12-year-old Sylvester Oromoni recently passed away after sustaining multiple internal injuries inflicted on him by senior students who were bullying him at a boarding school. This heartbreaking story has triggered public outrage forcing the state government to take over the investigation and shut down the school in question — Dowen College in Lekki, Lagos. Since the story broke out, more people are sharing their shocking and downright inhumane bullying experiences. Here are four Nigerians telling us about the horrors they experienced in secondary schools across the country:
Eniola, 37 (bullied for her faith)
My first night in the boarding house, I was unpacking my box and one of my ECK books fell out. I am a member of Eckankar. This was in 1995. We didn’t have the numbers we do today pentecostal Christianity was rising in fervour; with the result that most people had never heard of or did not know anyone who was an ECKIST. Suffice to say that, that night I was labelled a witch and would be summoned from class to class by curious seniors whose only interest was to point out how occultic or demonic I was. I also hadn’t grown up in the city so my social cues with people much older than myself were limited and I defaulted to my home training to respect my elders and authority. The mixture of fear they felt towards me and their own cruelty made them pick on me for any little thing I did. For instance, I wet the bed before coming to boarding house and always had to wake myself up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. I wouldn’t wait for another student to get up and go to the bathroom myself lest I wet myself and would go on my own. Their explanation: as a witch myself, of course, I wouldn’t be scared of the dark. I served the same punishments as a lot of others but my body reacted differently. There was a particular one called, “Drop” where you were to sink to your knees hard and the senior wanted to hear the sound. As a result, I damaged my knees and ended up in a leg brace.
When my mother took it up with the school and the seniors were disciplined (not sure how), their friends in turn turned on me and accused me of lying. Probably because they did the same things to others. Now remember when I said I used to wet the bed, I only wet the bed twice in Junior secondary school in JS1 but I was put on the chronic bedwetters’ list and was made to buy a new mattress and sleep with a macintosh till in JS3. They couldn’t physically touch me anymore so corporal punishment was the way to go. In SS1, as a senior, all my oppressors had graduated so I could be free. I was unhappy mostly through school. I have very bad knees for my age (37), can’t wear heels, can’t sit in certain positions and can’t do certain physical exercises. I looked up one of two of them decades ago. One was married. I can’t remember what had happened to the others but it was a collective of unkind older girls picking on an 11-year-old.
*Sam, 27 (bullied for being popular)
I think I was in JSS3. I was quite popular in school because I was on the Debate Team and I had won a few competitions. I also used to speak frequently during the school assemblies. In summary, I was the fave of quite a number of teachers. For some reason, this got some seniors upset. One Friday, we were having sports activities so we were on the school field (which was really big). Some senior students just called me to a corner and asked me to kneel down. Yes, for no reason at all. I went on my knees and they started taunting me and asking me silly questions. I don’t even remember what they were saying cos I was really livid. I managed to keep my calm sha and nobody hit me. I think I was there for about 20–30 minutes and they released me. I just headed home straight and tried not to think much about it.
*Lily, 25 (bullied for no reason)
I got bullied in secondary school for no reason. This senior student decided to pick on me, a junior student. She accused me of being a witch and dragged me to the chapel where she and her friends beat me mercilessly. With no end in sight, I felt like I had no choice but to admit to being a witch so I would be left alone. Many years later, I still remember this horrific experience vividly.
*Eva, 30 (Sexual harrasment)
One night, my friends and I were hanging out on the basketball court when a senior student came out of nowhere and made us follow her to the dreaded senior hostel. There, she released everyone but me. I begged my friend to stay with me. From that night, she proceeded to pursue me no matter how many times i showed my disinterest. I could only show it for fear of retaliation and more bullying. For context, lesbianism was the order of the day in my all-girls school. This senior student would come to my hostel all the time forcing me to hide and my friends to lie for me. One time, she found us and dragged us to her cubicle where she removed all clothes which made my friend and me extremely uncomfortable. It was torture until she left the school.
This article is based on real-life events. Some of the names used are mere pseudonyms to protect the identities of the individuals mentioned in the article.
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