Night or Day in Ogba Femi: The City That Never Sleeps

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“The lobbies are too quiet and the streets too empty” is the tale told by some Cities, but certainly not our own City – Ògbá Fémi! Interestingly enough, the Obafemi awolowo university campus breeds all manner of personalities, making it utterly impossible to keep its community from busyness either it is daytime or night.

A typical night in OAU is usually busy, although definitely not as busy as during the day. You’ll usually see students as early as 1am – 3am moving around Campus, some are probably returning from a night class, some have decided to come withdraw some cash from one of the ATMs at the Banking Area so as to get ‘risky’ for a bit of strength to carry on with their overnight reading – Oh! That wonderful feeling when you’re coming from Academics at 3am and you find that Seun Risky hasn’t closed🙈, while some being jobless may singlehandedly decide to take a stroll to somewhere as far as the Faculty of EDM.

Oh! You’ve never been to the O.A.U. Campus? Perhaps, you should visit someday to see all for yourself!! There’s no difference between the Day and Night; this is because there are usually activities every now and then on the Campus. From Academic activities to Commuting, from Business activities to Sporting Activities, from Religious activities to Social events. Oh! Is it even the love in the air? All these happen every minute! Every second!
Literally, the “O.A.U. City” never goes to sleep.

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Let’s take a look at all of these activities as they pervade every minute that rolls by on the O.A.U. Campus.

• Academic Activities (Classes during the day, evening tutorials & Overnight reading/classes): Being a Citadel of learning, Ogbá Femi is known to be bustling with Academic activities. After the usual day-to-day classes, you’d see students organizing evening tutorials amongst themselves. In fact, there are usually night classes and overnight readings as well, especially when exams are fast approaching; all in a bid to have a good and full grasp of all they’ve been taught. You know, struggling to pass well… “For Learning and Culture, Sports and STRUGGLE”

At night, you will see Students migrate in their large number, from their hostels to Academic area in order to read. Do not be shocked when you get to Academic area and you’re unable to find an empty seat, because everywhere would have been occupied by students, READING! Omo, Ogbá Fémi students are everly Jacking ooo (reading), they oppress with BOOKS than they do with money. Kai! é take it easy, plixxx

• Hostel Life: Hostel life on Ògbá Fémi is an entire documentary on its own (Mayhap, I should start running a Commentary for O.A.U. Halls of Residence🤔).

Busy, noisy and of course, Interactive; the Halls of residence at O.A.U., especially those of the Male are usually populated, battling with hygiene, taken by aro (cruise)
and not without roommates’ saga. You will never ever find Halls like Awo quiet, especially at night! These guys are always catching cruise.

Speaking of Population, the School’s Management already allotted a room to students numbering between 4 – 8, but don’t be caught by surprise when you find 12 students or even more in one room – Squatters.
Who is a Squatter? A squatter is an illegal occupant of the school hostel. It is funny how these squatters have their belongings in these hostel rooms, but they must not be caught by the security agents called Porters because… Hmmm, o le wu ooo (it is very dangerous).

When it comes to roommates’ saga, different things come to mind – Is it the fights? The football arguments? Name it!
When it comes to Cooking, oppressors do exist! When these ones set out to cook, the whole block is reliably apprised by merely perceiving the aroma.

Reading? The way some people read at FAJ ehnn… If you’re someone with a low self esteem, you’re definitely getting oppressed. This is because the only time you get to see these readers is when they come to cook, sleep at midnight or take their bath and they have to knock to enter into the room, ’cause the person is always away from the Hostel, reading ni shaaa.

• Business Activities: Ògbá Fémi is undoubtedly a place where many different business thrive; this is as a result of different demands by students and staff being on the increase. You’d hardly get stranded on Campus when you need to get something for your stomach, even late into the night (midnight) as different kinds of business activities do exist on Campus – Is it the puff puff seller popular known as “As e dey hot”?, the bread and egg sellers popularly known as “risky sellers”?, the Aboki selling Suya? We have those who sell snacks too (Biscuits and all), as well as Food sellers, amongst other businesses.

The good news about Ògbá Fémi’s business activities is that, not only goods are being sold, services too are being rendered as we have the services of the Shoe Cobblers, the Printers, the Calculator Repairers/Engineers, the Hair Salon and many more, although these services do not extend late into the night.

All of these business activities have their various times when they make fast sales, and as rational sellers/traders on Ògbá Fémi, these traders know the right place and time to come up with their business activities.

Students are not to be excluded when it comes to business activities ooo. Some of the students engage themselves by selling edibles to other students in class before Lectures get started, some even use the Pre-lecture minutes to advertise what they sell to their colleagues in class. With all these, it is very evident that Ògbá Femi remains one of the best places for businesses to thrive.

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• Events (Inaugural lectures, symposiums, debates, convocation, matriculation and parties amongst students): There’s usually one event or the other happening on the O.A.U. Campus. It could be an Inaugural Lecture, a Symposium amongst students, departmental debates, annual Matriculation and Convocation.

