Chapter Three
History and Contextual Background to the Study
p. 31-60
Texte intégral
3.1 Introduction
1Nigeria’s premier university, the University of Ibadan, was founded in 1948, following the report and recommendation of the Asquith and Elliot Commissions, which were set up in 1943 by the British Colonial Government. The commissions were set up to consider the possibility of establishing universities or university colleges in the Commonwealth and in West Africa in particular. The Asquith Commission concentrated on the fundamental principles which were to guide the development of institutions of higher learning similar to that of the university college, subsequently established in Ibadan. The Asquith Commission emphasized the principle of residential university colleges modelled after the London University, high academic standards in admissions, staffing and autonomy.
2In conformity with the Commission’s report, therefore, various halls of residence were constructed for male and female students between the period 1952 and 1987. Presently, a new hall of residence called Awolowo Hall, consisting of 89 rooms, is nearing completion and is expected to house either 356 undergraduate or 178 postgraduate students (excluding the squatters). At present, the existing eleven halls of residence accommodate 7,927 students.
3The university has undergone significant physical transformation. New structures include:
Creche Nursery School near the Staff School
Industrial Training Co-ordinating Centre (ITCC building near the Department of Veterinary Physiology and Pharmacology)
A hall of residence (1,000 rooms) near Independence Hall (under construction)
A new block in Queen Elizabeth Hall (under construction)
A block of 8 rooms in Nnamdi Azikiwe Hall
4However, because of the increased pressure and demand for space for academic use, many erstwhile residential buildings have been converted to academic use. The buildings affected include:
Women Research and Documentation Centre (WORDOC) of the Institute of African Studies (a bungalow)
Centre for Urban and Regional Planning (CURP) (a bungalow)
Department of Human Nutrition (2 bungalows)
Faculty of Law (4 bungalows)
African Regional Centre for Information Science (ARCIS) (a storey building)
Centre for Environmental Protection and Natural Resources (CEPNAR) (a bungalow)
5Several ‘boys quarters’ attached to the staff residential buildings have been refurbished by the owners and let out to students for as high as N25,000 per session. Sometimes, however, these quarters are let out free of charge to wards or children of friends and colleagues. Most garages adjoining the busy academic areas have been converted to business centres for typing, photocopying, bookbinding, or computer services; food canteens; provision stores; hair dressing/barbing salons, fashion designing/tailoring outfits, etc. These are, however, direct reminders of the inadequate provision of space for these services at such convenient locations to students and other clients/customers.
3.2 A Time Series Overview of Student Enrolment
6Only 55 students were offered admission in 1948 when the university was founded. The university’s population more than trebled to 190 the following session as shown in table 3.1. Year by year, the number rose gradually until the population grew to 987 in the 1958/59 academic year and 3,117 a decade later in the 1968/69 session. Forty years after the university opened its gates to students, the population reached 12,000 (table 3.1).
7After the 1987/88 session, student population rose steeply as seen in table 3.2. In the 1988/89 session, there were 11,986 students in the university, consisting of 9,876 undergraduates and 2,110 postgraduate students. By the 1993/94 session, 16,158 students, consisting of 12,670 undergraduate and 3,488 postgraduate students, were studying various courses at the university (table 3.2). The object of this research however is to ascertain how this increasing number of students was being housed, in the light of the University’s policy of creating a residential university.
Table 3.1. Student Population 1948-1998

Source: Digest of Statistics, U. I. Ibadan: Vol. 1, No. 1 (Nov. 1985); Vol. 3, No. 1 (Nov. 1998). (Fieldwork, 1999;
Table 3.2. Student Population 1988/89 – 1993/94
Year | Undergraduate | Postgraduate | Total |
1988/89 | 9,876 | 2,110 | 11,986 |
1989/90 | 10,123 | 2,012 | 12,135 |
1990/91 | 10,732 | 2,170 | 12,902 |
1991/92 | 11,669 | 2,189 | 13,858 |
1992/93 | 11,461 | 2,489 | 13,950 |
1993/94 | 12,670 | 3,488 | 16,158 |
Source: U. I. Academic Planning Office, 1995.
