As a first-year diploma student in the university, I didn’t know I was enjoying the best in terms of hospitality the school had to offer, until my second year.

In my first year, I had all my lectures in an air-conditioned classroom, lived in the newest hostels in the school. As the first occupants, everything was brand new - the showers ran 24 hours and the only problem we had was getting people off the shower.

But I was let down my high horse in my 200 level, when I started living the UNILAG dream (or the real school life). I was in one of the popular hostels. The day I moved in, the welcome package I got was a terrible stench. However, within a few days, I adjusted like everyone else, and so began my days of terror in the school.

In my new accommodation, the stench is so strong that it does two strong things - it keeps us in the class all day, and awake some nights. Women being very sensitive, hygiene-wise, are the worst hit; you can’t use the bathroom or toilet. So you either wake up very early to take your bath outside and “shot put”, or endure the stinking bathroom and toilet at the risk of contracting infectious diseases. The taps have a time table; you either stick to it, or spend half of your pocket money in buying water.

Is it the noise you want to talk about? That is a different ball game altogether. It either keeps you awake in your room, or asleep in the health centre. The three major sources of noise are - music or film show from loud blaring speakers, a fight, or fellowship/church service.

The last (religious meetings) I can understand, because if you do not do it close to the hostels, attendance will be very poor which would in turn affect the offering. The rate, at which our students engage in fights over minor issues that would have been settled by a simple apology, is alarming. It is a reflection of total lack of decency, integrity and self-respect in society.

Recently, I was at the University of Ghana. I was shocked, surprised and alarmed at what I saw. Unlike the terrible experiences we go through in our campuses, the reverse is the case there. I got into a very beautiful and serene compound, thinking it had to be the vice-chancellor’s lodge, but I was told it was the female hostel.

There were no underwears hanging from the windows, no girls in their birthday suit loitering around, no litters and above all, no stench of any kind. It’s so clean, spacious and airy. There are big trees, underneath which people read quietly and undisturbed. In contrast, my hostel is as busy as the streets of New York where dreams are made, because very often, you find people staging mini talent shows, so you can only read in the middle of the night when everybody is asleep.

They have a kitchenette, refrigerator room and a laundry room. Everything is well organised. The most alarming discovery was that this hostel was built in the early 20th century by the Portuguese. I argued to no end about when it was built; considering the situation of things in my home country, so l had to be shown the commissioning plaque stuck on the wall and signed by the Portuguese.

The same is obtainable in their male hostel, faculties and lecture rooms. This, however, transmitted to Ghana as a country - good roads, steady power supply, good water and very nice and decent people.

On the contrary, my school hostel, built in the 70’s, is in a very sorry state. It has never been repainted, the bathroom has only been refurbished once, there are non-existent kitchenettes and some parts of the building is threatening to give way, but is being supported with wood. This situation is not just peculiar to my school, but to most states and federal tertiary institutions in the country.

The only thing that has effectively been maintained in this country is corruption which directly or indirectly affects every other thing and has kept us where we are right now. Please, let’s borrow a leaf from Ghana and try to do what is right.

Dis Guy:

Is it true, Unilag has never been repainted?  

Businessday

Woke4all:

You don't hv money! why the complain about toilet, bathroom etc? Abi you mate no dey stay better flat for school?

adusol:

Are you for real? is that the only building in Unilag?

Whatever happened to constructive criticism, granted that the environment is dirty, who is responsible for the filth

is it the lecturers or the VC. A good number of the students are animals in human form. How do you explain a situation whereby the Authorities make provisions for Litter Bins(Two In Every Lecture Rooms) but the students refuse to use them and leave a heap of rubbish for the cleaners to deal with every morning

And to issue of stench in the hostel, the School environment harbors all manner of people, what do you expect
Even, at my present job, there are folks who even with the degree of exposure still fail to clean up after using the bathroom and like someone rightly pointed out, it has to do with how you were raised as a child.

I learnt from a very age not litter, as child i had several sweet wrappers in my pocket, which the laundry Man always complained about.

Then again, we can't all be the same

manny4life:

Then again cleanliness of a school largely depends on the habitants of the school. In Nigeria, most people already have the mindset that the govt does everything thing for you; ans is NOT TRUE. Even in the U.S. although schools have a maintenance and facilities department, student contribute their time immensely to keeping clean and enforcement as well. Fraternity / Sorority organization take park in cleaning, different organizations participate in this process, many schools have volunteers; although some are paid to take part in this process. The most important is the education part of cleaninliness; when a student believes that school administrators takes care of everything, then there's bound to be a dirty environment. However, when student begin to have such mindset that "hey, I'm part of this part of this process, if I remove a food wrap, I dispose it immediately and rightly" then when 10,100,1000 begin the same thing then u can have a clean environment.

Liedetect:

Allays wondered why that was. The Nigerian colleges during my time were fantastic, I remember the beauty of the college at Ughelli set at the end of a boulevard of trees. It had state of the art agricultural wing, experimenting on breeding livestock. The there was Government college Ughelli, founded by Baden Powell, set in foursquare miles of prime land, it had cricket pavilion in faux top English public schools style etc. Government College Warri, all great places but Universities often seemed horrible by  comparison.  

Still, those universities seem to produce brilliant people.  Nigerians educated in those run down places always seem to excel compered to those educated in say Ghana or South Africa. Find a top Nigerian anywhere in the world for some reason their formative years began in Nigerian university.  Perhaps having little access to resources, undergrads in Nigeria are/were forced to read entire volumes of works instead of having excepts pointed out to them that would form the bases of exams as pertains at English universities and institutes of higher learning.  

I wonder what the keen Nigerian mind will archive if their universities receive maximum investment.  

Nigeria is great.

Liedetect:

What's there not to be serious about?

I don't jester, i lived half my life in Britain and half in Nigeria.

tensor777:

All true. It is a matter of personal responsibility. It has to be said that many university undergraduates in Nigeria  can be careless and carefree about their use and maintenance of the infrastructure on campus.