Oh! I didn’t mention… There’s usually parté after parté as well; happening mainly on weekends and organized amongst different groups of students. Asides these are events where Celebrities are invited. One of such was Kenny Blaq’s State of Mind Tour in March 2020.

• Religious Activities: Nigerians are inseparable from their various religions, and as a Nigerian University with about 95% Nigerian students, religious activities are on the high side.

On the O.A.U. Campus, you’d see fellowships hold at the Sports Complex sporadically. Not limited to the Sports Complex, religious activities also hold in Lecture theatres and of course, Religious Ground.

On the Religious Ground, there are Churches as well as Mosques for students to worship. Virtually everyday, religious activities hold on the Religious Ground. This points to the fact that students are usually busy not only with academics, but with religious activities as well.

• Commuting (Commuters here & there; buses & legediz Benz 😃): Either it is Day, Night or even Midnight, you will always find students on Campus. Some are moving from one Lecture Theatre to another, moving from Hostel to Class, moving from Class to Hostel, moving from Class to town or even coming from town to class.

Till late in the night, the O.A.U. Campus is usually home to Cars, Buses and Motorcycles. However, the movement from town to Campus isn’t as pronounced once it’s 10pm because there are no buses in sight, except for persons who have Cars and need to move around Campus.

Most times, you’d see some serious students that are tired of reading and are heading back to their Halls to sleep. I mean, to have sweet dreams.
As we all know, it is impossible to cheat on nature. Hence, once it is time for them to answer nature’s call, they stroll down to their Halls.

About strolling, some persons may decide to stroll round the Campus in a bid to take sleep away, so as to read effectively. This does not rule out the fact that unserious elements as well may decide to stroll, whiling away time.
The truth remains that you will always find students around no matter the time!

As a matter of fact, during long breaks / holidays when students ought to be home, a large number of O.A.U. students remain on Campus… Still keeping it busy as ever.

• Banking Activities:
Ah! Banks. You either have to visit the Bank to open an Account, Deposit money, Pay school fees, Request ATM Card, Lodge a Debit Complaint at the Customer Service Section, etc. OR need to withdraw some cash for a pressing need. All these contribute in making O.A.U. a busy place.

Every student has definitely experienced delay at the Banking Hall or at the ATM stand at one point or the other. This could be very annoying, knowing that you have classes and other activities to catch up with.

Worse still, it gets to your turn and the Teller tells you that that they ran out of service (no network) OR the ATM says “Temporarily Unable to Dispense Cash”. Oh my gosh! You’d be totally pissed – After the long queue! But what can you do than to quickly join another queue on another Bank’s ATM or angrily return to Class.

• Sporting Activities:
Boys love Football! Yasss, they do! Although not all.

One of the activities that keep the Campus busy, especially on weekends is Sporting activities, mainly Football.

My department could be playing against your department, or my Faculty against yours. This helps boys to build interpersonal relationships with school mates.

• Lovers: Don’t you know that Love birds also contribute to the “wokeness” of O.A.U.?

Behind the curtain of Academic activities, we have students who have decided to play ‘Romeo and Juliet’ which may later end in ‘premium tears’. This set of students are mostly found in the open, very deep in the night at one corner… Perhaps, smooching and doing all sorts that lovers do. Unbeknownst to them, they could have been seen very clearly by passersby – do they even care?

They are not hard to find in Lecture theatres too. I mean, for every Lecture theatre you step into, you’d always find lovers at strategic spots, cuddling, kissing, fondling, etc. under the guise of night reading.
As a matter of fact,
We have boys that only take their bath occasionally; not even when they are going for classes, but when they are at the verge of meeting some pretty damsel, and they tend to wear every perfume/body spray they come across, just to smell nice and impress the lady whom they are going to see.

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At Midnight, you’d find these lovers in dark spots on campus, and as always, they serve as oppression to students who are single… Lol.
Many of them claim to have left their various Halls with the mindset of reading and preparing for their upcoming tests and exam, but it eventually turns out that the whole night was about romance. Funny to find that some even sleep off in each other’s arms while cuddling.
To catch a seamless view of these love birds, you could visit AngloMoz or Motion ground; It’s in abundance therein.

By and large, deep into the night, O.A.U. ushers in the real indigenes and becomes the bustling city that never sleeps.
In the midst of all of these late night activities, you can imagine how safe the Campus is as there is no fear of being attacked by Hoodlums/Bandits/Cultists. This only reminds us how potent the security system is in O.A.U. when compared to other Varsities where students’ safety is not guaranteed even during the day.

“…Great Ifé, I love you… There’s only one Great Ifé in the Universe. Another Great Ifé is a counterfeit…”

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© Uthman Danfodio, Awotunde Theophilus et Abdul-hakeem Akiyode

-Inside OAU innovations

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