3.3 The Evolution of the Halls of Residence and Students Residential Accommodation Over Time
8In response to the increasing number of students admitted and in conformity to its policy of creating a residential university, the University of Ibadan, through the colonial government, had put in place a programme for the progressive development of student halls of residence. This programme was continued even after Nigeria obtained her independence from England. Today, the University of Ibadan has eleven halls of residence, which are distributed, according to level of study and by gender (table 3.3). For example, 9 of the 11 halls house the undergraduates while the remaining two accommodate postgraduate students. The two postgraduate halls, Tafawa Balewa and Obafemi Awolowo, are gender insensitive because it is assumed that the students have a higher sense of maturity. Among the 9 undergraduate halls, Alexander Brown, which houses medical students at the University College Hospital, is the only one that is for both male and female students. The other 8 undergraduate halls of residence are shared on the basis of gender, with 2 halls, Queen Elizabeth and Idia halls, specifically built to house female students and the remaining 6 occupied by male students. The male undergraduate halls are Mellanby, Tedder, Kuti, Sultan Bello, Independence and Nnamdi Azikiwe. The history of the development of these halls is now summarily discussed (table 3.3), while their respective locations are pictorially represented in figure 1.
Figure 1. Map of University of Ibadan Showing the Halls of Residence

Source: Modified from University of Ibadan Almanac (2001).
Table 3.3. Capacity of Various Halls of Residence
Halls of Residence | Year of Establishment | Capacity |
Mellanby | 1952 | 375 |
Tedder | 1952 | 375 |
Kuti | 1954 | 384 |
Queen Elizabeth It | 1956 | 426 |
Alexander Brown (UCH). | 1957 | 300 |
Independence | 1961 | 562 |
Bello | 1962 | 250 |
Nnamdi Azikiwe | 1962 | 565 |
Tafawa Balewa | 1968 | 287 |
Idia | 1976 | 300 |
Obafemi Awolowo | 1987 | 303 |
Source: Digest of Statistics, U. I., Ibadan, 1995; Fieldwork, 1999.
9Mellanby Hall: Mellanby Hall is the university’s first hall of residence and owes its name to the first principal of the University College, Professor Kenneth Mellanby (1947-1953). It was formally opened on 17th November 1952. The hall has a capacity of 375 students.
10Tedder Hall: Like Mellanby Hall, this hall was formally opened on 17th November 1952 by Lord Tedder, Marshall of the Royal Air Force and Chancellor of Cambridge University (1950-1967) after whom the hall was named. It was built to accommodate not more than 357 students.
11Kuti Hall: This hall was formally opened in 1954, two years after Mellanby and Tedder halls. It has a capacity for 384 students and was named after the late Rev. 1.0. Ransome-Kuti (1891-1955), an educationist and the first president of the Nigerian Union of Teachers; also a member of the Elliot Commission on Higher Education in West Africa – the Commission whose report led to the establishment of the University.
12Queen Elizabeth II Hall: This is an undergraduate hall for female students, with a capacity of 426. It was named after Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II – the Queen of Great Britain and Northern Ireland – who visited the University of Ibadan in February 1956, and performed the formal opening ceremony of the hall.
13Alexander Brown Hall: This is a unique undergraduate hall of residence in that it houses both male and female clinical students at the University College Hospital (UCH). The hall was built to house 300 students, and was formally opened in 1957. In 1971, however, it was renamed after the late Professor Alexander Brown, the first Professor of Medicine of the university.
14Independence Hall: Honorable Aja Nwachukwu, one of Nigeria’s former Ministers, of Education, commissioned this hall in 1961. The hall was built with a capacity for 562 students and was named Independence Hall in commemoration of Nigeria’s attainment of political independence on 1st October 1960.
15Sultan Bello Hall: This hall was formally opened in 1962 and was built to accommodate 250 students. The late Alhaji Ahmadu Bello performed the opening ceremony of this hall, and named it after his great grandfather, Mohammed Bello (1909-1966), the chief builder of the Sokoto Caliphate.
