NAN-H-156
Accommodation
By Aminu Ahmed Garko
Bida (Niger) Feb. 22, 2017 ( NAN) Off-campus students of the Federal Polytechnic Bida, Niger, on Wednesday expressed displeasure over the hike in cost of accommodation around the institution.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that many of the students, of recent, have vacated their rented houses in the area due to escalating charges.
Alhaji Ahmed Abdulkadir, a landlord, told NAN that the hike was due to current economic realities of the country.
“The cost of building materials, coupled with high cost of land and the strategic location of the institution, made it compulsory for us to increase rent charges,” he said.
Another landlord, Alhaji Ibrahim Habo, attributed the increase to the regular demand by students for renovation of the houses every year.
A student, Musa Abubakar of the Department of Mass Communication, told NAN that the hike was making study environment more difficult.
“I am paying N30,000 annually for one room self-contained apartment and is even far from the school.”
“I have no option than to pay and there is no special thing in the room to reckon with.”
Bolaji Abdulsalam of the Department of Accountancy, appealed to the management of the polytechnic to intervene on the high cost of accommodation by engaging the community leaders in dialogue.
” We are finding it very difficult to cope with the payment of house rent, bearing in mind the present economic reality in the country.”
He called on the management of the institution to construct additional hostel accommodation for students.
” Majority of us stay outside the institution and this has negative effect on our academic performance.”
” We don’t patronise the school library and no group studies because our various residential homes are far apart. ”
Rakiya Isa of Department of Finance studies, said “we are three in the house and are paying N150,000 for a four bed-room flat yearly.
“ours is better because we have a bore hole and security man to take care of our property while in school.”
Amina Abdullahi of the Department of Mass communication, said that a room of N23,000 before had risen to N30,000 and in spite of the increase, there was no regular electricity, water supply while the toilet facilities were bad.
She said that the increase in the charges had made life more difficult and tough for students and their sponsors.
She appealed to the polytechnic to organise a special forum with the landlords to tackle the challenges.
She said that decent accommodation would enable students to study in an atmosphere conducive for academic excellence.
When contacted for comments, the Rector, Dr Abubakar Dzukogi, said that the institution would partner private developers to develop a 6,000-bed capacity hostel for its students.
He said that already, the management of the institution had duly notified the Federal Ministry of Education, to seek its approval.
He explained that out of 15,000 students currently undergoing various courses in the polytechnic, only about 3,000 of them were accommodated in the hostels.
” We are working very hard to solve the problem of accommodation, ” he said. ( NAN)
AAG/IA
(Edited by Idris Abdulrahman)