniben had two campuses. Secondly all he knew was that I was spending my first year in the university, not knowing the difference between PD and Part I. So when he got to Ugbowo, he was taken to Hall 4 (Abuja).

He kept telling me the students he saw there that he was looking for his brother who had been admitted to read medicine and was in his first year. All the people he talked to would find a Pre Degree medical student and mention my name and the student would say there is no name like that in their class. At a point they started asking him whether it was actually Uniben, and not the University of Ekpoma.

He was certain that it was Uniben because the admission letter had come through this office.

By this time, according to him, he had started sweating profusely and stammering.

He was in this state of mind when Theo Asumu (Baby Doc) happened along. One of the other students surrounding him and sympathizing with him identified Theo as a medical student, though at a different level. The asked him about me, and he told them that he knew me but that I was living at Ekenwan campus. To allay his fears, Theo told him that I came in through direct entry. He had no idea of my hostel name or room number at Ekenwan and Theo did not know either.

But at least, he had seen someone who positively confirmed that I was alive and attending lectures. By the time he got to Ekenwan campus, it was about lunch time.

The students encountered advised him to take a strategic position at the entrance to the cafeteria, that if I was on campus at that time that day, I would surely come out to eat. That was exactly what he did and some minutes later, as I came to eat someone called my name, low and behold, there he was.

His first question was what happened and I promptly replied that there was fire on the mountain. I went on to give him the details of the academic pressure and failure rate at the 2^nd MB level.

He just couldn’t blame me in spite of the stress my absence and sudden silence caused in the family.

It is with fond nostalgia that I recollect the names and faces of some of the lecturers in the departments of Anatomy, Physiology and Biochemistry in the Uniben Medical School in 1982 that with their dedication and encouragement helped to shape our character and careers.

I may not remember all of them here, not out of slight, but simply because brain don dey old a and as some of us will say, thirty years no be beans.

I wouldn’t forget Dr. Omniabous (not sure of the spelling now), the HOD of Anatomy then, who had this uncanny talent for remembering and calling every student by his name.

I always wondered and continue to wonder how he managed to do that with a class of over a hundred students. There was  Dr. Sanyal, the elderly and gentle anatomy lecturer; Dr. Singh, who simply sang anatomy and the Bulgarian (I hope) Dr. Misankov.

In physiology Prof. D.P. Photiades readily comes to mind; Dr. Adeghe (the young medical doctor/ physiologist) who did not stay very long with us; Dr. Onyia, with his comical way of delivering his lectures. A few times, one would tell Dr. Onyia that a point he made in renal physiology wasn’t quite clear and Dr. Onyia would jocularly say that he is a lecturer and not a member of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT).

In Biochemistry, I recollect Dr. Nwanze, who later became a Prof. and the university V.C at the some point, Dr. Ajibade Rokosu, who later left to become a commissioner in Lagos state then; Dr. Opoku, the Ghanaian lecturer; Dr. Campbell, the Americana biochemistry lecturer.

I recollect one time he was involved in RTA (Road Traffic Accident) and was admitted in UBTH. Some of us went to see him there, and he lamented that the pain was excruciaring (not excruciating mind you). We later made jokes out of that; even when in pains he was still blowing slangs.

Of the three basic courses of the 2^nd MB year -Anatomy, physiology and Biochemistry, Anatomy was the most difficult for me and tasked my power of imagination to almost unbearable limits.

Something will be antero-lateral to another structure, this 2^nd structure will be infero-medial to a third structure and yet this third structure will be superior to fourth structure; and on and on. Oh God!!

With no audio-visual study aids available, Anatomy was simply driving me nuts and I started growing grey hairs! If one observed me reading Anatomy then, one would think that I was developing some little mental problems, what with soliloquy and all.

My encounter with anatomy/Dissecting Hall was a different ball game altogether. With the mysterious, spiritual and sometimes mythical attachments culturally given to corpses, the first few days or weeks at the Anatomy lab were not funny at all.

This period happened to be the time I was attending lectures from my cousins’ place in town before packing to Ekenwan campus.

Their yard happens to be this face-me-I-face you kind of house with the toilet facilities separate from the main building.

Each time I went out to urinate at night, it would appear as if the cadaver (we had male cadaver on our table) was standing behind me and I would develop goose pimples. If not that my resolve to study medicine was unshakeable I would have started thinking of another course during this period.

However with determination and persistence, corpses became completely demystified for me after a few more weeks, and the struggles continued.

My entry into Great Uniben in 1982 brought me face -to –face with a host of unique campus slangs. Even though I have forgotten a lot of slangs of that era, it was such that two or more Uniben undergraduates could be conversing and if you were not in Uniben, you would find it difficult following their conversation.

I can still recollect NFA (No Future Ambition), IYC (International Year of the Child), pepperless (Food without spices for gastric ulcer sufferers), LIG (Loacally Imported Girls), Jambite (Fresh men), JSQ (Junior Staff Quarters), food rosters like:

1-1-1 (3 square meals), 1-0-1 (two meals a day; breakfast and lunch), 0-1-1 (Lunch and dinner), 0-1-0 (one main meal a day; at lunch) etc.

However, feeding wasn’t particularly a problem for most students in 1982 because students’ feeding was being heavily subsidised by the Federal Government and a meal ticket was a mere 50 kobo and a month’s meal booklet was N45.00 (forty five naira).

Even among us medical students, we had terms mostly coined from anatomy; like to be unilaterally or bilaterally denervated, to be anastomosed; we had some anatomical nick names which we gave to some of our course mates, or some of our course mates took like Gastro, Inguinal Canal, Digiti-Minimi, Decussate etc.

Social life for me in Uniben in 1982 was simply non-existent. Maybe it was same as well for a lot of the others in our class because of academic pressure and the fear of 2^nd MB.

Even on the day of our matriculation, I forgot to iron my matric gown and wore the stuff like that to the matric venue. I did not even bother. As a matter of fact, the hours spent during the matriculation ceremony and the signing of the matric register were precious hours I could ill afford. I just wanted to get the matric ceremony over with and go read any books.

The shadow of 2^nd MB kept chasing me till the end of 1982 and even beyond such that when I went home for a few days during the Christmas period, I couldn’t enjoy the holidays as I was daily going to the primary school close to our house to read. It was that bad.

In summary, Med. Uniben 1982, was a period of academic baptism of fire for me, but then it strengthened me physiologically, intellectually, emotionally and even spiritually.

This write-up will not be complete without celebrating all our course mates who survived the obnoxious “tripod stand” policy of the medical school then and ended up graduating as a doctors and making waves in the medical world in different parts of the world.

To our ladies, you all are super ladies and to the gents, you are indestructible academically.

BY

NWACHUKWU CYPRIAN O.

MED ‘87, UNIBEN   

Glossary 

NFA: National Football Association. Also No future ambition

Pepperless: Food without spices for gastric ulcer sufferers at the Uniben Food Cafeteria. Term also used to describe seemingly weak people
IYC : Acronym derived from International Year of the Child and used in a derogatory manner at people acting childishly

LIG: Locally Imported Girls- none University girls from town

Jambite: Fresh man in Nigerian University. Word derived from JAMB: Joint Admission and Matriculation Board. Body in charge of a yearly entrance examination into Nigerian Universities

JSQ :Junior Staff Quarters in Ugbowo campus of the University of Benin. Junior staff turned their living rooms into makeshift restaurants patronized by University students.