16Nnamdi Azikiwe Hall: Popularly called Zik hall, it has the capacity to house 565 students and was formally opened in 1962. It was named after Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, the first Governor General of independent Nigeria and the first President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1963-1966).
17Tafawa Balewa Hall: This is the university’s first postgraduate hall of residence. The hall has a capacity for 287 students, both male and female. It was formally declared open in 1968 and named after Alhaji Tafawa Balewa, the first Prime Minister of independent Nigeria (1960-1966) and the first visitor to the University of Ibadan as an autonomous institution.
18Idia Hall: This is the second hall of residence for female students. It was commissioned as part of Queen’s Hall in 1976, two decades after Queen s Hall (the first women’s hall) was commissioned. In the 1976/77 session, it became a full-fledged hall with a capacity to accommodate 300 students. It was named after Queen Idia, a 15th Century Bini queen, who led her people to the victorious battle of Idah. Her mask was the symbol of FESTAC ’77.
19Obafemi Awolowo Hall: This is the second postgraduate hall of residence, and it accommodates both male and female research students. It was formally opened in 1986 and was named ‘postgraduate students village’ by the students because of its distance to the main centre of university activities (see fig. 1). The hall has a capacity of 303. In 1987, however, following the recommendation of the Student Union, the hall was renamed Obafemi Awolowo Hall, in honour of the late Chief Obafemi Awoiowo, an elder statesman who passed on in May 1987.
3.4 The Design of the Halls of Residence
20As a result of the history of the development of the university’s halls of residence, the design of the halls and by inference, the number of students each room can accommodate, vary. For example, at the initial stages of growth of the university, when the nation was still under colonial rule, foreign architects designed the halls. The older halls, such as Mellanby, Tedder, Kuti, Sultan Bello, and Queen Elizabeth, were designed by nonindigenous corporate architects – Messrs Maxwell Fry and Jade Drew – while Alexander Brown was designed by Messrs Watkin Gray and Partners as part of the overall design of the University College Hospital complex. The design of subsequent halls was handled by indigenous architects – Nnamdi Azikiwe and Independence halls by Messrs Design Group (Nig.) Limited and Awolowo Hall by Allied Architects. Another indigenous group, Messrs Aderele, Omisore Adebajo Associates designed Tafawa Balewa Hall.
21Just as the designers of the halls reflected the political development of the nation, the capacities of the halls reflected the continuous increase in student enrolment in the university. While the rooms in most of the older halls such as Mellanby and Tedder were designed for a maximum of two students, the newer halls such as Independence and Zik were designed to accommodate between three to four students (see fig. 2a). This is also the case with the postgraduate halls. Balewa, the first postgraduate hall, was designed for single room occupancy, while the second hall, Awolowo, was designed for two persons per room, reflecting the rising number of postgraduate admissions.
22The design capacity of these rooms were strictly adhered to by the university authorities in allocating students to rooms from 1952 – when some of them were built – until the 1970 academic session. It was about this time that the population of students exceeded the number of bedspaces. The student population that year was a little over 3,000.
Figure 2a. The Plan and Allocation of Space in the Halls of Residence

Source: Field Survey, 1995.
Figure 2b. The Plan and Allocation of Space in Halls of Residence

Source: Field Survey. 1995.
3.5 Mismatch between Student Admission and Bedspaces: The university’s response
23Between 1952, when the first hall of residence was opened, and 1987, when the last one was named, hall construction was taken as an integral part of university growth and development at the University of Ibadan. As student enrolment increased, new halls were constructed. Over time, however, this symmetry was disrupted as student admission soon outstripped student accommodation and limited funds precluded the university from constructing additional halls of residence. Gradually, the concept of a residential university became threatened. For example, as from the 1972/73 session, when the student population exceeded 4,000, the university authorities, for the first time, allowed some students to live off-campus. That was the genesis of off-campus accommodation in the institution.
24As from that time, the authorities began to think of ways of increasing the number of students that could be accommodated in the existing halls of residence. These included: increasing the number of bedspaces per room; putting up wooden structures in some of the halls to serve as supplements to the existing blocks of rooms in the halls; and expanding the halls through the construction of additional blocks.
