Transformation Lifestyle of Nigerian Female Undergraduate Students

 When Kpadoo was admitted to Benue State University to study languages four years ago, she was the happiest girl on earth. She had always dreamt of working with embassy and earning a good salary. She was the first in her village to join such an exalted institution. She was a devoted christian and a choir leader at her local church and everyone adored her in the village. She was a role model and a real life example to many small youth who admired to be like her. She joined Benue State Univeristy (BSU) with an ambition of becoming proficient in languages at the end of four years.

When she was warned of the wayward behaviour at university by the flyers and banners she saw around the 2 campuses, she dismissed the caution! ''How could a person in her right mind smoke and drink!'',.... but she was to learn that worse things can happen. With 10 broken relationships under her belt, she is now struggling to recover the addiction to alcohol and desperately clinging to an elusive boyfriend who had once promised to marry her. The jovial carefree girl with ambitions of becoming a diplomat is no more today she would accept any job as long as it puts food on the table and clothes at her back. ''I cant tell what really happened and when I took a wrong turn'' she says.

When young women join campus, they are easily distinguishable from the rest of the crowd. For the first few weeks, most of them are humble and focused. They have dreams and ambitions (DNA), among this lot expressions like ''earning a first class honours'',''pursuing a masters degree immediately or ''investing my first salary'' are common. They have high expectations of learning so the number of first years who skip classes is low. They also submit assignments on time and are obedient to lectures and lecturers. It is during this stage that a campus girl can tell you what kind of a man she wants in life without narrating any sad experience with men, the type of car she want to drive, what firm she want to work for, the countries she would like to fly to e.t.c

Since most students at the campus come from upcountry, they join campus clad in very nicely, presentable and hygienic attires i.e cute skirts and sweetly knit blouses, flat shoes etc. They walk in groups and mostly associate with those from their home districts and their former schoolmates. They get to learn skills like learning to use ''flush'' toilets at campus. A large number of them are dedicated members of christian unions and hardly miss any Bible study sessions.

At this stage the senior male students are easily available and generous. Some start saving early for ''gold rush peak season''. These male students have their rooms stacked with sophisticated electonic gadgets, packets of sweets and biscuits, juices and other snacks. The room floors are adorned with shining carpets. They use this as bait to win the hearts of first year girls. Infact, most of them have paradise for rooms.These men also frequent the first year's women hostels carrying chips, biscuits, popcorn and other sweet stuff.

At this stage in her evolution, the first year girl has the allure of hotcakes and her phone is busy. Her schedule is very tight with invitations coming in fast and furious. She is promulgated and spoilet for choice where suitors are concerned. Many of these men will have dumped their second, third and fourth year girlfriends in favour of ''freshers''.Towards the end of the first semester, the ''civilization and promulgation'' process begins and the new members want to feel part and parcel of ''campus life''.

A large part of their budget is dedicated to buy 'tights', high-heeled shoes and expensive bags. Their walking style changes from nice walking to dancing-catwalking. They also buy loads of cosmetics and beauty products and change their hairstyles every fortnight. Some realise the importance of body fitness by doing exercises or going to gym, or living strictly on noodles, reason? ''I want to shade off some weight and slim''. Others discover they have a flat figure and try to gain some figure- china made figure. The girl discovers that she is no longer in the village but at an institution of higher learning where there is a lot of freedom-no parent interferance. They discover new friends and their language changes.  They begin to use words like ''as in'', ''kinda'', ''dont mind'' , ''wooow", Jeez" etc. As they are talking the facial expressions and body works are exageratted to talk like celebs like Tonto Dinko, Beyonce, Nicki Minaj name them......

Towards the end of the second semester many enter miss university concerts!...before i forget many of them have new china made phones and they discover the power of music by walking head high with earphones in their ear sockets. **To continued**