OAU IN DARKNESS

OAU IN DARKNESS
Fresh students of Obafemi Awolowo University were matriculated on Wednesday 5th May but there was no power supply all through the day in the students’ halls of residence as well as two days before. Students were forced to cook with Kerosine stove, charge their batteries with money ranging from 30 to 100 naira per garget. Most guys made way with eateries as food stuffs were begging for one to cook them. From the early hour of Sunday morning (around few minutes past 6 am) till Thursday about 30 minutes after the students congress there was power outage on campus. What made the event unique is that such a power outage that lasted that duration while students were on campus had not occurred in the past 5years.
Taiwo Moronkeji a 400level student of Medicine and the PRO of Ife Medical Students’ Association (IFUMSA) said, ‘It is highly lugubrious for a respected institution like OAU to have conducted matriculation in total black out. What kind of message are we sending to the newly admitted students and their invited parents?’
At the Congress on Thursday 6th May, the Deputy Vice Chancellor Administration, Prof S. Adesanya (1st name unknown) said ‘I am not God, but they are working on it right now.’
According to Olufunke Durojaye a part one student of Education English she said, ‘It wasn’t funny at all, we ironed our clothes on matric day with money at Aluta market. If you ironed it yourself one will pay 100naira for one shirt and the skirt was 50naira. The worst thing was that there were many persons wanting to iron. The price was higher if one wants them to iron for one.’
‘Students were not able to read at night and the black out also affected the manifesto of Chemical Engineering students association as aspirants were not able to print out their citations. Obviously, our students’ Union executives are not responsive, they responded when the situation was getting out of hand. One must commend the university management for restoring electricity and they shouldn’t wait till the critical moment before responding.’ That was Abolarin Ojo pouring out his mind to Campuslife.
The Dean Division of Students Affairs Dr. Mrs. Lateefat Durosinmi told the students that, ‘We feel you plight, we know what you are going through and we aren’t sleeping. We are working tirelessly to ensure that light is restored just bear with use for this short moment.’
Ogunniyi Oluwaseun a 400 hundred level student of the department of English Language said, ‘Looking at the welfare condition on campus one can see that there is a great level of deterioration taking into cognizance that what we have had in the past is fast decaying. This power outage brings to fore that there is hope for students Unionism In Ife as the fresh students didn’t take the somewhat lethargic reaction of the union leaders as they apparently force their union leaders to work, because the freshers protested before their matric and that necessitated the congress and the congress yielded result because students demanded there right.’
‘Though there had been some fluctuations before Sunday, the ice broke on Sunday when the circuit breaker according to PHCN officials became grounded. There was a mini protest but when it became obvious that there might not be light for days, we decided that a congress be called to so that OAU students can decide what they want. In fact it got to a point that students where charging their phones with money. Power is now restored, and I will urge Great Ife students to remain calm and maintain the traditional orderly manner with which they conducted themselves.’ Those were the words of the Speaker of the Parliament, Adama Joshua a 300 level student of Estate Management.
Oni Afolabi, Education English 400 level 08036126690, 08024065997, 08054042552