25These innovations did not, however, help the situation much as student enrolment continued to soar. Accordingly, in the 1990/91 session, an increase from 2 to 3 bedspaces per room was implemented in the older halls such as Bello, Tedder, Mellanby and Kuti, while room occupancy ratio in both Independence and Nnamdi Azikiwe halls was increased from three students per room (instituted in the 1987/88 session) to four students per room. These increases were achieved by simply increasing the number of beds in the rooms and providing additional lockers for the students as depicted in figure 2a. The situation in the postgraduate halls however, remained the same as there were no increases in the number of occupants per room.
26As though to compound the problems of the university administration, in 1990, three of the wooden structures constructed to augment accommodation in Queen Elizabeth Hall caught fire. The affected wing was completely burnt down in the inferno. Luckily, nobody was fatally hurt but this scared the administration sufficiently enough to order the demolition of all wooden structures in the halls of residence. Subsequently, the University allocated some blocks in Obafemi Awolowo Hall to the victims of the fire disaster. Although the rooms in Awolowo Hall were designed for only two bedspaces, the authorities directed that four students be accommodated in each room. As a result of this, pressure was mounted on the authorities to do the same with the remaining rooms. Suddenly, there was an increase in the number of students living off-campus involuntarily and these students responded to the situation in their own way – a way that probably caught the university administrators unawares.
27To ease the tension created by the shortage of accommodation, the authorities resorted to the construction of additional blocks in the existing halls where land was still available. Additional blocks were thus constructed in Obafemi Awolowo, Idia and Queen Elizabeth halls. For example, in Awolowo Hall, the new blocks consisted of an additional 185 rooms each with four bedspaces. In Queen Elizabeth Hall, the two newly constructed blocks (called the ‘white house’ by the students) consisted of 40 rooms each with four bedspaces. It seems, however, that these efforts, when we consider the number of students to be accommodated, are like a drop in the ocean.
3.6 Squatting and Racketeering: The paradox of students’ reactions to the shortage of accommodation
28The reality of residential accommodation on the university campus has become more mystified, perhaps convoluted by students’ reactions to the shortages. Research results show that squatting and racketeering are pervasive among the students in their desperate quest to stay on campus at all costs. The simple law of demand and supply and/or the housing productivity theory could explain the rationale for the two. For example, if there were no shortages, the number of students would equal the number of bedspaces and there would be no need for squatting or racketeering. Similarly, according to the housing productivity theory, a good or decent housing unit with all necessary ancillary services and which is located in an environment that is conducive, is capable of increasing the productivity of its tenants. This is the commonly known but unstated reason why halls of residence are provided for students.
29Moreover in Nigeria, and as Olojede (1985) noted, good housing is not readily available in the vicinity of the various institutions of higher learning and the housing market is so tight, especially for low-income earners. Students are disadvantaged competitors in such a housing market. Even when houses are found in the vicinity of these institutions, the houses are often not situated in environments that are conducive, or lack necessary ancillary services. These are the conditions that are present on the campus of the University of Ibadan. University accommodation is built with the sole aim of increasing students’ productivity through closeness to all activity areas and also by generating a community spirit. Any attempt to take students away from this environment, especially in the absence of a comparable substitute, is usually resisted.
30It is not surprising, therefore, that when student accommodation shortage was becoming problematic for the university authorities, a ‘rationalization’ process was instituted. This unwittingly gave rise to the problem of squatting and racketeering. The rationalization process was a means of legally decongesting the halls by giving certain categories of students preference without, in the administration’s views, jeopardizing the productivity or academic performance of the students in their four-year undergraduate programme. Thus, fresh students are automatically entitled to accommodation in their first year. The rationale here is that, as freshmen coming from all over the country or the world, the first year on campus would help to settle and integrate them into the university and its larger environment. In their second and third years (or fourth year depending on the duration of the course), they are expected to stay off-campus, and return to the halls for accommodation in their final year. This would give the final year students the closeness to university facilities necessary to ensure that they do well in their final examinations and dissertations. It is for these same reasons that students want to stay on campus and will do anything to ensure this, including squatting and racketeering.
