Freetown — Shame! Shame! Shame! Fourah Bay College (FBC) has just proved to not only the nation but the entire world that it either does not have a database of students or the documentation system at FBC is POOR or FLAWED.

Before any further comments, I want to make it clear that anything mentioned in this piece does not intend to offend the spirit or family of the late Mohamed Juana who allegedly died after undergoing a cruel club initiation or induction ceremony late last year. By virtue of my tradition, I am obliged to respect the dead no matter the circumstances.

Developments from the death of the young man have been really interesting. The President Ernest Bai Koroma has pronounced a ban on all "cults" (a name I have strong reservations about) in educational institutions in the country; police have issued a list of people, most of the FBC students, who may help in investigating the death of Mohamed; FBC says it will not allow any of the members of the Island Club to attend classes unless a police clearance is obtained and the latest is an FBC press statement stating that the eighteen year old was not part of the college but an independent computer school operating on campus.

But it could be recalled that after the announcement of the death of Mohamed, Fourah Bay College registry issued a notice confirming that the student belonged to the institution and in fact the Mass Communication department and specifically in the first year class. But what perplexes me most is how the registry was able (so quickly) to come out with a notice admitting or confirming that Mohamed was a student of FBC and the Mass Communication department when in fact it was not sure. That was a seeming incompetence by the registry which contributed a lot in watering down the already tattered image of the college and its students at a time when almost everyone was blinded to the fact that a club (social or political) is not a cult for God's sake.

Just a few days after the college announced that the student allegedly killed was one of theirs, it came back less than a week after to say that Mohamed Juana was only a student of an independent institution operating on campus. The clay-legged defence for this unforgivable mistake is that the registry was still on vacation and was not able to get to the records. But it was able to tell the whole world that Juana was a student of the institution. To check a computerised database is as simple as going to bed. Everyone who knows how Excel program works on the computer (or any other computer program for keeping data) knows exactly what I am talking about. It is all about going into the computer, make a few clicks and that's all. So, to say that the registry was still on vacation when the incident occurred does not hold. The official who issued the notice announcing the death of Juana could have as well checked properly before putting pen to paper or before tapping the keys of the computer.

In this Twenty-first century, a college which is close to two centuries old does not seem to have a computerised database of its students. Someone from heaven probably needs to come down at Mount Aureol to tell FBC that the era of paper files and manual documentation is over. It may surprise you to know that up till date, FBC is still devoted to using typewriters. Walk into the offices and prove me wrong. One is not saying that heaven must be brought to earth to make everything look good at FBC. But they should at least imitate its peers in the region of West Africa or fear enough, colleges in Sierra Leone. The funds collected are definitely not going back to government. They must be properly utilised to upgrade services and utility on campus.

I have definitely not gone off tangent, but merely highlighting some of the things that caused the embarrassment. If FBC had a computerised system of documentation for students, the registry would not have published a notice admitting that one of their students was killed (I am not downplaying the fact that someone was killed and those who did that must be tracked) and later the same registry came out to say Juana was not theirs. This was an embarrassment to the registrar, the registry, administration, the students and all those connected to the once academic giant, Fourah Bay College.

The management of Computers and Education Limited (the school Juana was attending) could also have done justice to their conscience by coming out to say that the student was part of their institution instead of just lying low and allow things to go by the wind. Probably they were scared, given the magnitude of the matter. But that was cowardice in its highest form. Who would have locked up any of the managers of the school if he/she came out to say that Juana was a student of their school? It is likely that they also do not know all their students and there own indictment is more than FBC's, taking into consideration that fact that they teach information technology and Juana, now deceased was studying Database Administration.

All said and done, the police should continue their work and nothing should deter them, not even the status of the deceased. Besides, it does not really matter whether Juana was a student of FBC or not. What matters is that someone was allegedly killed.

But one thing that I found incorrect was the Head of State referring to the clubs as "cults" when pronouncing the ban on them. It is possible that those clubs have changed operations from being social or political to cultic. That needs to be tested empirically. But the colleges in which these clubs are registered know them to be social or political clubs and that was why they were registered. So, we need to get back into studying the clubs in the colleges and the various administrations should determine whether the clubs have turned into cults. And at this point, we will be free and right to refer to them as cults. But for President Koroma to categorically say that "cultism is banned" in all educational institutions was not quite right. Without questioning President, it could have been apt to say that a ban is imposed on all club activities in institutions if learning.