By Mahdi Waziri Isa
Almost every session, during my undergraduate studies at the university, students would become extremely vigilant and focused whenever the announced date for opening the accommodation portal approached. They would deprive themselves of sleep and other distractions to ensure they could click their preferred accommodations promptly, due to the competitive nature of the process. However, every session, at exactly the time of opening, accessing the portal would suddenly become challenging, with the persistent “Server not found” phrase constantly appearing. One would be justified to suggest that the server is deliberately tampered with whenever it is time for accommodation clicking.
The 2024/2025 session has been the worst experience yet, as the portal never opened for students to click accommodations, which is not supposed to be the case. Every registered student should be able to access the portal and click accommodations without difficulty, but that was not the case. Many students complained that this year’s experience was the worst, citing the unavailability of some hostels and the difficulty in opening the portal.
I later discovered that the process had changed this year. Previously, students would simply log in to their student portal and proceed, but a new link was created for the process, which many students were unaware of. This lack of awareness made it difficult for students to navigate the process.
Despite the university’s rules prohibiting the sale of bed spaces or giving them to someone else, I overheard someone (possibly an exco in their department) asking a friend to find someone willing to sell their hostel at a cheaper price on behalf of their lecturer, who wanted to buy it for their undergraduate child. I found this appalling, as a lecturer was forced to contravene university rules due to the defective accommodation clicking process.
Although some students choose not to click certain hostels due to their distance from campus, they still blame the restriction of access to some hostels for their inability to secure accommodations.
In light of this, I suggest that the school management should focus on ensuring that:
1. There should be no reservation of hostels for any student, regardless of their connections, except for 100-level undergraduate students. All students should have an equal chance to click accommodation in any hostel they prefer, depending on how early they register.
2. The server and network should be fully functional and accessible during the accommodation clicking process, with minimal difficulty. If unavoidable network issues arise, the duration of the process should be extended fairly.
3. Any changes to the accommodation clicking process should be communicated to students beforehand.
4. Students accommodated in Shehu Idris and Dangote hostels should receive consideration for transportation. Abundant and subsidized facilities should be provided to ease their commute between the university phase 2 and the campus.
If students prefer to buy accommodations at exploitative prices or rent off-campus rooms, the hostels will be of no use. Students must also understand that university life is not without challenges. When you choose to attend university, you must be prepared to make some sacrifices. In the case of transportation shortages, students must find alternative ways to commute to campus without being late for classes. Trekking, for instance, can be beneficial for one’s health.
In conclusion, I would like to advise students who do not intend to stay on campus to refrain from clicking accommodations, leaving them for those who genuinely need them. Exploiting fellow students by selling bed spaces is a form of corruption, a cancerous tumor our nation is striving to eradicate.
Mahdi Waziri Isa is a campus reporter for Education Monitor, and can be reached via [email protected]