An Open Letter to the Vice Chancellor of University of Lagos

Dear Rahamon Bello!

I greet you as a youngster greets an elder. My letter is as brief as possible, because I know you are a very busy man, too busy to read my letter if I had sent it to you privately, too busy to read and reply the letters sent to you from ULSU.

Anyway, this is a letter of questions. Since I read the undertaking and indemnity form, questions have been haunting me, and I can barely sleep or even read with focus. That is why I have written you this letter. I have tried to just pour out a few of the questions haunting me.

My first question is taken from one of the greatest books I have read in my life, and from a man acclaimed to be also the greatest man that ever lived. I guess you know the book and the man already, so let me go straight to my question: “if a son shall ask bread of any of you that is father, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a serpent?” Prof. VC, what have we been asking for? What have you given us? We ask for a better welfare, you are asking us to sign for a worse welfare. We ask for bread, and you have given us stone (a heart of stone).

This leads me to another question: are you sure you are a father, precisely a good father? One thing that builds the relationship between a father and his child is effective communication, which is definitely lacking in our relationship with you. A father that is inaccessible to his child is surely not a father to be praised. Thus, you have proven to be not a good father to all Unilag students.

In this light of failed fatherhood, how can we trust you enough to go into an agreement with you? You want us and our parents to sign an undertaking and indemnity form, when you have clearly shown us that our welfare is none of your business. Is that reasonable? That is surely an abuse of power and reason.

Therefore, I appeal to you to reason with us. Fight our plights, don’t fight us. We are not your enemies; we are your children. A good father is likely to produce a good child without the child signing an agreement form to be good. We will always be good students if our leaders are good. I do not hate you, and I have not seen a reason to love you either. If there is no love between a father and his child, there is a possibility of a broken home and a broken generation. Do not break Unilag in a hate-hate relationship with the students; let us rebuild this great institution in love. I hope you understand my point, and you will think well about it. Anyway, thank you in advance.

Yours sincerely, 

Ogbeni Human

Another Concerned Unilag Student