The debate over rag day By Eberechukwu Anagor

Rag day historically is an activity introduced in raising funds for the indigents and the poor in the society. RAG meaning Raise and Give day.

Though, there are divergent views as to where the term ‘rag’ originated but studies showed it was meant for students to collect ‘rags’ to cloth the poor. Since then, rag day has been adopted throughout the institutions across the globe.

The school management through the students union government (SUG) at the end of the programme,  gather the proceeds by the students to make donations to orphanage homes while in some cases it is used to make the centers more functional.

On that day, students would be seen in their numbers wearing tattered clothes in order to appear funny and at the same time cut a picture of people in distress. The act, undoubtedly  make individual and passersby see reasons to donate some money to them and they appear as though they are beggars in their torn dresses walking around the cities, towns and roam the streets endlessly in groups or individually.

Meanwhile, it has been observed that there is deviance in the essence of rag day in Nigeria from what is used to be in the past with lots of activities now incorporated by various schools and students.

Presently, the ways and manner it is being held differs from one institution to the other with some institutions marking it for a whole week particularly during the student union week.

In observing the rag day, it is discovered that each student joins his or her colleagues to observe the exercise for different reasons. Some students now see it as opportunity to catch fun and experience some form of excitement with the money realized while others particularly those who are having difficulties make use of such exercise to seek for donations from the public. What they generate is used to take care of some bills in the pursuit of their academics.

In desperation, some students travelled as far as they could go during the exercise just to make enough money and it had unfortunately resulted to several students involving in road crashes.

Speaking with www.odogwublog.com on why he partook in rag day exercise, a 200 level student in social sciences of Nnamdi  Azikiwe  University ,Awka , Ekenedilichukwu  Njoku  said that though he did not partake fully in the last rag day exercise but found it interesting and exciting, but I did not see it as necessary because it was just stress.

”You will find out that when you return, you will become very tired and useless”. In fact, I don’t advise students to rag because most often they are being harassed by people they meet on their way”.

Also speaking, 300 level student of department of philosophy, Mr. Kelvin Okafor said that he had once taken part in the exercise in the 2011.

Mr. Okafor expressed that the exercise was a kind of an experience one would wish to have any other time though he did not make so much money in his first outing. My intention of participating was to make enough money but that was not the case. But in my second experience, I made like N7,000. It was fun indeed, he added.

Similarly , a third year student of public administration, Abia State Polytechnic,  Aba ,Mr. Ugochukwu Nwankwo stated that he had participated in the exercise twice and used the proceed to purchase some materials needed for his academic pursuit.

According to him, students really attach importance to observing the rag day because it is an avenue for them to unwind and relax, especially to do something different from academics.  He opined that some students see it as an avenue to announce their entrance into higher institutions.

But, a student of library and Information Science, Federal Polytechnic, Oko, Miss Onwuzurigbo Chiamaka revealed that she took part in the rag as it offered her an opportunity to make enough money to take care of herself.

In her words,” I am broke now, and I know that after this exercise I will realize enough money to take care of my needs and myself. What interest me most is the fun and the attire and the way we make the money”.

The submissions above showed that students abuse the exercise by tempering with those cups given to them notwithstanding that the purpose of initiating the idea was to generate money for the poor and the less privileged in the society. They rather chose to pay upfront N1,000 naira of more depending on the decision of the leadership of the students at the point in time.

Reacting to the development when www.odogwublog.com visited his office,  the Director, Information, and Public Relations Officer, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Mr. Emmanuel Ojukwu said that usually things are bound to be abused but historically, the intention was good not minding that some students used to tamper with the cups and remove money when they are not expected to.

Mr. Ojukwu identified rag day as part of student’s union week exercise thus students union is a platform to organize such exercise with other activities like cultural shows, competitions to mention but few. “But where there is no strong unionism, such activities will not take place,” he pointed out.

He also said that rag day is not a must for all students but rather seen as a voluntary action by students who are willing to generate fund for the indigents.

Confirming the development, a student faulty of law, Open University, Lagos State, Mrs Chiagorom Okoroji disclosed that the exercise is not a must but an act of willingness.

Mrs. Okoroji stated that since four years in the University, she had never taken part in the exercise and had not given any penalty for not participating.

The rag day is an interesting thing and the arguments above in favour and against showed how it has taken the center stage in the tertiary institutions despite the abuse. They may not have mentioned that , some students even sleep over with men who promised to offer them large sums of money among other shortcomings of the exercise but that does not put a slur to the rag day.

But we encourage students to at least be realistic enough to after deducting their expenses, give a reasonable part of the money they generated to the less privileged and poor people they had i mind while generating the resources during rag day. They should learn to have the mind of charity for giving is from the heart and rag day is meant for charity giving. Many engage in rag day without knowing the meaning-RAG raise and give (RAG). Therefore, rag day means a day to raise money and gove to people we are better off in the society. The question is has that been achieved? Rag day is ever green in tertiary Institutions in Nigeria and beyond and rather than stop would continue to improve by the day, until it is got right.

Anagor is a freelance staff of Odogwu Media