By I. B. Nga
Sincethe commencement of this new academic session, several students of
the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), have been badly destablisedby the
very frustrating method deployed by the Student Affairs Department inthe
allocation of hostel accommodation to students. Worst hit are the
finalyear students, many of whom have been left stranded. Instead of
devoting time andenergy to their academic work at this very critical and
terminal stage of theirstay at the university, they arerunning from
pillar to post trying to secure hostel accommodations, all to noavail.
Thecomputerised system should have made the process of hostel allocation
very easyif it was managed by honest people. To obtain a hostel
accommodation at UNN,one has to visit the UNN internet portal
(http://unnportal.unn.edu.ng/), log inwith one’s Student’s Identification
Code and apply for a bed-space. If the studentis allocated, he or she will
print out an allocation confirmation slip and useit to go to the
designated bank to pay for the accommodation.
Butfrom the very date the university reopened for this first semester, it
was anuphill task for several students to even access the UNN portal
online. Wheneventually, some of them succeeded and logged in to apply for
bed spaces, thepage kept giving out the following message: “All Rooms Have
BeenAllocated.” But while many of the unallocated students
remainedstranded and distracted from their academic work which has since
commenced infull force, those with “connections” always got privileged
information as tothe exact period the system would be activated by the
university officials to startallocating again. And these would rush and
log in to the portal to secure roomsfor themselves, settle down and face
their school work. But when theinformation eventually spreads and the
other students start logging in also,the website would start again to say
that “All Rooms Have BeenAllocated.” After sometime, it would begin to
announce somethingdifferent, namely, “Try Again Later.” What a frustrating
situation.
Now,despite these developments, there are still many rooms that are yet to
beallocated at UNN. And from time to time, those with the “right
connections”get informed when the portal would start allocating and would
rush to securerooms before information reaches other students who would
only log in when ithas stopped allocating.
Nottoo long ago, there was a fire incident at one the hostels at the UNN
and thebuilding is yet to be renovated as to bein use. The officials are
hiding behind the modest shortage this has caused toperpetrate their
nefarious activities. And so they create an artificialscarcity in order to
give the accommodation to their preferred students – whoprobably may have
greased their palms.
Eachtime I hear glib talks about the sterling benefits of
“universityautonomy” I wonder what would be the fate of students if the
universitiesoperate solely on their own without any external supervisory
influence. Onehopes that such a day would never come.
Evenif there is a genuine case of insufficient accommodation, shouldn’t
aresponsible school administration extend some consideration to, at least,
itsfinal year students and even to some degree the first year students as
is thecase in some other universities? The final year students have too
much work ontheir hands. Any small mistake might award them an extra year
in theuniversity. They do not need the destabilisation effort being
unleashed on themnow at the University of Nigeria – aninstitution that
tells us that its motto is “Restoring the Dignity ofMan”? Even among the
final year students, efforts should be madeto first accommodate the female
students among them without delay. Many of themare going about every
evening to find places to lay their heads and this couldexpose them to
some dangers. This also applies to the female students in otherclasses.
The case for the first year students is that many of them are so youngand
have found themselves in a very strange environment, with several of
themleaving home for the first time in their lives?
Manyfinal year students do not find the off-campus accommodations
attractive. Evensome of them who had lived off-campus tend to seek hostel
accommodations once theyget into their final year. They need all the time
they have for their academicwork which might be affected by the several
distractions that go with living intown.
Itherefore use this medium to urge the Vice-Chancellor of UNN to call
thoseperpetrating this unwholesome business at the Student Affairs office
to orderand end the trauma of students. They are giving a very bad image
to the University of Nigeria, and this should be a concern toall lovers of
the institution, including the alumni. What kind of system isthis that
does not even reward the early birds – on first-come-first-servedbasis?
People who have been trying to log in to secure accommodation forseveral
weeks now are still labouring to do so while some others (obviouslywith
the “right connections”) just breeze in and after a few hours, they
gettheir rooms and settle down.
TheNational University Commission (NUC), the Minister of Education and
whoeverelse that has some authority over these fellows should call those
UNN fellowsto order and restore sanity to the system. How anyone hopes to
“restore dignity”to any man by operating a fraudulent system is what beats
me? What has ouruniversities turned into? A lucrative fraudulent industry?
Where are our RightsActivists? Does a Students’ Union Government (SUG)
exist at the UNN at all? Allstakeholders should contribute efforts to put
an end to this mess. If thecomputerised system has become a perfect
machine for mindless racketeering, themethod should be discarded. Students
should now pay their fees in the bank anduse their stamped tellers to
secure hostel accommodations, so that those whopay early would be the
first to be allocated. Also, the Students Hostel whichwas recently gutted
by fire should immediately be renovated.
Mr. Nga, is a Lagos-based human rightsactivist. Email: ibnga2000@yahoo.com