Parents fear crowded accommodation on the campuses of higher institutions, especially in the era of Covid-19, Idu Jude and Joy Moses write.

James Ododuru may not have many reasons to stop his three children from going back to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), as the new academic session begins.

But he has every reason to worry about the rampaging effects of the Coronavirus which has since entered its third wave in the country.

His fear is rooted in the net effect of ballooning the cost of accommodation of students on the nation’s higher institutions, and the accompanying exploitative tendencies which, he fears, could jeopardize their health and well-being.

Ododoru complains that accommodation racketeering has been ripping parents and guardians apart and that the problem has not been attracting required government attention.

Feelers show that this scenario is the same in public and private institutions across the country.

Extortion and racketeering have been the main conduit pipe through which criminals extort billions on naira from students during every academic session.

In a chat with ThisNigeria, Oduduru, a Grade Level 12 civil servant, tearfully laments that his incomes were no longer enough to pay the school fees of the three children in the high institution, owing to ‘dubious’ increase in the cost of students’ accommodation.

“I have no reason to stop my children from going back to school, just because some people are exploiting the system. But all I know is that every parent feels the same way,’’ he says.

He adds: ‘’It is not just at the UNN, it can also be experienced at other Nigerian universities.

‘’The painful aspect of it is that the school authorities aid these racketeers in their nefarious undertaking.

‘’Normally, and contrary to what is obtainable, a bed space now transits from the hands of middlemen at the rate of N25,000. Multiply that by five students in a room, which amounts to N125,000 per session. This, however, contradicts the official hostel fee at the institution, which stands, at UNN, at N25,000.00.’’

A civil servant with the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), Dr. John Muyiwa, notes, with rage, the ordeal students pass through when seeking accommodation at the resumption of academic sessions.

Muyiwa alleges that the authorities of institutions of higher learning have been ‘jeopardizing’ the future of students, especially on the issue of accommodation.

“People keep talking about ASUU and other bodies in the universities, but we forget to address major issues staring at us in the face,’’ he says.

In general, poor hostel facilities has been making learning difficult in the ivory towers.

Students share their experiences about securing accommodation on the campuses.

They compare the activity to the Hobbesian postulation of life being for the survival of the fittest, owing to the ordeal they pass through to have bed spaces after the payment of tuition fees.

Luck, they say, plays a great part in the struggle for hostel accommodation and the use of facilities, which is stress-laden.

Students lament bed bug-infested mattresses, cockroaches and lice-infested wardrobes, lack of water, as well as poor medical and sanitary facilities, which, they contend, raise issues, including health.

Abang Angel, a Mass Communication student, says she paid N15,000 for bed space and another N2,100 before boarding.

“Besides, the hostel is nothing to write home about. The facilities are very poor; the buildings are old and already falling apart. People would say ‘hostels are not for the weak, because they are infested with pests and insects.

‘’The toilets are loathsome and sickening. Without care and caution, one could easily get an infection from Coronavirus due to the number of students clustering in one room.

‘’Water facilities could better be fixed, to save students
from contracting infections, and the time is better now that Coronavirus is devastating the world.

‘’Getting hostel accommodation is always a hassle. Accommodation racketeering puts the students at a precarious situation to struggle for available rooms.

‘’The website indicates that no room has been activated for the current year for students,” she submits.

Natalia, a student of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, claims she paid N15,000 as bed space allocation fee in a frustrating experience which started with an online application procedure.

“I applied online and did not get it. I had to come to school to apply manually by writing a letter to the Dean of Students’ Affairs, pleading to get a bed space in the hostel. I wrote the letter twice before I was given a bed space.’’

Natalia adds that some students rely on hostels because of security and affordability since they could not afford the price of living in a lodge.

In cases of scarcity, some students have been discovered to pay as much as N25,000 for a bed space.

In other cases, students have also turned bed spaces racketeering into ‘business ventures’ by taking advantage of squatters who pay about N60,000 to secure places.

She adds, ‘’The situation here is alarming. We no longer use the toilets because of a lack of hygiene. We now use buckets to defecate. If you are not conscious, you can get infected easily.

Efforts by our correspondent to sound out the Dean of Students Affairs at UNN, Prof. Edwin O. Omeje, proved abortive

But Oluwafemi Ogunjobi, a 20-year-old undergraduate of Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU, Ile-Ife, laments the dangers of squatting far away from home.

Squatting, she says, is common in Nigeria’s institutions of higher learning, and is fast becoming a way of life on the campuses.

Oluwafemi said, “though it is against school regulations, students who cannot afford accommodation on campuses squat with their friends.

‘’Most of the problem is the inability of school management to provide adequate halls of residence for students, though the high cost of accommodation and deliberate circumvention of bed spaces allocation rules by students are also factors.’’

