HIV: NIJ’s bad example
ONE event that just would have
passed unnoticed and, therefore, tyically Nigerian, but for the dramatis
personae, has been the precipitate expulsion of a legally admitted student at
the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ) Lagos on the grounds that he
willingly disclosed being HIV-positive.
As the story was told, 45-year-old widower citizen Fredrick
Ibukunle Adegboye had, in a letter signed by the acting Registrar of NIJ, been
offered a provisional admission for a National Diploma programme in Mass
Communication.
But moved by a pre-resumption address by the provost of NIJ
warning against absenteeism and truancy while in session, Mr. Adegboye had been
compelled to intimate the Provost of his unique health status which required
monthly supply of anti-retrieval drugs from the University of Ibadan Teaching
Hospital to manage. The new student sought for guarantees that he could be
absent once a month to keep hospital appointment in respect of his sickness and
sought for exemption on those days. That was when citizen Adegboye’s troubles
began.
He was asked by the Provost to produce papers to the effect
that he was really HIV-positive. This he did, but on getting back to the school,
the new student was prevented by both colleagues, lecturers and security
operatives from entering the class rooms. He was instead directed to report to
the Acting Registrar who now advised Adegboye to either withdraw voluntarily, or
have his admission withdrawn.
Adegboye wisely and courageously did neither and was
subsequently ‘expelled’ and had his fees of N51,000 returned to him.
That an institution of higher learning whose objective is the
training of journalists and light-bearers of society, would expel a student who
voluntarily admitted his HIV-status, is most unfair and runs counter to the
prescribed attitudes and behaviour towards such patients.
The action is not just unjustifiable from the point of view of science; it is
also flawed in point of law. At a time governments, civil society, and
non-governmental groups have shouted themselves hoarse concerning the need to
empathise and not to stigmatise HIV-AIDS carriers and sufferers, we can best
imagine the wrong signals the action would have sent to the public especially
coming from an institution of higher learning.
While the honesty and courage of Mr. Adegboye should be
applauded for owning up to his HIV-status and in standing for his fundamental
rights to education and fair treatment, his travails should concern all those
who have consistently advocated a change of attitude on how we relate and treat
such patients.
It is sad indeed that an institution that should be in the
forefront of the campaign for a change of attitude to those afflicted by the
ailment is setting a dangerous precedent in the campaign. This is more so given
the inherent dangers in stigmatising those afflicted. The hypocrisy of officials
at the NIJ needs to be condemned and redressed in favour of citizen Adegboye
with due public apology.
Unless, of course, the NIJ can show more compelling and
cogent reasons why an HIV-positive Nigerian should be denied of his education
and there should be none, Mr. Adegboye’s expulsion should be withdrawn. There is
nothing in our laws that permit such a senseless discrimination.
These are the issues the health and education authorities
must tackle with dispatch. Otherwise the negative publicity being generated by
this obnoxious action will serve only to reinforce the prejudice already
existing among Nigerians of those like Adegboye who are HIV-positive and further
scare them from coming forward with their ailments. This will be most
unfortunate and tragic in a society already on the verge of HIV-AIDS pandemic.
The NIJ action, if allowed to subsist, will serve as a
dangerous precedent for other institutions, employers and families to stigmatise
and ostracise those among them in similar conditions.
The action is morally, ethically, and scientifically wrong and runs counter
to basic human rights of free citizens and could compel those afflicted to go
underground with adverse repercussions. The NIJ has an obligation to not just
re-admit Mr. Adegboye with appropriate compensation for embarrassing him but
apologise to him unreservedly.
