August rush and the musings of randy undergraduates

By Rotimi Ige

Every new session in most Nigerian universities, the most excited set of undergraduates are not the incoming students who just gained admission. Now, it may be true that the new expectant ‘matriculates’ in embryo’ would be bursting with excitement especially as they would have looked forward to the freedom associated with being a university undergraduate, but the happiest set of people on the campus are the 200 to final year boys who await the start of every new session with unquantifiable glee.
The glint in their eyes, the bounce in their steps and general boisterous demeanour are normal pointers of such fellows, who resume earlier before the normal back-to-school date set for ‘stalites’ (normally freshers resume before others) and prowl the campuses like hungry lions set for a kill. Every female who appears well dressed and looks flashy is a target (though some do not really mind anything in skirt) and you’ll normally find them tripping over one another to ‘assist’ any new female student who seemed to be having issues with one application form or had lost her way. Some approach them under the guise of helping them with tutorials so as to help them get ahead or proffer to borrow them their former hand-outs.
And most times, they get lucky, especially when such ‘freshers’ are timid and are intimidated by their new environment. In such a scenario, the lucky male ‘stalite’ becomes the envy of his brethren which is made worse if his ‘catch’ is one of the best looking girls in the pack. In between leading his willing ‘fresher’ around campus under the guise of helping her finish registration early and showing her around the campus, he shows her off to his mates by winking and smiling sheepishly while introducing her to them. The wink is a message which states categorically, “stay off this one”, while the smile reminds them that she may be available next semester. That is the movie-like scene that plays out in most campuses and which is not bound to end anytime soon. Some of our readers who are females may realise today, the intentions of that nice gesture from their first campus boyfriend and most importantly, for the males reading this piece and smiling sheepishly, they are the ones I am referring to.
Moral of this piece- New female students in any higher institution should be wary of overly nice male students so as not to become victims of randy undergraduates seeking to take unholy advantage.