WHEN THERE ARE NO STREET LIGHTS
Boredom, neither a state of happiness nor contentment. That was the situation I found myself on the 13th of March 2015, I had just finished the seventh movie on my laptop, and I still felt locked in and restrained physically, emotionally and intellectually. Oh! law faculty, if only we did not have to finish departmental exams so early and then wait for the so spaced GS courses, I would have been home or anywhere else apart from school, but here I was waiting for my last paper which was spaced two weeks from the last paper I wrote. It was a Friday evening and as usual, the hostel was quiet and since I never valued dating a UNEC boy, and most of my casual male friends were occupied (with their girlfriends of course), I decided to take a long walk to the gate. I took my bath, wore a pair of trousers and my favorite pink cotton blouse and bathroom slippers and headed to the gate from my hostel Adelabu. As was my practice, I took the generator house route towards Lagos love garden and then I would take a short break at the roundabout on my way I remembered my dear friend Chinwe who actually introduced me to walking as a leisure habit. I called her and told her to meet me at the roundabout; this was at about 7:30 pm.
Walking on the streets of UNEC is a beautiful thing, and for three years I have done so without the fear of being harassed apart from the few advances I get from some guys that I could easily handle but little did I know that things were about to change. Walking past the environmental faculty towards the DVC's office, I got a whatsapp message from my sweetheart. I was in the process of tying in my password, when my phone was suddenly snatched from my hands, I simply laughed and asked the person to give back my phone thinking it was someone I knew but as I raised my head I found out that they were two strangers and the place was really dark and I could barely see their faces; I could only hear their voices. I started praying for a car to pass so that I would be safe but it seemed like all the cars went to the filling station to get fuel. I actually became afraid when one of the guys pulled my hair; I thought I was going to be raped. I nicely asked the guys to return my phone but, instead I got a sound slap for a response. One of the guys asked me for the money I was holding and started searching me. After the unfruitful search, he asked me to run back to my hostel and when I refused to heed, he threatened to shoot me, I laughed because it all sounded like a big joke to me. As they ran towards the gate, I could see what they were wearing. I started heading back when it dawned on me that I just lost my phone that was barely two months old I wept. The shout of my crazy friend brought me back to reality as I started explaining my ordeal to her. She acted on impulse and instead of running to the hostel; she started running to the gate to meet up with the guys. I had to stop her because even if she saw them, there was nothing she could do. We took a cab to the gate to make a report to security. On getting to the gate, I gave a description of the boys and they stopped and searched any person of that description, immediately two boys who perfectly fit the description walked past. They were stopped, but I was 99.9 % sure that they were not the thieves. First, they were my classmates and did not sound one bit like the guys who harassed me. Besides, they were way taller than the two boys who took my phone. I quickly told the security men to stop searching and I apologized to my classmates for the inconvenience.
Even when I got to the hostel, I still could not resist the recurring thought in my head "taking a walk in UNEC is now very risky for girls". Despite the fact that I admit I was wrong for walking on the road all alone, I found myself wondering whether things would have been different if the place was not so dark, if there were street lights on the road. While I am getting over my phone grief, I am not alone in asking for the safety of UNEC girls, street lights are not too much to ask for and they might add a much needed credibility to the SUG.
BY GOODNESS IBANGAH
Walking on the streets of UNEC is a beautiful thing, and for three years I have done so without the fear of being harassed apart from the few advances I get from some guys that I could easily handle but little did I know that things were about to change. Walking past the environmental faculty towards the DVC's office, I got a whatsapp message from my sweetheart. I was in the process of tying in my password, when my phone was suddenly snatched from my hands, I simply laughed and asked the person to give back my phone thinking it was someone I knew but as I raised my head I found out that they were two strangers and the place was really dark and I could barely see their faces; I could only hear their voices. I started praying for a car to pass so that I would be safe but it seemed like all the cars went to the filling station to get fuel. I actually became afraid when one of the guys pulled my hair; I thought I was going to be raped. I nicely asked the guys to return my phone but, instead I got a sound slap for a response. One of the guys asked me for the money I was holding and started searching me. After the unfruitful search, he asked me to run back to my hostel and when I refused to heed, he threatened to shoot me, I laughed because it all sounded like a big joke to me. As they ran towards the gate, I could see what they were wearing. I started heading back when it dawned on me that I just lost my phone that was barely two months old I wept. The shout of my crazy friend brought me back to reality as I started explaining my ordeal to her. She acted on impulse and instead of running to the hostel; she started running to the gate to meet up with the guys. I had to stop her because even if she saw them, there was nothing she could do. We took a cab to the gate to make a report to security. On getting to the gate, I gave a description of the boys and they stopped and searched any person of that description, immediately two boys who perfectly fit the description walked past. They were stopped, but I was 99.9 % sure that they were not the thieves. First, they were my classmates and did not sound one bit like the guys who harassed me. Besides, they were way taller than the two boys who took my phone. I quickly told the security men to stop searching and I apologized to my classmates for the inconvenience.
Even when I got to the hostel, I still could not resist the recurring thought in my head "taking a walk in UNEC is now very risky for girls". Despite the fact that I admit I was wrong for walking on the road all alone, I found myself wondering whether things would have been different if the place was not so dark, if there were street lights on the road. While I am getting over my phone grief, I am not alone in asking for the safety of UNEC girls, street lights are not too much to ask for and they might add a much needed credibility to the SUG.
BY GOODNESS IBANGAH
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