Insufficient accommodation at the University of Maiduguri is perhaps the worst pain going through the inner feelings of students of the institution who either lives near or far. We have witnessed the way other universities with a large student population have structured their hostel and this is quite interesting.
I believe the Tertiary Education Trust Funds, which is a Federal Government intervention fund, should not only be spent on renovation of the school’s senate building, administrati8ve blocks, and departmental offices amid urgent demand of hostels by the students who traveled from various destinations to Maiduguri. The management of the school needs to prioritise prioritize enough hostels for the students first before any other thing.
We are all aware of the insecurity around Borno. However, if we must be sincere, we will all acknowledge the fact that building accommodation for students will encourage them to study in peace, rather than leaving them with the choice of living around the city of Maiduguri, thereby exposing them to danger.
The University of Maiduguri lacks good accommodation. Most of the hostels in the university are dilapidated and cannot accommodate its burgeoning students. The university management should take proactive measures as the issue of accommodation is one of the most pressing now.
There are many students in the university that are buying bed spaces to re-sell at an exorbitant rate. This is despite that the practice is against the school’s rule which pegged the official rate of hostel at between N15000 and N22,000. There are some hostels that only rich people can afford. Their rate falls within N50,000 to N80,000. Some frustrated and particularly students from poor homes who cannot afford such cutthroat rate squat with their friends.
To make matters worse, some put up in lecture theatres, associations and fellowship secretariats, and common rooms, among others, and retire to their hostels very early the following day to get dressed for lectures. Meanwhile, it’s an offense to squat in the university. In many of our hostels, one finds a room having eight or more people against the normal four students per room.
I could only appeal to management to provide some palliatives which will ensure students’ plights as regards hostel accommodation are ameliorated.
Adamu Ali Usman,
Department of Mass Communication,
University of Maiduguri
