₦airaland Forum

I left Covenant University in what could have been my final year after 5 years of pain.
Here, in one place, is the body of work that once got me suspended.
Here is the body of work that set me free.
Covenant University: The Shame, a Trilogy.

Covenant University: The Shame, a Trilogy.
Anthony Azekwoh

Kingdom of Pharisees and Sadducees: Covenant University, the Shame of Nigeria I

“I was going to die, sooner or later, whether or not I had even spoken myself. My silences had not protected me. Your silences will not protect you…. What are the words you do not yet have? What are the tyrannies you swallow day by day and attempt to make your own, until you will sicken and die of them, still in silence? We have been socialized to respect fear more than our own need for language.”- Audre Lorde

After being in Covenant for three years now, there’s this familiar shock I have whenever I see our school being praised in the media. I pause and think to myself, Is this the same Covenant I’m in? Is there a disc 2 I don’t know about? I believe that there are issues in our community, there are problems that need conversations if solutions are too far ahead, and by writing this, I am not bringing shame to my school or my country; I am bringing the shameful things to light and here, unlike the dark, they can at least be understood. I am not your god, everything I say in this essay is what I believe to be right and true, you are free to be angry, offended and even disagree, it is your right.

I think that a university, at its greatest, is a receptacle for ideas. This is a place where fresh minds come together to learn and grow and as a result, find new ways to better their community. For the student and society: a university is a place of change. A seminary is a place for theological investigation, where students are coming to learn more about the scripture and prepare themselves for a life in Christian ministry. I believe that Covenant tries to be a university and a seminary and utterly fails at both. I don’t think that any silly ranking holds weight in this conversation when students are being abused and have their basic rights denied; who has ranking helped abeg? Was Nigeria not ranked amongst the countries with the greatest potential in the world?

See, the nature of salvation is such that no matter how much you try, you can’t force it on another. I believe that a person decides whether or not they want to be saved and that decision can be made by only them. Not by their parents, not by their guardians, not by their school for gods’ sake; them and only them. That said, to think that forcing students and lecturers to go to chapel will boost spirituality is an idea that is silly at best and dangerous at worst. The chapel stops becoming a place of holy reverence and instead becomes a kind of prison where all the doors are locked and attendance is taken with biometrics while beady eyed men and women watch out to see the students who are sleeping and not standing up, while the lecturers quickly place their thumbs on the machines then turn to beat a retreat.

I believe that you insult your god when you force his own children to worship him. I believe that you insult your god by using worship of him to hurt and disenfranchise his children. I believe that you insult your god by disrespecting his place of worship.

To then use this chapel attendance as a basis to disrupt the academic activities of the students — what they’re actually paying school fees for — is an act beyond evil.

I believe that young people around my age who have issues with drugs have legitimate problems and suspending or expelling them to go back to their parents is a half assed solution to a problem that can last a lifetime, and then end it. Nobody does drugs for the fun of it, I don’t believe that any human in history has ever said, “Yo, my life is bloody amazing, everything is going right for me and by the way, can you pass the cocaine?” To be addicted at so young is an issue that should be confronted with attention and care, not with a suspension letter and shame, these students can be rehabilitated. They are not hopeless cases.

The rules of Covenant are much more than they are, they hurt everyone involved, especially the students. They empower exploiters all through the school system and allow students to be abused, physically, emotionally and sexually. With these rules, extortion and bribe become second language from security guards to lecturers. I’ve been assaulted twice now, and I can say boldly that the system does not care, they’d rather focus on whether or not we’re wearing ties and our hair is kept at an acceptable arbitrary length. But there are others who have lost much more than I have in Covenant, people who may never regain what was taken from them in this place. This is not a place of reform or spirituality, it is a kingdom of Pharisees and Sadducees where the world is upside down.

Covenant routinely disrespects its students in any way it can, placing limits where there should be none, rules where they are not needed. When students were suspending for not adhering to the dress code, their faces were shown to all of us during the chapel service so we could gawk and awe, an example was made of them but when our previous registrar was stepped down due to sexual abuse accusations, I don’t remember his picture being put up, I don’t remember there even being an announcement. When students die, they cover it up, barring the room and shifting the roommates, there are no moments of silence given, no respect to the dead.

