MY HOSTEL PRESIDENT SOLD US DARKNESS __WEEK239(EPISODE ONE)
The clearest abuse of power I have ever seen was not in government house. It was in my hostel in school.
We had 24 rooms in the hostel, 4 students per room. The landlord bought a big generator for all of us because light in that area was terrible. The rule was simple: generator on from 7pm to 11pm every night.
He gave the generator key and one jerrycan of fuel per week to our hostel president, a final year student we all called Presido.
At first, Presido followed the rule. After two weeks, power entered his head.
He started saying fuel don finish. Meanwhile we were hearing generator sound in his own room till 1am. He was using our general fuel to power only his room to watch football and charge for money.
Then he introduced new rule: "If you want light after 11pm, pay N200 per night to my room."
We are students. Some of us needed light to read for exams. So we paid. He was making N200 x 15 rooms = N3,000 per night from fuel our landlord already paid for.
The worst day: During our final exams, light went off by NEPA by 6pm. We begged Presido to on generator by 7pm as usual. He said no fuel. He said if we want light, we should contribute N500 each for fuel that night.
We contributed. N1000 x 24 rooms = N24,000... He bought fuel so we used it for 2 hours....how is that possible? that means he bought a small amount and kept the change.
One of my roommates, Nneka, had to read with torchlight that night because generator went off by 9pm.....Her phone was dead and the PDF she's to read that night also is in her phone. That's how she didn't read that particular course again before exam. She came back after the exam saying she didn't write well cause she didn't reas her books.
That was when I saw power abuse clearly. It is when someone you trusted to manage small community property turns it to personal business.
Why did we allow it for months? Because he was final year, we were junior. We feared he would give us bad report to landlord and we would be evicted. We feared isolation.
How did we hold him accountable?
We did not fight him.
During our hostel meeting, we asked landlord to come. We told landlord we want a new system. We suggested a hostel committee — 3 people to hold key in rotation, and a transparent fuel logbook where anyone can see how fuel was bought.
Landlord agreed. He asked Presido to bring the generator key and account for fuel money. Presido could not account. Landlord removed him and refunded us our N1000.
From that day, we had light from 7pm to 11pm without begging anyone.
So for me, to hold small power abusers accountable, we need:
- Shared responsibillity, not one-man power. Power concentrateed in one person always corruppts.
- Transparency — a simple logbook or WhatsApp record can stop stealingg.
- Involve the real owner of power. Presido's power came from landlord. Once landlord saw the truth, power was cut.
Power abuse lives where there is darkness and silence. Accountability comes when we bring light and speak together.
IMAGE SOURCE AI