This day 19 years ago, I resumed as an undergraduate in Great Ife (OAU). Official resumption date was the two days earlier. Even though I spent 5 years for a 4 year course, I have no regrets passing through this school. Here are some lessons/highlights of my Ife years (thread)

1. Positivity: The air of positivity in Ife was infectious. While you are welcomed into many schools with stories of how you can never make first class no matter how well you tried, you are usually welcomed into Ife with stories of academic strides

Common to hear stories of one guy that finished with 4.94 in 1994 or one that is currently smashing some records. Or two guys that took their competition from Ife to Imperial. GPs of some students were public knowledge. A whole lot of positivity to ginger you to work hard

2. Egalitarianism: Every student was equal in Ife. Class was highly detested. Students hardly even looked at your car twice. Car was hardly the thing you can use to impress other students. Ife was probably the only school you can budget N10,000 to contest for Student Union VP

In fact, the flashier your campaign was, the more likely you will lose. There was a song for those with expensive posters. “E ma dibo fun won o, e ma dibo fun wom, awon ti won se poster olowo nla, e ma dibo fun won” (Don’t vote for them 2x; those that did expensive posters)

Ife possibly had the largest concentration of students from poor homes, probably because of merit based admission policy (at least as at then). Ife was the hope of the poor but brilliant students from SW. So much so that even the children of the rich had to form poor to belong

You may have a child of a senator or SSG as your room mate or classmate and all of you will roll together with Awo beans. A UNILAG graduate brother once came with his friends to see me on campus and was embarrassed seeing me wear my flowing ankara to meet them at the car park

You hardly got oppressed by materialism on campus. All some students brought to campus in a semester was 5 pieces of clothes. Nobody cared. Ife provided cheap education for the poor.

3. Sophisticated politics: Campus politics was very interesting in Ife. Eloquent and versed candidates, world class debates, a lot of intrigues. The manifesto night was something else. If you stole a fan in your room in 100L, please don’t contest for election 5 years later.

A very vibrant student body. Get sloppy and get impeached. Noteworthy that the dualization of Ife-Ibadan expressway was to the credit of Ife students. A major accident in early 90s or late 80s killing traveling students made them give IBB ultimatum to dualize that road. He did.

4. Religion: On a personal note, most of what I know about Islam till today, I learnt as an undergraduate in Ife. You only needed to be a regular mosque goer to know more than basics.

5. Outside classroom knowledge: From the informal arguments in rooms, in the newspaper stands, at the cafes, to the various political programmes on campus, to the many departmental events, you learn a lot outside the classroom, possibly more than in classroom.

6. Entertainment: If you found pranks entertaining, in Ife, in Awo boys you had more than enough to keep you laughing all day and all night. I enjoyed it. I lived in Awo hall all my 8 semesters.

7. Security: Contrary to what external people thought, Ife was a very secured environment. You could go anywhere on campus at anytime - even in the dead of the night. You can confidently walk anywhere in the sprawling campus, even lonely at 2am.

Thanks to maximum shishi system, the student-designed, student union coordinated public punishment system, crime was at barest minimum. If you ever witnessed maximum shishi, you will never think of stealing not to talk of joining cultism. And nobody was above maximum shishi.

I don’t know whether things have changed now but with this experience, I never regretted my years in that school.