Ozumba Run

By EZEH MATTHEW O.  and Ezinma Ukairo U.

Everyone hates Mondays and 1st June, 2015 was no different. As law students, our class rep had already posted on class whatsapp that we would be having Evidence by 8 am and all other lectures would follow suit. I hated Mondays; it not only marked the beginning of another week but the end of the weekend-no pun intended. But you see the previous weekend had been eventful; we had rioted. Why did we riot, you ask? Well, my school, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus had decided we would be having epileptic power supply and it had been going on for a while and we were tired. So Sunday night was the straw that broke the camel's back.

It started with GH boys, the riot I mean; then IJ boys joined and they let loose to voice their views about the way the school had been treating us. For Christ sake, we were not having light during the day and at night they had decided to ration-two hours only. But Sunday night was different, because only a few hostels had the normal two hours and the school got covered in darkness. I pray you not to get it twisted, the light issue had been there much before the fuel scarcity. So we had reason to say "Enough is enough!" It pained us that the school had defied the common doctrine of social contract. So we marched! From hostel to hostel to the gate and back; to the Dean's house and even to the much secluded Presidential hostel. We needed to make our grievances heard. The protest eventually ended and it was "To your tents oh Israel"

The next day came; Monday, the bane of my existence. No lecture held mostly because our lecture hall, Coscharis, wants to give River Niger a run for its money. So, at first it was like a rumour that we would be sent home for two weeks following the protest which had taken place. The uncertainty generated by the rumour fuelled various discussion groups which dotted the landscape from Presidential Hostel to G.H. It was eventually settled as various notices were placed at strategic points to the effect that students had been given a mandatory two weeks mid-semester break and were ordered to vacate the school within 24 hours.

The 'boys' with blood still boiling from the escapades of the previous night were yearning for another much needed showdown. However, this time around, the GH boys were not ready to provide the much needed spark and inspiration and the school had equally involved the police. Same school deemed it unfit for us to equally have any light that night. As such, even our two hours were taken away from us on Monday night i.e. for more than 24 hours, the school treated us like inmates. Thus, the devil, on learning that he had no place in our midst, flew to Nsukka, where, as story has it 5 boys were injured in the resultant protest.

The next morning, Tuesday, 2nd June, 2015, as the deadline drew close, the school management developed an ingenious isolation policy which Yakubu Gowon and Obafemi Awolowo would have been proud of; food, water and other necessaries were all prevented from entering the school. Worse still, the women in charge of photocopying were denied access to the school thus frustrating students who were very desperate to photocopy all 'photocopiables'. Most students were forced to go outside the school to photocopy the relevant materials so as to ensure that they would read during the two weeks. Whether they would read at all is a question of fact.

Then the exodus started, like clips from the movie 'Half of a Yellow Sun'. The lucky ones left early and Ibiam girls formed cooperative societies to charter taxis and boys, on the other hand, tried to see their girlfriends. Even the food sellers whom were locked out without warning wondered with worn faces on how to dispose the food and recoup. The capitalists had already formed cartels to provide transport services at ridiculous prices. As the Igbo proverb goes "obodo adighi nma bu uru ndi nze". These entrepreneurs, true to their defi