3.6.1 Squatting
31The process of squatting is really easy. It derives in most part, from such institutions as the African extended family system, neighbourhood or township affiliations or even casual friendships. For about the first half of any new session, the accommodation issue is the object and subject of discussion among students. A student who has no accommodation but who has a brother or a sister who is a senior or a freshman is at an advantage. He/she simply asks his/her brother/sister to share his/her room. If he is civil enough, he asks for the cooperation of his roommates, who have probably asked for or will soon ask for the same favour from him. The request could come from a townsman during a student township association meeting. This is one of the functions of such township meetings or associations. Patronage of such meetings often depends on how helpful the older members are on accommodation issues. In the 1995/96 session, there was the unusual case of a female postgraduate student who had no housing for six weeks and her two townsmen had to vacate their room for her to sleep in at night while they intensified efforts to get her a place to squat.
32A squatter simply brings a camp-bed or a 3 by 6 mattress places it on the floor and sleeps till morning. He either sleeps; the afternoon and reads most of the night or comes in late, after most of his ‘landlords’ would have slept. He uses the wardrobe of the person who brought him to the room or, if he is lucky, he may get a small corner to place a wardrobe of his own. A squatter this session could be a landlord next year or at a future date to his brother, cousin or a distant relative of his former landlord. Thus, the cycle continues.
33In most cases, the number of illegal occupants, called squatters, residing in the halls could be as high as the number of bonafide occupants. The number of occupants per room however varies between the halls. For example, our survey shows that in Nnamdi Azikiwe Hall, there is an average of three squatters in each room bringing the total number of students in each room to seven. What this implies is that 75 per cent of the legal occupants of rooms in the hall, which is 999, will live with an additional 749 students, making a total of 1,748 students. In Mellanby, however, it was found that an average of two squatters live in each of the rooms bringing the total number of inhabitants to four (table 3.4). Table 3.5 gives a time-dimensional perspective of the problem. It seems that Alexander Brown Hall is the least affected by the problem of squatting.
34The additional wooden wardrobes provided in the rooms as a result of the increase in the number of occupants in some halls, also take up some space in the rooms. This reduces the available floor space as shown in figure 2a. A visit to the halls shows that the pattern of arrangement of the beds, tables and other furniture in the rooms varies markedly from room to room. Students are always after arrangements that will give them the optimum amount of floor space yet make the room look decent. This is a near-impossible task given the high residential density of the rooms as a result of squatting.
Table 3.4. Average Number of Squatters in the Halls (1993/94 session)

Source: Digest of Statistics, U. I., 1999.
Table 3.5. Designed Capacity of the Halls and Number of Resident Students by Hall of Residence Over Time (1980-1995)

Note: The reduction in the number of bedspaces in some of the halls in the 1991/92 session is due to the demolition of the wooden structure. 1994/95 session was scrapped and merged with the 1995/96 session; and the number of bedspaces from 1993/94 session onwards remain unchanged officially.
Source: Digest of Statistics, U. I. 1 (3) November 1985; Fieldwork, 1999.
3.6.2 Racketeering
35Perhaps the most baffling result of the accommodation problem is bedspace racketeering. Racketeering occurs when a (first or most often a final year) student is mistakenly allocated to more than one hall by the lodgings office. Sometimes, racketeering is triggered off by poverty. For example, a poor student with no financial aid of any type could decide to sell his legitimate bedspace and then squat with his friend in order to help finance his schooling.
36In addition, some students (often called ‘wuz up guys’ by fellow students) who feel superior to other students usually refuse to reside in halls that are not centrally located. These are halls that are far from the Student Union Building (SUB), which is the hub of student activities (figure I). Occasionally, the number of students per room also influences some students to sell their legitimate bedspaces.
