Recently, it was reported that the management of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ile Ife, Osun State, had closed down the institution indefinitely following prolonged protests by students over poor living conditions on the campus. Students of the foremost ivory tower had during the protest, decried the infrastructural decay in the university, listing overcrowding in the hostels and lecture rooms, inadequate water and epileptic power supply as some of the critical areas where this was most manifest. The students said they resorted to the protest as a last resort, after exhausting other means of attracting management’s attention to their plight.
Though the management of the institution has denied the reported reason for the closure, insisting that the school was closed for a mid-semester break, the fact that the institution, just like many others across the country is in dire need of infrastructure upgrade, is incontestable.
OAU is not the only institution where students are subjected to some of inhuman living conditions which can best be imagined, especially in a country that prides itself as the giant of Africa. In September 2015, students of the University of Lagos protested the invasion of their halls of residence by bedbugs and the general unsanitary conditions of the hostels. This was shortly after a student was electrocuted in the same institution by a high-tension cable that fell on her near her hostel.
A visit to university campuses especially publicly-owned ones leaves bile in the mouth of the visitor on seeing the conditions under which students learn and are expected to excel. The story is the same from the lecture halls that are usually so overcrowded that a good number of students hang on the corridors outside to receive lectures, to hostels where living spaces are shared by double or more the number of persons they are meant for. This is even as the students have to bear the burden of fixing broken doors, replacing torn mosquito nets and louvers on their windows, buying mattresses and fumigating them when infested by insects and fixing electric fittings, all in a bid to make living on the campuses a bit more tolerable. Those who cannot cope opt for off campus accommodation which also has its own challenges, paramount among which are affordability and security.
The situation on the campuses, in our view, is a reflection of poor governance in the larger society. Poor public policy and poor maintenance culture is at the core of the infrastructure challenge on the campuses. The situation in the campuses is a manifestation of years of neglect by successive governments.
Above all, the issue of corruption is pervasive in the nation’s public facilities where officials see budgets as provision for their personal aggrandisement. It is not uncommon for these same officials to retire stolen money as having been used for the purpose they were meant and making available forged receipts as proof. It is a syndicate situation involving officials from top to bottom.
We must however point out that some of what is witnessed on the campuses is a result of abuse by the students themselves. We therefore challenge government and its agencies to step up efforts towards restoring the image of these institutions as centres of excellence that they were designed to be, in all areas, and also urge the students to, as adults, be more responsible and protect facilities provided by the authorities.
Source:leadership.ng/opinions/editorial/480569/poor-living-conditions-university-campuses
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