Hostels’ renovation may delay 2nd semester resumption in UNILAG

 

By Adeshina Okoosi

STUDENTS of the University of Lagos, UNILAG, may spend the whole of the first semester in the current session off campus as there is no possibility of the renovation of their hostels being completed as scheduled.

Checks by Vanguard showed that only three hostels have been renovated up to an appreciable level, while works have not started on the others because of the paucity of funds.

Moreover, the release of funds has been intermittent and that makes the pace of work to be slow.

The management had two months ago, gave December 2024, a deadline for the renovation works and had directed students to stay off campus, as lectures would be delivered online.

Hostels’ll be ready March 2025—Mgt

When contacted on the phone yesterday, the Dean of Students’ Affairs, Prof. Musa Obalola, said the hostels would be ready for occupation by March next year.

Obalola said: “We initially thought the renovation of the hostels would be completed by the end of 2024, and that was why we gave the December timeline. However, the rate at which funds are being released from Abuja for the projects would not allow that. As of now, we have about three of the hostels put in shape and we cannot begin to allocate the three. It will create chaos, as the spaces there would be grossly inadequate.

“From the look of things, the renovation of all the hostels may not be completed until March next year and then we can allocate all the bed spaces at once.”

On how much the students would now pay, Obalola said the hostel fees would be reduced, adding that the management would determine that later.

Speaking in an interview with a campus-based publication, UNILAG Sun, the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Folasade Ogunsola, said the funds being used for the renovation were being released in tranches by the federal government.

She also debunked the claim that the management was insensitive to the plight of the students.

Ogunsola said: “The students will not say that the management doesn’t care about them. If we don’t care, we won’t be renovating the hostels where they live. I believe that you cannot talk about gentlemen and ladies when they live in terrible hostels. I’ve been in many of them and honestly, it’s appalling. We were doing repairs but it was always little patches and what you find is that within a few months of the students being back there, everything is destroyed again so we decided to do a total renovation of all of the hostels. 

“We were hoping to do the renovation before the resumption of this semester but unfortunately, when you’re working with government money, you can’t plan, you do your part, then you wait for the government to give you the money.

“So the money we were hoping would come in maybe about July just so that as we are finishing school, we start, didn’t come. But when it came, we knew we had to make a very quick decision because the spiral in inflation means that if you do not use that money now, it will be useless by next year.”