As students of the University of Lagos, UNILAG, on Monday started balloting for bed spaces in the school’s hostels, hitches have continued to trail the exercise with a lot of the students unable to access the portal to take part in the exercise.
The situation has left many of the students and their parents feeling frustrated, as failure to secure hostel accommodation could mean seeking accommodation in private hostels at cutthroat rates.
Findings by Vanguard showed that trying as much as they could, some of the students were constantly shut out of the system, thereby unable to try their luck at securing official accommodation on campus.
When contacted, the Dean of Students Affairs, Prof. Musa Obalola, attributed the situation to developments that were not within the capacity of the university.
“We have done everything possible at our end and we are assuring all of a fair and transparent exercise. Those experiencing hitches at partaking in the exercise could be having problems if the network where they are is not strong enough. Also, one does not know the type of device they are using to log in.
“Since the exercise just got to the second day, it is expected that many students would want to log in at the same time. There could be congestion. We have about 8,000 bed spaces for over 35,000 students,” he explained.
On whether the university management is taking any step to provide more hostel accommodation for the students, Obalola said various avenues were being explored.
“You know such a step would take some time to come to fruition and a lot of factors are involved,” he added.
Also speaking on the matter, the Head of In.formation Unit, UNILAG, Alhaja Adejoke Alaga-Ibraheem, corroborated Obalola’s position
“The exercise is being done in a very fair manner to all. If there are hitches, they are not from our end,” she said.
Recall that hostel fees were part of the obligatory fees increased some months back by the management of the institution, but were reduced after complaints by students and parents.
For undergraduate hostels in Akoka and Yaba campuses, the fees were reduced to ₦43, 000:00 from ₦90,000:00, and for hostels in Idi-Araba campus, the fees were reduced to ₦65,000:00 from ₦120,000:00.