Bad things happen in Covenant, and they don’t want you to know.

But faced against this blatant abuse of fundamental human rights, people respond with, “Well, just go to another school. I mean, is Covenant the only school that is there? If you go there you have to follow the rules.” My response coincides with Owei Lakemfa’s: I believe that it is the responsibility of any man or woman blessed enough to have resources to build a university to make a conducive and safe environment for students to learn not a prison camp that conditions students for mediocrity and abuse.

Then the people retort with, “But CU students are making waves all round, what they are doing is working.” I have two responses to this. I believe strongly that any person that was able to make it through Covenant did so despite Covenant and not because of it. This is a place that retards growth and knowledge and can never be the birthplace of anything great. The second is this: even if Covenant was producing Nobel Laureates every year, how would that make what it did to students right? What exactly would that change?

When we were younger, our mother told us that nothing in this world was free, I’ll advance this: everything has a price. Speaking as I have will have a price, the same way that being silent would have. There will never be a safe time to speak, there will always be something to lose and as the time goes on, what you can lose only gets larger. Education, I feel is one of the only guaranteed ways to get us out of where we are now. But I don’t see how any place can even dare to boast that it breeds a new generation of leaders when all it does is revitalise the spirit of old ones in young students.

A friend once told me that Covenant was an ideal that was allowed to live and I agree. The idea of Covenant should have been left well alone in a dark room and never have been brought into inception. Regardless, schools — if they can be called that — like Covenant, Babcock, Landmark, Madonna and their ilk serve a very important purpose: they are clear lessons telling us exactly what happens when religious organisations are free to run amok and do whatever they want. Maybe in the future, when the conversation somehow arrives at the topic of making a new university with a religious backbone, our descendants will frown and shake their heads, pointing in disgust at the past that narrowly escaped them, and maybe they’ll remember what we are now learning: silence comes first, and then, hell.

The Power of One: Covenant University, A Shame of Nigeria (II)

Itbegan like those spy movies, where the authorities finally have the criminal cornered, and he has nowhere else to go.

The door burst open and the man was there, standing in the doorway with his arms crossed. “Get up,” he said. “Get changed. You’re coming with me.”

I put down my stylus — I was painting a self portrait for my birthday in two days — and I began to wear my clothes, patting down my hair. My roommates weren’t around, it was just me.

I didn’t ask him any questions, to do that would have been an insult to both of our intelligences — we both knew why he was here. We both knew what I had done.

As I was led away, there were stares and confused looks as I passed. I smiled and nodded, but that was to hide my shaking fingers and sweating back.

We got out of Joseph Hall, into the white bus, and we began the drive to CDS, where, for better or worse, Fate waited for me.

I was taken to the MSS office where I was sat down and my essay was read back to me.

I winced.

The woman looked at me, sighed, and took off her glasses. “Do you recognise these words?” She asked.

I nodded. “Yes,” I said. “I do.”

“Are you the one that wrote this…essay?”

I nodded again. “Yes.”

She smiled then, but it was the smile a shark would smile after cornering its prey. Then, she chuckled. “You don’t know what you’ve gotten yourself into,” she said. “Don’t you know the curse of Papa is on any who opposes him? And you, you’re just one person, what do you think you can do?”

I was quiet as beads of sweat rolled down my face. She was right.

In the office, there was a girl crying, filling an offence form. Her twitter account had retweeted porn and the school authorities got wind of it. She knew what was coming.

She continued. “Well, you’ll soon see, don’t you understand that this is libel, what you’ve said against your school? Are you not ashamed?” She stared into my eyes with the disgust saved for the devil himself, and she reached into her cupboard and brought out an offence form. She didn’t need to tell me much; I knew the drill.

“Hold on,” she said, looking at me, her eyes narrow. “In that form, you’ll say everything that Covenant has done to you. You better.”

So, I held the form in my hand, and the pen in my other, and I knew I had a decision to make. See, I’ve been in enough situations to know a trap when I see one. And this…this form, it was definitely one.

