Right from the word 'go' one of the biggest problem of humanity is co-existence. It started from the time of Cain and Abel; and even till now close neighbours find it difficult living with one another without occasional squabble and sometimes fisticuffs.
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For the boys that inhabit the male hostels of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (Eni Njoku, Alvan and Mbanefo Hostels) theirs began yesterday night (July 19th) when some aggrieved boys from the aforementioned hostels engaged their counterparts in Odili Hostel (the PG students).
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This time, it was not just a mere squabble or a fisticuff, it included the battle of stones.
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Stones were flying in the air like missile and shell in Gaza Strip. The angry undergraduates vented their anger on the Post graduate students who they claimed are not sympathetic to their sufferings.
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Yours truly gathered that what sparked off the fight was the unavailability of power in the boys hostel for over a week. The straw that broke the camel's back was when these boys who had not seen light for seven good days had their generator interrupted the moment it was put on at night. So many of them who claimed they had not been able to charge their phones and other electronic gadgets in a bid to express their grievance began to demonstrate.
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Chanting various angry words and singing as a group, they went around the school and ordered all the generators that were on to be put off immediately. They even entered the lodging facility which the school owns (CEC) and ordered that they put off their generating set with immediate alacrity. All the girls hostels whose generating set were on were also turned off. This left the whole school in total darkness as those angry boys chanted on.
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The post-graduate students were drawn into the battle when, as an eye-witness claimed, they injured some of the students who went to the PG hostel (Peter Odili Hostel) to order that their generating set be put off as well. Before one could say Jack Robinson, the undergraduate students had started destroying things that belonged to the PG students. They smashed the windscreen of some of the cars that were parked at the PG hostel and threw stones at the PG students who fought back.
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People thought everything had past away with the night until this morning when a crowd of undergraduate students gathered in front of Odili hostel and began another round of battle.
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The stone throwing exercise continued as the Under graduate students vowed that no PG student will go out of their hostel this morning.
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Those who prepared for church and other important places were surprised when they came out to see the Under Gs, as they are reffered to, fighting resiliantly that the PG students would remain under "hostel arrest".
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When I interacted with some fraction of the students, they said that the Post graduate students have bitten off more than they can chew. They claimed that they have suffered so much humiliation from the post-graduate students who treat them as if they are nobody.
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It took a combined effort of the Police and the military to avert the situation from degenerating into something else.