37Students involved in this exploitation of their colleagues often take advantage of the acute shortage of accommodation and parents’ anxiety to get their sons and daughters into safe accommodation within the campus, as well as ensure their academic success. The charges for a bedspace, according to our study, vary between N 1,000 and N6,000. The amount charged is a function of the size of the room; the number of official occupants; and distance of the hall from the hub of the institution. A number of the students that were interviewed revealed that bedspaces in Mellanby, Tedder or Sultan Bello (fig. 1) cost between N1,000 and N2,500. The reason why they go for such high prices is that the number of legal occupants in the rooms is not more than two and as such, a relatively higher level of privacy can be enjoyed in these halls than in the larger halls such as Independence Hall, where the official number of bedspaces per room is four. Another reason is that these halls are the closest to most university activities. In Awolowo, Independence and Azikiwe halls (fig. 1), a bedspace sells for between N 1,000 and N 1,800. Racketeering is also rife in female halls and the selling price is steeply higher than in male halls. Female students were very reluctant to discuss the issue, but a reliable informant said that a bedspace in Queen’s Hall, the most sought after by females, goes for about N6,000 and sometimes could be as high as N25,000.
38The university is not unaware of this problem but students are unwilling to volunteer information on how they acquire the bedspace since that will also put them in trouble. In March 1992 however, luck ran out for some bedspace racketeers when the lodgings office detected cases of duplication in the names of students allocated to halls. The students involved were later arraigned before the university Disciplinary Committee and were found guilty of racketeering. They were summarily and promptly ejected from their halls of residence.
39The increasing number of students in the halls, and more importantly squatting, has put a lot of strain on the residential infrastructure, making them break down frequently. This strain on residential infrastructure sometimes poses grave environmental hazards.
3.7 Student Population and Residential Facilities
40All the residential halls built in the university were equipped with the basic facilities to help improve the standard of living of the students as well as enhance their welfare. The halls have the basic facilities that bring comfort, convenience, pleasure, satisfaction; and other favourable living conditions to enhance optimum productivity. Some of the facilities include pipe-borne water (boreholes and wells), electricity, laundry facilities, health facilities, cafeteria services, student markets, transport facilities, reading rooms, etc. When these facilities were installed, the authorities had not envisaged such a rapid increase in the student population (tables 3.1 and 3.2). As time went on, however, the number of students offered admission continued to grow without much expansion in the facilities.
41The condition of these utilities continued to deteriorate as more pressure was mounted on them until some became overstretched and many others broke down. With the pitiable financial position of the institution, which is a reflection of the poor financial state of the nation, it has been difficult to put some of the facilities back on track. A good example is the central sewage system Which has for a long time ceased to function because of blockages in the sewers. A synopsis of the condition of some of these facilities over time would be in order.
3.7.1 Water supply
42Water supply was for a long time the main problem of the entire university, especially the student halls of residence. As the number of students offered admission increased dramatically, the demand for water increased correspondingly. Water supply became irregular and around 1979, the supply was completely cut off from the Eleiyele Water Works. The students faced serious hardship due to acute water shortage. To arrest this situation, most of the halls resorted to digging boreholes and wells. The boreholes project was contracted to the Geological Survey Unit. Each borehole supplied a volume of about 8,000 gallons of water daily (Fieldwork, 1999). The water obtained from this source was used for drinking and other domestic purposes. The wells, which were contracted to a professor of hydrology in the institution, were meant to supply water for flushing toilets, washing and other forms of cleaning. As a result of pressure caused by overpopulation in most of the halls. however, some of the wells became silted with sediment and ceased to function. As shown in table 3.6, Idia and Mellanby, which have a population of 1,200 and 514 respectively, each had one borehole. When the number of squatters is added to these figures (table 3.4), it is not surprising that the boreholes in both halls soon broke down irretrievably. The absence of water in the halls became very embarrassing to the authorities as the sanitary conditions in the halls became epidemic. It took a federal government hand-out of N20 million to commence and complete a new water project for the university. This was commissioned in 1991 and water now runs from taps regularly.
