It comes off as both profound and endearing when you ponder the popular Zik hall mantra: oneness, togetherness and brotherhood. To quote the Zik hall Constitution, it is what the ‘spirit of Zikism’ entails. In practical terms, this creed is appreciated such that Zik hall cares less of background, class, department or level.
And it is in light of this caste-defying principle that platforms exist for disseminating essential information, interactions, and exchange of ideas, from the congress (a general assembly of Zikites which holds physically at the instance of the Hall Chairman and Speaker), to the different online groups for Zik hall.
It also applies that these platforms serve as repositories for complaints and criticisms. But what happens when the oneness, togetherness and brotherhood ideal is being threatened as a result of the censorship of ideas and comments on these platforms?
On Monday, the 21st of November, Zikites woke up to an intriguing tweet by the Zik hall account on Twitter, quoting a tweet by the Indy hall account. To paraphrase, Indy hall had made a self-adulating tweet on organizing the best freshers’ welcome on campus and Zik hall made a clapback quote tweet on how wining elections is the latter’s forte. Based on the renowned ratio culture on Twitter, this retort should ordinarily have earned thumbs up from Zikites for ‘a good one’.
But it was interesting to see dissenting comments on Zik hall WhatsApp groups. On the freshers’ group, a comment quizzed the tweet, asking what the essence of wining elections are when there are lingering issues like power instability to be addressed. On another group, another Zikite decried the quality of the Zik hall’s social events, arguing that Indy hall’s was in truth better.
Where this seemingly isolated issue interlaces with the oneness, togetherness and brotherhood ideal is on the attitude towards the reception of comments and criticisms of administrative activities in Zik hall. This is because the reactions to the cited comments above bordered more on the manner in which these criticisms were conveyed and to who it was conveyed.
One of such reaction questioned the ‘Zikiteness’ of such retort, apparently implying that comments on the quote tweet should not be antagonistic. Another reaction to one of the dissenting comments, which was in response to a finalist, bordered on respecting elders. For this purpose, it is important to revisit the essence of Zik hall’s platforms in view of its ideals.
ONENESS UNSABOTAGED
Perusing the Zik Constitution, there exists no provision that classes a Zikite above another. Hence, the equality of all is best to explain the ideal of oneness. Projecting this on the foregoing issue, the ideal of oneness justifies the right of any and every Zikite to comment on issues that relate to them. Similarly, the practice of democratic governance in any unit – at the hall level or in a nation – presupposes room for criticisms. A good instance is when a few weeks ago, a Zikite out of frustration over the epileptic power supply called out post-holders in the SU from Zik hall on their effectiveness in addressing the situation.
It must also be established that becoming an elder in Zik hall does not by any stretch of constitutional interpretation or conventional practice bequeaths any shade of privilege as far as logical criticism is concerned. How about apart from harping on ethics and etiquettes the overarching import of Indy hall’s tweet is contemplated?
TOGETHERNESS THROUGH THICK & THIN
Through an in-depth contemplation, it is easy to realise that from excos to elders to the freshest of Zikites including the writer of this piece, the leveler is our studentship, which in the first place makes anyone eligible to criticize or be at the receiving end of criticisms. But our identities don’t end at being students; we are first Nigerians. Hence, it is necessary for critiques, whether freshers or stalites, to be reconciled with the fact that we are all players in a bigger complex with deep-seated, systemic infrastructural and socio-economic challenges.
Therefore, before you take a stance behind your keyboards and conjure pseudo-intellectual paragraphs about how the Executive Council has been grossly ineffective and reneging on their promises, have a rethink. The Hall Chairman clarified robustly on the group the reasons for the delay in the promised electric repairs. While the frustrations are understandable, especially for freshers who never preempted the unpalatable ramifications of living in a Nigerian public tertiary institution, patience is necessary.
EXUDING A UNIQUE BROTHERHOOD
But it is equally necessary to consider the Zik hall expectations. If anything, the average fresher has been baptized into the idea that Zik hall is the greatest, not just in UI but in the whole of Sub-saharan Africa (to quote one of our many propaganda lines). Therefore, having been inducted into this Zikism brotherhood, the expectations are justifiably high.
Referencing one of the comments on the quote tweet in question, Zik hall’s social events towards the end of the previous session was not as impressive as expected of a prestigious hall as this. The freshers’ welcome presented an opportunity to remedy the hall’s shrinking image. Regardless, present peculiarities cannot be quickly side-stepped. The Executive Council could have its tenable reasons for the tone of its programmes.
Moreover, one freshers’ welcome event shouldn’t be a deciding factor for the Council’s disposition towards the quality of social events. For future events however, this does not rule out the sentiment that the often-quoted quality of greatness of Zik hall should diminish. Azikiwe Should Never Fail!
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