Diary of a UNIBEN Fresher (Part 2) - Clearance

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CLEARANCE

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Clearance in UNIBEN is from the beginning till the end. You will clear at every bend in your journey. As you new student, there's online clearance where you submit all your credentials as scanned documents, there's also physical clearance where you submit all the documents you already submitted in online clearance ( till today I still wonder why). After the physical clearance comes the faculty and departmental clearances. Most new students get stuck at this point. It may interest you to know that some students did not finish their clearance until 2nd semester. There were those who had issues like inconsistency in name, date of birth or omission of alphabets in their names, these ones where often asked to fill correction forms which would then take 6 Billion years to process.

For me my clearance was not really difficult neither was it easy. Given the fact that I had no senior sibling, I was first in my family to gain admission to a higher institution of learning. What I'm trying to say in other words is that I was a naive person without any idea of where I was going. Practically everything I did when I got to school was my first time.

My parents tried as much as they could to prepare me; giving me the normal as you go to college talk. Stuff like "Always read your books o, don't join bad gang o, the University is a den of Lions tred carefully".Somehow I managed to do.as I was told.

Before leaving for my physical clearance, I took a lot of passports; now when I say a lot I actually mean it - I took 54 passport of different sizes. I also went loaded with cash(I didn't have a bank account then). On getting to school, the first set of people I encountered were the shop owners at the main gate shopping complex. It looked as if they had been planning this ambush for years because between seconds I was already in one of those shops and I found myself negotiating the price for 8 passports ( stupid right? For Pete's sake I had 54 in my bag). Finally they were able to convince me to take 6 at #1,000, still don't know how I agreed but I paid notwithstanding.

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By the time I left the shop I realized how stupid I had been, so I determined not to make any mistake again. I started out by not asking for directions to the Akin Deko main auditorium (the venue for physical clearance). This was not hard to do all, all I did was to just follow the crowd of people holding office files and they would lead me there. Luckily I got there ( you need to have seen my face, I felt really smart).

The time scheduled for.my physical clearance was 9:00am According to the school portal. But on getting to the school auditorium few minutes to 9:00am, my brain could not compute what my eyes were seeing. The auditorium was filled to maximum capacity it looked like a stadium with fans seated for an el-classico football game.I even saw some people sitting on the floor. That moment was one of those few moments when your conscience starts talking to you like you're someone else. I could hear clearly in my head "Young man, you see your life? E don be for you...".

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I quickly looked for somewhere comfortable to stand. I looked for a place where I could stand and at the same time monitor bizzy bodies who would leave their seats. I stood for about an hour yet nobody was ready to move a bone, not to talk of standing up. Few.minutes later my lucky hour came. Two girls near where I was standing stood up to get something to eat outside, they even asked me to help them secure their space and I willingly obliged although I told them I was gonna take one of the seats even if they came back ( they though I was joking but truth is, I was not!).

By 4:00pm I was not cleared yet and at the pace with which the process was going I would be cleared in 3 weeks time. I already knew it was an impossible task.that day. So I left so I could get home on time (I was not staying.in Benin).

The next day, by 6 am I was already on a bus going to UNIBEN. I wanted to be done with this thing once and for all. When I got to school, I walked with confidence from the gate to the auditorium like somebody who knew the school very well in and out. I even help other fresher's who were just coming for the first time find their way to the auditorium.

As usual, on getting there the auditorium was still filled even more than the previous day. It wasn't adding up at all,"but I came earlier today, or did this guys sleep here overnight?" I quizzed myself. As is my normal custom, i silently looked for a spot to couch while waiting for the unaware prey to get up by mistake. While I was standing, one of the girls I helped secure their space the previous day walked up to me, "Wicked boy, you are still here today?" She said smiling ( she called.me wicked boy because I refused to let go of the seats when they came back so they had to lap each other in turn). I was surprised to see her after the encounter yesterday. "* Hey! How far na, have you been cleared?" I asked
"Nope, we are in the same category o, there is an empty seat next to mine, just wait here when I come back we will go together*" she replied.

I was so excited. In my mind I was like "God na so you be?"
I knew the seat was not just "empty". She had reserved it. She came back moments later and we walked down to her seat. She reintroduced me to the other girl who I later discovered was her cousin. The process was faster that day and it almost got to our turn. ALMOST. When it got to our turn, the clearance officers closed but they gave us numbers to start with the next day.

I knew that if I went home I would miss my turn. So I stayed behind in school. I had heard some guys talking about getting temporary hostel space for clearance purpose. So I called my parents and told them.of my plans. My mum did not like the idea but I went ahead with it anyway. It was the only way!

The next morning, by 5am, I was already at the gate of the main auditorium. I even helped the security men open the gate my 6AM. Nothing was going to stop me now. I was finally going to be cleared. By the end of the day I was cleared already. No issues no mistakes, no correction forms. I was so happy I felt like I had made heaven.

As for the other clearances, I finished them a week to the 2nd semester examinations.

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