The Soft Issue
August 2017
Story from Within
assignment for being on campus. This
however does not mean that all students
that live on campus behave in such manner.
It only depends on the individual, what you
determine to do and the action you put
towards achieving it.
Having lived on campus, I would say school
hostel is no heaven. Just as an off-campus
student struggles for virtually everything,
is the same way an on-campus student
struggles for the needed things. Contrary
to popular belief, the latter faces more
difficulties than the form er. A student is put
together with people of his/her no choice,
various individuals who hails from different
walks of life, having various character traits as
well as deficiencies, religious differences and
tribal disparity. A student that is accustomed
to his/her personal privacy when at home
or even before living on campus is forced
to share a room with about 5 or 7 more
other people (and if you are lucky lesser
than this). Due to limited space, clashing of
personalities, character deficiencies by other
roommates, truffle and fights erupts, coupled
with been in close proximity with the school
authorities, this is a serious offense which
could lead to evacuation from the school
hostel, or even suspension for some weeks.
Hence, a student is forced to live and endure
with people he/she had no contact with
prior to living together for about 7months
or more. Getting a room in one of the hotels
in school does not guarantee an enjoyable
stay. A student that has just been allocated
a room has to ensure he/she rushes to the
room he/she has been allocated, tags his/
her name on few of the good beds in the
bunks of the room, tags his/her identity on
few of the durable and complete wardrobe,
insure a secured place for his/her cooking, or
be ready to face a rickety bunk, dissembled
wardrobe, and a tiny corner for cooking for
failure to play smart.
The normal expectation of a student that has
just gotten accommodation in school hostel
is to have stable and clean water, stable
electricity, clean and serene environment,
however, the opposite is the case in most
instances. A student that wakes up in the
morning in the school hostel is hit with the
reality of unavailable water, and been in a
school environment, there is no neighbour
you can run to fetch water from the well for
just a bucket of water in order to bath, as
such an affected student is forced to do “rub
and shine” to class due to inability to get
water, this “rub and shine” involves using a
small amount of water to rub the body, use
cloth to dab away the water, apply body
cream and shine on to class without anyone
knowing if you have had a bath or
not. If and when the tap eventually
runs, it protrudes with dirty water,
manageable for bathing, and usable
for washing and cooking only after it
settles. The Law students dare not use
such water before it settles to wash
their white shirt “uniform” if they are
not ready to be mocked for a soiled
white shirt.
Despite having so many cleaners in
charge of cleaning the compounds in
each hostel, the toilets and bathroom
unfortunately are never conducive,
always in a mess, however the
cleaners are not to blame for this, in as
much as they do their best, students
however will behave as students,
some mess the whole place up
with faeces and urine and care less
about flushing because they feel it
is the responsibility of the cleaners
and as such the cleaners abandon
them. Someone once said that on-
campus students look fatter than
off-campus students; I guess it must
be because of the terrible polluted
air and horrid smell we inhale every
day. Most times, the cleaners threaten
to go on strike, they claim they have
been deprived some months’ salary,
hostel management also claims
they have not been paid, school
authorities say the blame is not theirs,
school hostels are jointly owned and
managed with private individuals. This
once resulted into inhabitants of the
school hostel developing cleaning
routine for compound occupants
when endurance on the part of hostel
occupants had reached its climax,
though this was eventually not carried
out as planned, because some hostel
mates refused to inconvenience
themselves in cleaning hostels
generations upon generations have
lived in, and considering the fact that
81
they have paid for such services,
there was no cooperation and
eventually the plan did not work
out. This only proves to show that
living in a school hostel is not
what it seems to be, life is not
a bed of roses, thus living in a
school hostel is definitely not fun
affair, infact it brings out more of
your survival instincts.
There is nothing more annoying
than living in the same hostel
having several compounds
and seeing other compounds
having electricity and yet your
own goes on for some days
without having power supply.
The struggle in calling upon
the hostel management to get
an electrician to fix the power
box of a compound is real. The
comments and sideways look
you will get from the hostel
portals would make you seriously
question whether you have paid
all the money required to get a
hostel accommodation or you still
owe a certain kobo to deserve
such pathetic treatment. Thus,
after praying and struggling to
secure an accommodation in one
of the school hostels, your prayer
does not ends there, you need
to pray that the fan in the room is
working, the door knob is good
and not loosed, the light bulb and
socket is still working, or be ready
to stick with that for half of the
semester before your complaints
receives a response and that is
if you are persistent enough, but
if you are forming and playing
“bigman-ship” be prepared to
have your demands met some
days to starting exams.
the
LENS