He adds, “Squatting prevails at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. Whenever an academic session begins, students are worried over accommodation.

‘’Arguments develop between hostel managers and prospective occupants of the halls of residence. Students believe that bed spaces available in OAU’s hostels can only accommodate 30 percent of the student population.

Another student, Gbadegesin Musibau, said right from the first year, he had no accommodation allocated to him.

The development, he says, drove him to stay off-campus at the 200- Level.

But the authorities of OAU have denied the situation of hardship occasioned by accommodation scarcity.

According to statistics released by the Vice Dean, Students’ Affairs, OAU, Dr Adesina, 3,417-bed spaces in Fajuyi, Moremi, Awolowo, Education Trust Fund, and Akintola halls were reserved for 5,241 final year students for the 2012/2013 academic session.

In an online interview, Adesina says OAU cannot accommodate all 5,400 freshers.

He says that there are less than 9,600-bed spaces in the school – not enough to accommodate all its students.

“Yet, we will still accommodate other categories of students. The freshmen have been told that bed space allocations are on a first-come-served basis.”

Some students, who wanted privacy and convenience, paid higher to rent apartments in the university’s host community. The lucky ones said they would not accommodate squatters.

In Awolowo and Fajuyi Halls, legal occupants dare not report squatters, as instructed by the management; rather, they create spaces for their hosts.

Some students with relatives on campus squat together. Here, squatters have the “right” to sleep on the legal occupants’ bed spaces.

Majority of the students who had to stay off-campus contend with irregular power supply and insecurity.

According to the university management, the development will persist as long as the government does not construct more hostels.

Meanwhile, squatting is unpermitted in OAU.

Hassan Gimba a public health advocate, told ThisNigeria, that the conditions of suitable accommodation congruent to students’ academic pursuits are at the worst decline.

He adds that inadequate hostels for students in higher institutions should be of great concern to the government and the authorities.

Hassan observed that the authorities, during engagements, often claim a lack of public funds for infrastructural projects.

“Government claims it attempted to attract the private sector in the provision of students housing, which has not recorded significant achievements,’’ he notes.

Hassan adds that there had been challenges faced by developers in adopting the Build, Operate Transfer (BOT) model of project delivery, with a focus on Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) in Nigeria.

‘’The Developers Association of Nigeria was involved to ensure that, together with the Nigerian Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), loans could be provided for student housing, on a long-term basis.

The problem, he added, was the high-interest rate on loans, disinterest on the part of lending institutions, and preference for traditional procurement routes.

Dr. Edith Terms-Yawe of the National Hospital, Abuja, believes that “students cannot survive without housing facilities.

‘’Accommodating students on campus is second only to the dissemination of specialist knowledge. Therefore, providing student housing is important to any tertiary institution,’’ she says.

Terms-Yawe, however, defined student housing as a supervised living and learning hostel consisting of shared housing facilities and amenities for the community of residents who use it, built on-campus, owned by the university, which provides for inexpensive chargeable rooms, and is administered to accommodate the undergraduate or postgraduate students.

“It is pertinent to note that back in the years, Nigerian universities have traditionally accommodated students almost exclusively on campuses and hostel buildings because student housing has been an integral component of Nigerian universities.

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‘’Financial constraints and population explosion of students have made this difficult for universities to provide on-campus accommodation for students, which have resulted in overcrowded buildings, the spread of diseases and continuous deterioration and the decay of these facilities, which means hell for the future of the students.

She adds: ‘’’ If you ask me of the imminent danger, even the report by the Presidential Committee on Critical Needs of Nigerian Universities, stated that only 111,509 (8.9 percent) of the total student population of 1,252,913 students across 61 public universities are accommodated on campus.

‘’So, what it means is that only a few universities in Nigeria can accommodate up to 50 percent of their student population, and there is as much as 90 percent deficit in some universities.

‘’There has been this continued lamentation on the overcrowding in hostels in Nigerian universities, and this has mounted pressure on the facilities.

‘’But away from that, we should start thinking outside the box and on how to save the students from being affected by Covid-19 while staying in overcrowded rooms, which is a potential super spreader.”

Ezeh Onyekpere, a lawyer and the lead director of the Centre for Social Justice Initiative, posits that, in 2004, the estimated cost of meeting the shortfall in student accommodation alone in Federal Universities stood at a whopping N63.19 billion.

According to him, ‘’it is obvious that the government will find it difficult to do it alone. In the absence of sufficient public funds for infrastructure projects, it makes sense to explore innovative financing models such as Build Operate Transfer (BOT).

‘’The government has in this regard encouraged private developers to go into hostel development and management, and relieving federal universities of these duties as directed by the Federal Ministry of Education in 2004.

Ezeh observes that the government’s attempt to attract the private sector in the provision of student accommodation, since then, has, however, not recorded significant achievements.