By I. B. Nga<\/p>\n
Sincethe commencement of this new academic session, several students of
\nthe University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), have been badly destablisedby the
\nvery frustrating method deployed by the Student Affairs Department inthe
\nallocation of hostel accommodation to students. Worst hit are the
\nfinalyear students, many of whom have been left stranded. Instead of
\ndevoting time andenergy to their academic work at this very critical and
\nterminal stage of theirstay at the university,\u00a0\u00a0 they arerunning from
\npillar to post trying to secure hostel accommodations, all to noavail.<\/p>\n
Thecomputerised system should have made the process of hostel allocation
\nvery easyif it was managed by honest people. To obtain a hostel
\naccommodation at UNN,one has to visit the UNN internet portal
\n(http:\/\/unnportal.unn.edu.ng\/), log inwith one\u2019s Student\u2019s Identification
\nCode and apply for a bed-space. If the studentis allocated, he or she will
\nprint out an allocation confirmation slip and useit to go to the
\ndesignated bank to pay for the accommodation.<\/p>\n
Butfrom the very date the university reopened for this first semester, it
\nwas anuphill task for several students to even access the UNN portal
\nonline. Wheneventually, some of them succeeded and logged in to apply for
\nbed spaces, thepage kept giving out the following message: “All Rooms Have
\nBeenAllocated.” But while many of the unallocated students
\nremainedstranded and distracted from their academic work which has since
\ncommenced infull force, those with \u201cconnections\u201d always got privileged
\ninformation as tothe exact period the system would be activated by the
\nuniversity officials to startallocating again. And these would rush and
\nlog in to the portal to secure roomsfor themselves, settle down and face
\ntheir school work. But when theinformation eventually spreads and the
\nother students start logging in also,the website would start again to say
\nthat “All Rooms Have BeenAllocated.” After sometime, it would begin to
\nannounce somethingdifferent, namely, “Try Again Later.” What a frustrating
\nsituation.<\/p>\n
Now,despite these developments, there are still many rooms that are yet to
\nbeallocated at UNN. And from time to time, those with the “right
\nconnections”get informed when the portal would start allocating and would
\nrush to securerooms before information reaches other students who would
\nonly log in when ithas stopped allocating.<\/p>\n
Nottoo long ago, there was a fire incident at one the hostels at the UNN
\nand thebuilding \u00a0is yet to be renovated as to bein use. The officials are
\nhiding behind the modest shortage this has caused toperpetrate their
\nnefarious activities. And so they create an artificialscarcity in order to
\ngive the accommodation to their preferred students \u2013 whoprobably may have
\ngreased their palms.<\/p>\n
Eachtime I hear glib talks about the sterling benefits of
\n“universityautonomy” I wonder what would be the fate of students if the
\nuniversitiesoperate solely on their own without any external supervisory
\ninfluence. Onehopes that such a day would never come.<\/p>\n
Evenif there is a genuine case of insufficient accommodation, shouldn’t
\naresponsible school administration extend some consideration to, at least,
\nitsfinal year students and even to some degree the first year students as
\nis thecase in some other universities? The final year students have too
\nmuch work ontheir hands. Any small mistake might award them an extra year
\nin theuniversity. They do not need the destabilisation effort being
\nunleashed on themnow at the University of Nigeria \u2013 aninstitution that
\ntells us that its motto is “Restoring the Dignity ofMan”? Even among the
\nfinal year students, efforts should be madeto first accommodate the female
\nstudents among them without delay. Many of themare going about every
\nevening to find places to lay their heads and this couldexpose them to
\nsome dangers. This also applies to the female students in otherclasses.
\nThe case for the first year students is that many of them are so youngand
\nhave found themselves in a very strange environment, with several of
\nthemleaving home for the first time in their lives?<\/p>\n
Manyfinal year students do not find the off-campus accommodations
\nattractive. Evensome of them who had lived off-campus tend to seek hostel
\naccommodations once theyget into their final year. They need all the time
\nthey have for their academicwork which might be affected by the several
\ndistractions that go with living intown.<\/p>\n
Itherefore use this medium to urge the Vice-Chancellor of UNN to call
\nthoseperpetrating this unwholesome business at the Student Affairs office
\nto orderand end the trauma of students. They are giving a very bad image
\nto the University of Nigeria, and this should be a concern toall lovers of
\nthe institution, including the alumni. What kind of system isthis that
\ndoes not even reward the early birds \u2013 on first-come-first-servedbasis?
\nPeople who have been trying to log in to secure accommodation forseveral
\nweeks now are still labouring to do so while some others (obviouslywith
\nthe \u201cright connections\u201d) just breeze in and after a few hours, they
\ngettheir rooms and settle down.<\/p>\n
TheNational University Commission (NUC), the Minister of Education and
\nwhoeverelse that has some authority over these fellows should call those
\nUNN fellowsto order and restore sanity to the system. How anyone hopes to
\n\u201crestore dignity\u201dto any man by operating a fraudulent system is what beats
\nme? What has ouruniversities turned into? A lucrative fraudulent industry?
\nWhere are our RightsActivists? Does a Students\u2019 Union Government (SUG)
\nexist at the UNN at all? Allstakeholders should contribute efforts to put
\nan end to this mess. If thecomputerised system has become a perfect
\nmachine for mindless racketeering, themethod should be discarded. Students
\nshould now pay their fees in the bank anduse their stamped tellers to
\nsecure hostel accommodations, so that those whopay early would be the
\nfirst to be allocated. Also, the Students Hostel whichwas recently gutted
\nby fire should immediately be renovated.<\/p>\n
Mr. Nga, is a Lagos-based human rightsactivist. Email: ibnga2000@yahoo.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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