With work yet to commence on its burnt main library complex that used to house some faculties and departments, students and staff of UNIJOS, go through hell teaching, learning, reading and studying

From Gyang Bere, Jos

For nine months now, students of the University of Jos have had horrible reading experience reading in pains and anguish since the main library complex of the University situated at the Naraguta Campus, the permanent site, was gutted by a mysterious fire incident that consumed books and reading materials beyond recognition.

The incident has rendered research students and academic staff in the institution incapacitated. Those who are curious and determined to excel in their academic pursuit are compelled to move on daily basis to Bauchi Road library to read under a tedious and unfriendly condition.

The traffic in the only library in the institution with two major campuses is very heavy, considering the compelling demands by several students who turn out daily for reading and other research activities. This has further compounded the reading culture of the students.

The mysterious fire incident that occurred precisely on Saturday 8 October, 2016 at the peak of the first semester exam for the 2015/2016 academic session affected not only the library but also the learning resources of some faculties and departments that share the same complex with the library. Affected were Faculties of Social Sciences and Management Sciences and offices of lecturers in the Faculty of Arts. The affected departments include: Department of Psychology,  Department of Political Science, Department of Economics,  Department of Sociology and Department of Business Administration. Property and documents and academic resource materials belonging to them were all destroyed in the raging inferno.

The incident created huge deficits in learning resources and infrastructures as the library housed about 60 percent of the university library’s collection of about 100,000 volumes, many computers and offices.

Results of panels of investigation

The Vice Chancellor, Prof. Seddi Sabastian Maimako, was few weeks in office when the incident took place. Subsequently, two panels were raised, one to investigate the immediate and remote causes and another to check the integrity of the storey building as to know whether the entire structure could be pulled down for fresh construction and whether lectures can still continue in the unaffected classrooms within the complex.

After several weeks, the committees turned in their reports which revealed that the fire incident originated from the Department of Psychology located in the same complex with the main library.

According to the report, there was evidence that the inferno started from an electrical fault in one of the offices being used as warehouse for exam materials. The second committee tested the integrity of the storey building and turned in a mixed report of few columns in the building being badly affected by the inferno as to need reconstruction while most of the columns not so badly affected need to be rehabilitated for academic use.

The ad hoc reading and studying arrangements

At present, the management of the institution is in dilemma as there are inadequate lecture halls for the six faculties and six departments affected by the fire incident. Lecturers from the affected departments negotiate for lecture periods in the burnt storey building to avoid friction with one another.

Related News

On the part of students, they are compelled by the situation to hold classes between 8 am and 6pm and this is rotated among the departments to avoid clashes in lecture periods that may generate tension among lecturers and students from the affected departments.

To ease the challenges the students were going through, an alternative library at Bauchi Road was opened for them while the affected departments and some buildings were turned into lecture halls to make learning easier for them.

Despite these efforts, the challenges are still overwhelming. Though students have library reading spaces they are inadequate to accommodate all of them who want to make use of the library at a given period. The materials provided from donations have been stocked in the library and shelves created for those faculties whose learning resources were destroyed. But spaces for them are not adequate.

The drive to restock and rebuild the library

Shortly after the inferno, the management had come up with an initiative tagged “Beauty from Ashes,” through which they solicited for support from all over the world, to rehabilitate and restock the burnt library complex. At present, over 70 individuals and institutions from Nigeria and abroad have responded to the call for assistance and the university has received books, journals, computers and cash. But there is the problem of space of, not only where to display them but also of where students can stay to have access to them. Prior to this time, the university established two collection points in Florida and North Carolina, USA and another in South Africa.

But the latest news is that although the Federal Government has intervened through TETFund to express its readiness to renovate the burnt library at the cost of N729 million, help and relief are still far for the students and academic staff. This is owing to the process the marked-off fund needs to go through before it can bring them to the promise land.

The Vice Chancellor, Prof. Maimako, acknowledged this while explaining the process for the execution of the contract, noting that it will take more than one year to take off.

“The Federal Government through the TETFund has given us a contract award letter for the renovation of the burnt library complex to the tune of N729 million,” he said. “But there are established thresholds for procurement in this country. The amount involved is clearly above the University’s tenders’ thresholds. This has to pass through the ministerial tenders board and if it is not within their jurisdiction, they have to go to the federal tenders board. Our effort has attracted the procurement processes which are: the provision of document required such as the appointment of consultants and some other inputs. We have done a great deal between the Bureau of Public Procurement and us but the processes are long and at every stage, you have to meet the requirement.

“We have sent the document already to TETFund and they are supposed to send it to the appropriate board that has the threshold of approving procurement within the range of N729 million and we must go by the processes that are laid down so that nobody will complain of being short-changed in the selection of either the consultant or the contractor.”

The resort to self-help

A student who spoke to The Sun Education lamented that the burnt library complex has made academic activities unbearable for students on campus.  “You can imagine coming from the permanent site to Bauchi Road campus everyday to read and before you come, the reading spaces had been occupied by other students. This has made life difficult for us.  The Federal Government should speed up action and renovate the burnt library to ease our hardship.”

Worried by the situation, the management and other staffs have chosen to engage in self-help efforts. While the management staffs have agreed to contribute N1 million, other staffs have taxed themselves to bring in N250,000 according to their wages. The amount is being paid in instalments into a dedicated account for the rehabilitation of the library structure. So far, over N7 million has, reportedly, been credited into the account.

Yet the hope of commencing work on the burnt structure still remains a pipe dream as bidding for the contract has not been advertised neither have contractors and consultants been selected.