Adegboye vs. NIJ
SOME news media recently narrated a disturbing story of citizen Frederick Ibikunle Adegboye, a 45-year old man, whose provisional admission for the Diploma (Mass Communication) programme in the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ), Ogba, Lagos, was peremptorily and unjustifiably withdrawn by the authorities of that institution by reason only of his being HIV/AIDS positive.
According to the story, Mr. Adegboye had applied to the NIJ for admission to undergo the two-year Diploma (Mass Communications) programme. From all indications, he was duly admitted to the Institute after satisfying all the conditions precedent to admission, including passing the entrance examinations and payment of the prescribed fees of N50,100.00
However, upon a stern warning to all the new entrants by the Provost of the Institute, Dr. Elizabeth Nkem, against absenteeism, which, according to her, would cause the dismissal of any student, Mr. Adegboye approached the Provost and made a clean breast of his HIV/AIDS status to her. He pleaded with the Provost to allow him one day off (the last Thursday of every month) to travel to Ibadan to collect his anti-retroviral drugs from the University College Hospital (UCH). The Provost asked him to produce a letter from UCH to the effect that he was truly HIV/AIDS positive. The grant of his request, he was told, was contingent upon such a letter.
Mr. Adegboye then left for Ibadan, and soon went back to the Institute, armed with the required letter. To his chagrin, however, everything had unaccountably changed upon his return: He was stigmatised and ostracised by colleagues and lecturers alike. Nobody would rub shoulders with him any more, and he was no longer allowed into any lecture room; instead, he was directed to see the Institute's Acting Registrar, Busola Eniola, who asked him to withdraw from the Institute, voluntarily, or be shown the way out. In the event, his provisional admission was withdrawn and his school fees refunded to him.
It is public knowledge that HIV/AIDS is neither infectious nor contagious. In other words, it is not air-borne or transmitted from one person to another through mere bodily touch. This explains why the National HIV/AIDS Policy and the National Action Committee on AIDS (NACA), among other kindred groups, strongly forbid the stigmatisation of, or discrimination against persons living with HIV/AIDS in any public or private institution. Given the amount of publicity which governments and non-governmental organisation (NGOs) in and outside Nigeria have given to the foregoing facts, most literate Nigerians, let alone journalists, are aware, or should be aware, of the foolishness and needlessness of ostracising or stigmatising persons living with HIV/AIDS.
It is a thousand pities that an Institute, where journalists are trained, elected to ostracise and encourage the stigmatisation of a person living with HIV/AIDS. We wonder what manner of information on HIV the authorities of the Institute would impart to their students. It is also difficult to imagine that the students of the Institute have apprehended and internalised their lessons on fundamental human rights. The authorities of the NIJ should realise that the withdrawal of Mr. Adegboye's provisional admission amounts to a brazen infraction of his fundamental human rights.
It is disheartening, for good measure, that the Provost of the Institute blurted out the information confided in her by Mr. Adegboye, or what could be the explanation for the unexpected and strange attitude of the lecturers and students to him on his return from Ibadan How do the authorities of the NIJ know that Mr. Adegboye is the only carrier of the HIV virus in the Institute As a trainer of journalists, shouldn't the Institute organise a course on HIV/AIDS for the enlightenment of its students and the general public
The unseemly attitude of the NIJ authorities to the HIV disease as evidenced by the unjustifiable, inhuman and chastening treatment meted out to Mr. Adegboye, calls for a more fervent crusade against further breach of the fundamental human rights of persons living with HIV/AIDS.
Finally, perhaps it is pertinent at this juncture to appeal to the authorities of the NIJ to right the wrongs perpetrated against citizen Adegboye. Already, the school authorities are said to be investigating Adegboye's complaints. Whatever they come up with should ensure the protection of his fundamental rights.