I wrote on it.

On the next day, May 16th, a day before my birthday, I was called to the Student Disciplinary Council on the count of “Impersonation: bearing a false witness of Covenant University to the media”.

I was scared.

I was lost.

I didn’t know what to do.

Waiting with me the next day were people with different offences. A group of final year women were there because their buttons didn’t cover up enough. Some guys were there for some dress code violation or the other. A family friend, beside me, was there because of an issue with a device technician. Different, yes, but, in all of us, was the idea that we were, supremely, bleeped.

When my turn came, after two hours, I walked to the gallows with shaky feet and weary bones. I hadn’t slept much the night before.

I stood before the council, men and women who I had seen once or twice, none who knew me personally, and then, the Head of Student Affairs, my essay in hand, read it out loud to the room.

Nobody said a word, everybody looked at me.

I had many thoughts of what they would say to me, many ideas and conspiracies about what they would do, but none, absolutely none, had a kind looking woman in them, staring into my eyes and asking, “What did we do to you?”

I paused.

When Nigerian elders ask what you did, it’s mostly because they’re about to take your words and hit you with them. But the way she looked, the way the others looked, something about it made me talk, and so, I did.

I told them about my religious life, and how I didn’t go to church, I told them about how hard it was to conform. I told them about my issues with their policies. I told them I didn’t mean to offend anyone, and that I’d take it down if need be, but that I just wanted to speak out.

And these men and women sat there, and they listened.

But those were half-truths, which, as you know, are only half-lies.

So, when I was asked, “Where you forced into this school?”

I paused. “No,” I lied. “I wasn’t.”

But, thinking about it now, months later, I shouldn’t have lied. I should’ve been honest. I was scared, and worried about what they’d do, and all that was on my mind was the many, many ways my father would kill me.

But still, I shouldn’t have lied.

I should have said yes, that I was. And most of us were. I should’ve gone on and told them the full truth of my experience. Of the thoughts I had, when my roommates were asleep, and all I would do was cry, and cry, because I was so unhappy, I wanted to kill myself. I should’ve told them that in these three years, I hadn’t known peace, that every semester felt like I was drowning deeper and deeper with the way I was treated. That, after the two assaults, I just didn’t feel like a whole human being anymore.

I should’ve told them about a friend of mine, who was taken advantage of by a lecturer, or my roommates, some of the strongest people I ever knew, who were driven to a dark depth when the suppressed attendance sheets were released. I should’ve told them that what they were doing, just wasn’t right. That they were hurting us.

But, I didn’t.

After I wrote my essay, students, hall officers, and even lecturers began to recognise me, and all of them bore that look on their face, the one that said, “That was just what I was thinking. Thank you.” And for me, that was more than enough. I want to write, and speak, and I want people to listen.

My pain in Covenant began with me, three years ago, crying on a foreign pillow, far from home, and scared of what would come next, but the pain ends with this: with me typing this essay and letting go of this weight on my back. I refuse to drown anymore.

There are so many people who have had their lives diverted because of this place, and I don’t think it’s right to ignore their stories. Stories are more important than you think, stories are what made Covenant what it is.

I write what I write, not out of spite, or anger, or attention, but for a need to see this place, and the people in it, myself included, become better......

Where do I even start. This was painful to read.
Abuse of power while using religion as disguise for many atrocities.
Dare I say we've turned a mere mortal like ourself to God. Question is why does a supposedly Christian sch cover up these wrongs?
Let me leave these here:

Jeromejnr:
My fellow Eagle.

You just reminded of Revo, Mario and Fadugba regime.

I remember when Fadugba told my hall Daniel hall to write the whole book of Luke as punishment.

If you can survive there, you will be very sharp.

Exousiang01:
LoL.
I am an Eagle.
One of the craziest ones at that.
Everything this young man has complained about made me what I am today.

Anyone who can be crazy and still survive CU is a real nigga.
This young man is a weakling.

I started using my phone from my 200level in Paul Hall, even student council members knew I used phone.
There was a time I didn't attend chapel service for an entire session, NOT SEMESTER OHH.

