The rate at which infrastructural facilities are allowed to rot, decay and waste away in many public universities in Nigeria today is alarming. A visit to some of these universities in our midst shows that the materials, many of the infrastructural facilities, general equipment and even the vehicles the federal and state governments provide in themas the proprietors are not taken care of by those who manage and run these institutions administratively and academically.
In a particular federal university located in a town in the South-East zone of the county, more than three-quarters of the buildings today aredilapidated completely, just as the paintings of these and other buildings have charred completely beyond recognition. This makes the buildings in the university look so ugly, bad and unkempt, and which goes further to debase the aesthetic value, perception and general outlook of this particular university; as visitors have continued to distaste the entire scenery on arrival and go ahead to blame and criticise the vice chancellor, the management staff members and all those who run the university for their ineptitude, incompetence, ‘wickedness’ and mal-administrative tendencies in this regard.
In some other buildings in the university, the fittings such as waste pipes, water taps/ faucets, the inspection chambers, the foundation-blocks used in the building the houses, and even the soak-away pits and general conveniences have all gone bad or broken; and no effort is made to repair or replace these items.
Not only these, in some cases, the lawnsare not kept, just as many of buildings used for lecture lack many of the things needed in them, even seats for students to sit on, even as many of the seats are broken! Then, go to the hostels where students reside. What do you see there? Many of the toilet facilities are broken, ugly and unkempt with no water supply for students to use – bearing in mind that nobody can achieve any meaningful thing in keeping sanitary conveniences clean and tidy without adequate water supply anywhere.
This means that students in these universities can never maintain the cleanliness of their hostels and conveniences therein without water; neithercan the so-called porters who are supposed to take care of such hostels do so.
So, in many of our public universities today, the health and social well-being of the students are daily endangered and put at risk through the spate of dilapidated infrastructure. Abandoned projects and uncompleted buildings are also a hallmark in this particular university.
When I visited another university recently and went to the Portal section, I could not believe my eyes on the extent of abandonment, degeneration and deterioration I had perceived, seen and beheldthere. Yes. I had counted about seventy-nine cars of various types and brands, lorries, trucks and other forms of vehicles crassly abandoned within the premises to rot and waste away, including other machinery items!
On enquiry from one of the staff members, I was told that some of the cars, including brand new and unregistered ones, had parked therein for more as many as ten years for no reason order than carelessness and sense of administrative irresponsibility! When I made further inquiry from a management staff member of the university on why the vehicles and machinery items that should have been used and engaged to enhance the smooth-running of the university workers had beenabandoned for so long, the answer I got from the woman was, ‘This is what we see here. That is the situation and I don’t know why.’
Really, the spate of infrastructural decay in Nigerian universities is unprecedented today. Every effort should be made to stop this act of irresponsibility. The university administrators and the vice chancellors should take time to effect repairs and maintain the infrastructures government use the tax-payers’ money to provide in their institutions. They should not fail to do so. It is because of the great rot in our universities that many of these institutions today appear as glorified primary schools.
It is not enough for our universities to be derogatorilyand continuously described and known as ‘sex-for-marks’ institutions with randy lecturers on the prowl, some of ‘who knownext to nothing.’ Yes; Nigerian university administrators must decide to administer their universities properly and maintain the infrastructural facilities in them for the interest of all of us.
Ogbonnaya M. Akoma,
Trans-Amadi, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.