The news first came as rumours cycling the campus like a whirlwind before a circular confirmed that the University of Maiduguri has been shut down indefinitely due to deteriorating security situation in town.
The circular signed by the University’s registrar, Abagana Aji read in part: “this is to inform all members of staff and students that the Committee of Provosts, Deans and Directors (CPDD) at its emergency meeting held on Monday 11th July, after carefully assessing the security situation in Maiduguri and its environs has on behalf of senate come to a painful conclusion to suspend studies indefinitely with effect from Tuesday 12th July, 2011.”
Most students were shocked, not because the development was unnecessary, but because the closure was unexpected.
The closure was necessary considering recent bomb explosions around the University and the transportation problem in town due to the ban on the use of motorbikes which affected most students who lived off-campus.
The unexpectedness of the “suspension of studies” in the school was because the crisis in Maiduguri was not time-bound (it started since 2009), as such students did not expect the situation to improve in good time and nobody could tell how long the school would remain closed.
The hope of the final year students to graduate by December this year as stipulated in the University’s academic calendar was dashed as students of the faculty of Law who had been preparing for their exams slated for less than a week now expressed disappointment.
The shock of the students was exasperated by the sudden panic in the Girls’ Halls Residence that a bomb would go off at any moment there.
Students ran up and down trying to reach their relatives and loved ones on phones; network services got busier by the seconds as the calls jammed.
Chaos set in – long queues at ATM points, frantic packing of belongings, mass movements in and out of the campus...
The chaos was as a result of a rumour going round that students had up to 12 noon the next day to vacate the campus, a measure which many students described as “impossible” considering the suddenness of the notice and transportation difficulties in town.
Shortly afterwards, the Dean Students’ Affairs went round the Halls of Residence calming students down and refuting the rumour.
The Dean said students could stay up to Friday and promised that electricity and water would be supplied by the University management.
As early as 5:00 am the next day, thousands of students hit the roads of Maiduguri with their luggage on their heads as there were no commercial motorbikes to convey them to different motor parks.
The University had not deliver on its promise to provide “buses to transport students from the campus to various motor parks within the metropolis.”
To make matter worst, most taxi drivers initially doing intra-town services had now reverted to inter-town services because transportation fare had been hiked by 500 to 1000 percent.
A three hundred level student of Public Administration, Mani Adamu said he luckily secured a taxi to Damaturu at the rate of N1500 against the normal fare of N350.
Shockingly, by evening students were paying as much as the price which Adamu paid to be conveyed to Damaturu by lorry as the scarce taxis now fixed their fare at N2,500 per passenger to the same destination.
The situation continued deteriorating to the extent that some students had to borrow money to travel to near-by cities to withdraw money from banks and ATM machines as Maiduguri gradually came to a standstill.
Tens of thousands of people fled the trouble-torn city – students, traders, civil servants, artisans, former commercial motorcyclists now unemployed due to the ban on the use of motorbikes in town, farmers, etc.
Students who were determined to wait for the mad rush to ease up were further scared by continued detonation of bombs by Boko Haram and resultant military reprisals.
Parents outside Maiduguri metropolis became pensive and worried, calling on their children and wards to immediately leave the city at all costs.
All government’s efforts to stop the mad rush proved abortive as the closure of the University had already caused a wide-spread panic and nothing would assuage the fears of most residents of Maiduguri but a breath of fresh air outside the crisis-torn spot!
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