Table 3.6. Facilities in Relation to Student Population

Notes: Student population given above excludes squatters
*Well or borehole not functioning
Source: Field Survey (1999)
3.7.2 Electricity
43Electricity supply in the halls is very regular, and when there is power failure the university’s stand-by generator is often put to use. Due to overpopulation in the halls, however, the fuses are often overloaded and switch themselves off. This has turned many students into electricians overnight, a very dangerous act which could have disastrous consequences.
3.7.3 Health facilities
44The health facilities, which are visibly overstretched, provide sanitary and community health services to the students, staff as well as spouses and children of members of staff. The clinic, located along Jaja Avenue (and thus called Jaja) is an 18-bed facility, and is open daily for consultation (fig. 1). At the time of this survey (June 1995), it had 9 doctors, 16 nursing sisters, 3 pharmacists and 2 laboratory staff. By December 1999, the number of doctors had increased marginally to 10, nurses 17, pharmacists 9 and laboratory staff 6.
45When the ten medical doctors are matched with the entire student population of about 22,429 we have a doctor-student ratio of 1 to 2,243. In the past, a student’s inability to pay for drugs was not enough reason not to get good medical care since that would eventually affect his/her productivity. Today, the increasing student population coupled with the country’s economic predicament has reduced medical care in the clinic to a situation where drugs prescribed are bought by students either at the centre s chemist or elsewhere. Many times, however, and in spite of the economic situation in the country, the university still gives free drugs to students and staff when available.
3.7.4 Cafeteria services
46Each hall of residence has its own catering facilities with a capacity for about 300 students. In 1972, the university developed the notion of having centralized catering services. The central cafeteria was completed on the 4th of January 1976. It was built to cater for 1,600 students. The food that was sold to students was heavily subsidized, until 1984 when the subsidy was removed. The central cafeteria and those of the halls are now operated by contractors. There is virtually no pressure on the cafeteria facilities. This is because over 70 per cent of the students in each hall cook for themselves. These students are humorously referred to as anti-cafe. Also, the presence of restaurants and student markets (Black Market) within the grounds of many halls further reduces the patronage of the cafeteria services.
3.7.5 Transportation services
47This is more or less another central facility. It was first operated under the name ‘Internal Transport Service’ and later U. I. Ventures. Buses and taxis were provided and assigned to ply routes leading to the important centres such as halls, staff quarters, faculties and the administrative hub of the institution. The rapid increase in the population of students also affected the transportation service. The number of buses available was very small when compared to the student population. During the peak periods, not less than 80 students could always seen waiting for buses at the university gate. This was also the case at the halls, where the number of students waiting for transportation was always greater than the carrying capacity of the vehicles.
48In order to reduce the problem of transportation within the university campus, the Students’ Union Government introduced two types of taxi services – the smaller buses (Volkswagen Kombi and Toyota Liteace) and cars. These campus cabs are privately owned vehicles that arc converted for transportation purposes. Usually, the charge is N5.00 for each trip. Motorcycles are also used in the evenings to convey passengers. They usually charge between N 10.00 and N20.00 depending on the destination and the time of day. Many students trek long distances almost everyday because of the inability of the transportation system to effectively cope with the student population and because of poverty.
3.7.6 Laundry services
49Services provided by laundries are adequate. In most cases, they are underutilized. The reason is that most students, apart from the few affluent ones, wash and iron their clothes themselves. The laundries, however, are still in business because people from outside the campus who can afford their services patronize them.
3.8 Hall Administration
50Three bodies, the Students Welfare Board, the Hall Management Committee and the Hall Executive Council, duly administer the halls of residence in the university. The Students Welfare Board (which is a staff/student board of the University Senate) has the responsibility for organizing, supervising and controlling activities in the halls of residence. The board is concerned solely with the general welfare of students.
51The responsibility of the Hall Management Committee is to make general policies for social, intellectual and athletic activities that are designed to promote and develop the hall. The committee consists of the hall master (as chairman), the warden, the assistant wardens, the supervisor, the porters and selected student members of the hall. The hall m aster (just like the warden who assists him), is appointed by the Vice-Chancellor as the executive head of the hall and is responsible for the supervision and administration of the hall and all matters of discipline therein. The warden takes care of staff matters, finances and allocation of rooms to students. The committee convenes once in a month to deliberate on hall matters as well as make recommendations to the Students Welfare Board on student matters.