Yet me and my crew made it out.
Today I will would be one of the greatest drug dealers in this country if I chose to follow that path because I had it on the lock.
I would be a great politician if I wanted cos I had many Revo, Student council and Student affairs in my pocket.

The unfortunate thing is in their attempt to create Holly and robotic students, they helps us discover our potentials in the most negative ways.....

The young man was a weakling.
CU is for the strong.


E wan be bad guy for CU and e no get mind, e no wise.

All these new generation CU students.

Na we be th men wer give Fadugba headache.
Oyinloye, Mario hunted me.

I remember Mario told me one day at the basketball court after taking my iTouch and returning it, He said. "Whatever you are doing to get away, one day we will get you" The joke is forever on him.

HeatSeeker:
Zero empathy. Smh!

Fountainofyouth:
So his problem with CU is the strict rules and chapel attendance lmao, I read all he said and I don't see any illegal thing they do at CU, they want a private Christian University where students can live as married couple, where sex and money can be exchanged for good grades, where 1st class is for lecturers only, where buying handouts from lecturers qualifies you for good grades etc

These sets will say anything to bring the christian faith and their schools down by any means, forgetting that Christianity brought development and civilisation to Nigeria and Africa as a whole

We are obviously in an era where Christians are being persecuted all over the world, but they will never prevail, the gates of hell can never prevail, and Covenant University will continue to be the best University in Nigeria.

Kaczynski:
He did the right thing


Schooling is a complete waste of time.




If you have figured it out while or before uni, just drop out of the system.

Fountainofyouth:
A school cert holder talking, my pity is for ur kids because u will intentionally make them illiterates

Imagine trying to project failures on others to invite more onto their fold

Even billionaires that didn't attend or dropped out of school went back to complete their education because they know the significance of being a university graduate.

Kaczynski:
Its your mere ignorance and nonchalant attitude thinking that being a graduate is a big deal. Even Seun did not graduate from uni look at you using his forum.

I let my kids do whatever they want with ground rules . we are literally in the 21st century where you can educate yourself and prove you got skills , no need to join the herd of sheep and do whatever the system tells you to .


Thank god the job market is gradually dealing with yall folks there . It no longer certs but more of skills.

Your prefrontal cortex is literally windows xp .

Fountainofyouth:
A failure that doesn't that it is possible to be a graduate and acquire different skills, will continue to be a failure

A failure that tries to discourage others from being graduates cos his limited mindset and -0 IQ thinks one can only make it through acquired skills will continue to be an everlasting failure

A failure that thinks just cos one in a hundred thousand is able to make it without being graduate, especially in a country like Nigeria, will continue to be a failure till the end of time

An irredeemable failure will limit those around him, manipulate unsuspecting innocents to be like him thinking his average lifestyle is the yardstick

Stay away from failures today people, for posterity sake, pls stay away.

Exousiang01:
LoL.
I am an Eagle.
One of the craziest ones at that.
Everything this young man has complained about made me what I am today.

Anyone who can be crazy and still survive CU is a real nigga.
This young man is a weakling.

I started using my phone from my 200level in Paul Hall, even student council members knew I used phone.
There was a time I didn't attend chapel service for an entire session, NOT SEMESTER OHH.

Yet me and my crew made it out.
Today I will would be one of the greatest drug dealers in this country if I chose to follow that path because I had it on the lock.
I would be a great politician if I wanted cos I had many Revo, Student council and Student affairs in my pocket.

The unfortunate thing is in their attempt to create Holly and robotic students, they helps us discover our potentials in the most negative ways.....

The young man was a weakling.
CU is for the strong.


E wan be bad guy for CU and e no get mind, e no wise.

All these new generation CU students.

Na we be th men wer give Fadugba headache.
Oyinloye, Mario hunted me.

I remember Mario told me one day at the basketball court after taking my iTouch and returning it, He said. "Whatever you are doing to get away, one day we will get you" The joke is forever on him.

nasbiafra:
this guy na proper m u m u





nhh

Kaczynski:
He did the right thing


Schooling is a complete waste of time.




If you have figured it out while or before uni, just drop out of the system.