FYB Culture: Inside the exciting festival for Nigerian finalists

By Aishat Jimoh

One Friday in June, Opeyemi Adeleye, a final-year Accounting student at the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE), wore a white shirt that her friends had now defaced with several inscriptions written on it with markers as she smiled brightly and posed for multiple pictures. 

Ms Adeleye and her coursemates had just written their final examination as undergraduates, and their joy knew no bounds. They danced, laughed and wrote their names and nicknames on each other’s newly bought white T-shirts. 

“It wasn’t an easy journey, but every challenge made the experience more meaningful,” the graduating student told Campus Reporter. 

“After all the sleepless nights, exams, challenges, and sacrifices, I realised that every effort actually was worth it.”  

This is a ‘signing out ceremony’, one of the numerous activities lined up for the Final Year Brethren or FYB celebration, that is now increasingly a popular celebration among Nigerian undergraduates. 

“My favourite part of the programme was our back-to-school day,” said Omodolapo Lydia, a 400-level History student at FUOYE. “That moment when we sang those Secondary school songs joyfully, putting on our school uniform and all that made me really happy and made me remember my secondary school days.”

Growth of FYB on campus

Originally borrowed from religious fellowship registers, the term Final Year Brethren or FYB, as it’s popularly known, has evolved into a popular campus culture associated with the final days on campus. The activities include sign-out after the last examinations, dinners, matching outfits, souvenirs, and other social celebrations among final-year students. 

Usually celebrated for an entire week, some of the popular themes include Jersey day, cultural day, back-to-school day, costume day, Owanbe party and sign-out day.

For many final-year students, participation in FYB activities is beyond donning stylish attire. It is a public affirmation of survival, resilience, friendship, shared experiences, as well as an opportunity to appreciate the late nights, hard work, sacrifices, and the persistence that brought them to the finish line.

“It’s a chance to connect, make memories, and celebrate how far we’ve all come together,” said Fathia Olamide, a 400-level student of English and Literary Studies at the Ekiti State University (EKSU).

“The sense of belonging is part of what makes it special for finalists.” 

The celebrations did not begin as large, highly organised social events that many students know today. In many Nigerian campuses, informal sign-out activities were initially modest. Students gathered with friends, signed on white T-shirts, took photographs, shared meals, and celebrated their final days on campus in simple ways. 

Over time, however, these gatherings evolved into more structured social traditions, and FYB gradually became associated with organised events, matching outfits, dinners, media publicity, souvenirs, and coordinated celebrations organised and managed by departments and other student groups.

Students who spoke to Campus Reporter said they plan these events meticulously.

Deborah Promise, a member of the committee that organised the FYB event for the  English and Literary Studies department at FUOYE, explained that each student paid N35,000, which they used to prepare the event.

Ms Promise said the fees were used to get a sash for sign-out, access cards and traditional ofi headgear for the owambe party, personalised journals, hand fans, and masks for the dinner party.

She said a lot of students didn’t pay the fee, but that didn’t affect the success of the event.

“It didn’t really affect our plan because we worked with the number of people that paid,” she said.

The Cost of Belonging

However, while final-year students look forward to sign-out celebrations with fondness and excitement surrounding it, the season also comes with financial pressure for the students.

 One FUOYE finalist, Sofiat Olalekan, said she had struggled to balance academic responsibilities with multiple side jobs that exhaust her. Throughout her undergraduate journey, she juggled shifts as a sales representative at a gym and attending classes, only to now face another fees pressure.

With the growing culture surrounding Final Year Brethren (FYB) celebrations on campus, students like Ms Olalekan find themselves navigating not only academic pressure, but also the financial expectations attached to the graduation ritual.

Ms Adeleye, who paid N27,000 for the event, said she saved little by little for her FYB fees.

One finalist of Medical Laboratory Sciences at the Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE), Roqeebah Shittu, said the N60,000 FYB fees became a heavy financial burden she had to bear.

“FYB is a lifetime memory we will love to treasure for a long period of time,” said Ms Shittu. “But we don’t have to break the bank to do it.”

Forty per cent of respondents in a survey conducted for this story in May said the fee was a financial burden to them. The survey had 30 finalists as participants from FUOYE, EKSU and the University of Lagos (UNILAG).

Another 40 per cent said they felt pressured to participate, despite their financial situations not favouring the expenses.

“The organisers do not have to add to our financial troubles by making us pay a huge sum of money, all because of FYB,” said Ms Shittu.

Balancing Celebration and Burden

The SUG President at FUOYE, Adio Iyanuoluwa, described the FYB as a beautiful way of celebrating graduating students, but acknowledged the pressure the fees place on final-year students.

Mr Iyanuoluwa recommended single-day events like the Ojude FUOYE, modelled after Ijebu’s Ojude Oba festival, as an alternative.

“FYB, as a celebration, without excessively taxing students, is a beautiful way to celebrate the graduation of final-year students. It also aids socialisation and boosts the public image of the university,” he said.

“At this point, I believe it is time for this burden to take its leave. Ojude FUOYE is a cheaper and more inclusive means of celebrating FYB. No student will be asked to provide ₦20,000–₦40,000 as FYB fees.”