The Rivers State University of Science and Technology (
RSUST ) authority and students, have lauded the Niger Delta Development
Commission ( NDDC ) for the donating an ultra-modern 522-bed hostel worth N427
million to female students of the institution. The three-storey
state-of-the-art hostel accommodation built for female students has continued
to generate encomium nearly two years after it was inaugurated.
The hostel is
equipped with 171 rooms; two common rooms, paraplegics facilities; beautified
internal court yards, green areas, cyber café and water treatment tanks, among
other facilities. Some of the students,
parents and university management made this known on Tuesday the
hostel had eased accommodation deficit in the university campus. The
respondents added that the complex has drastically lessened hardship and
unnecessary exposures of students to shylock landlords and reckless life
outside the campus.
Ms Kate Brown, a
400-level student of Chemical Petroleum Department, said that she had squatted
with six other students outside campus before NDDC prototype hostel came on
stream. She said due to acute shortage
of bed spaces in the past that many students were forced to seek male partners
outside campus while some moved in with their “Aristo” lovers. “Before now,
hostel accommodation in the campus could be likened to a prison. The living
condition was extremely uncomfortable and not suitable for learning. “We
struggled with poor ventilation and poor toiletry system that exposed us to
contagious infection. But thanks to NDDC all that has changed now with the
prototype hostel,” she said.
A 300-level
student, Boma Fynface, said the inability of school management to tackle the
accommodation deficit head-on by building additional hostels had been a source
of concern. He said the university management was particularly impressed that
the hostel was built for female students whose need for lodging was rather
peculiar compared to their male counterpart.
According to him, male students could operate from long distances or
from their homes as their exposure to security risk is considerably less
compared to that of the female student. “So, the hostel accommodation has been
of tremendous help not only to the students; the entire university community
but has giving the university an architectural facelift.
“There is now
privacy as four to five rooms in a section share one convenience as opposed to
the old hostesl where a whole floor share fewer toilets and bathroom,” he said. Obipi said, however, that some of the reticulation
and water facilities have fallen apart, faulting the competence of the
contractor. He urged the commission to build more hostels and laboratories for
students; sponsor researches and endower professional chairs for research and
application of research findings in the university. The project awarded in 2004
at the initial contract cost of N1.230 billion, was later reviewed downwards by
the commission to N427 million.
NAN
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