52The last of the administrative bodies of the halls is the Hall Executive Council, which consists wholly of students who are elected into offices by the student members of the hall. The Council sees to cleanliness of the hall facilities, security of lives and property in the hall, among other things.
53The university also assigns staff such as porters, supervisors and cleaners to each hall. These people work hand in hand with the Hall Management Committee. Staff strength varies from one hall to the other, depending on the size of the hall. This was before the 1993/94 session when the university contracted out cleaning services to private contractors. Presently, no hall has more than 15 members of staff employed by the university.
3.8.1 The hall maintenance process and hall finances over time
54The University of Ibadan has a maintenance department that is responsible for the repair of damaged facilities, such as plumbing works, carpentry works and electrical facilities, in any of its buildings. When a fault is detected in any of the hall facilities, the hall in question has to make a telephone call or send a message to the maintenance department, which then sends some technicians to effect the repair or replace the necessary parts. In the past, the department was responsible for the cost of spare-parts that were replaced. The trend now however, is that if a facility is to be repaired, the hall will be responsible for the cost of spare parts while the university, through the maintenance department, pays for the workmanship. This, however, excludes capital projects like painting the entire hall or replacement of all water pipes.
55Prior to 1991, the cleaning of the halls was the responsibility of the Maintenance Department, which assigned staff to the halls. Over time, these university employees constituted themselves into semi-gods through the constant declaration of trade disputes with the university, often in anticipation of support from students who would want their halls cleaned. Added to this were the constant complaints about the quality of their work. The halls were not properly cleaned and they were visibly filthy. Apparently, the employees were cleaning the halls as if they were ‘doing government jobs’, a euphemism which denotes laziness and nonchalance. They argued that ‘you do not sweat doing government job’. Perhaps more worrisome to the university was their constant disruption of university life (social and academic) during their industrial disputes which often endangered life and property.
56Apparently fed up with all these complaints, the university decided to contract out the cleaning of the halls of residence to private cleaning contractors, a system that had been tried with significant success in a few other universities. Thus, in 1991, a substantial part of the halls’ maintenance, especially all aspects of cleaning, was contracted out to private contractors. It was then the responsibility of the company to hire and fire its employees as it deemed fit so long as the assigned halls were kept clean. The result of this long overdue experiment has been very beneficial to the environmental health of the hall residents. Complaints have been minimal and promptly taken care of.
57The university authorities took care of the cleaning of the halls, and allocated funds accordingly. Over time, however, as the student population increased and financial allocation to the university from the federal government decreased, the halls had to find ways to source for funds to meet sundry needs. For example, in 1980, about N 13,000 was given to various halls as the year’s subvention. This was later reduced to N6,000 in the subsequent years until virtually nothing was forthcoming. In order to meet sundry needs, therefore, some funds had to be generated. One source of funds is the levies imposed on members of the halls. Tagged ‘hall dues’, it is a voluntarily compulsory due payable at the beginning of each session. The amount, which ranges between N90 and N290, varies from one hall to the other. For example, while each student in Independence and Azikiwe halls pays N200, in Awolowo Hall, a sum of N290 is charged per student. The due is higher in Balewa because it is a postgraduate hall. The postgraduate students residing in Awolowo Hall also pay this same amount. Students who are bonafide members of each hall but who are non-resident that session are charged an off-campus fee of between N 10 (undergraduate) and N15 (postgraduate). In addition, there could be special levies for hall activities and these are payable by all.
58One other way by which the halls generate is through the rents charged for shops put up in the halls. Some halls such as Independence, Obafemi Awolowo, Queens, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Bello and Meilanby have a number of shops which are rented out to petty traders and retailers selling provisions, snacks and soft drinks, books and other items of benefit to the students. Also, some rooms on the ground floor in some of the halls are very large and these are converted for use as restaurants, hair and barbing salons, typing pools and photocopying offices. Our research shows that people are charged between N40.00 and N 100.00 per month. The money, when collected, is used for maintaining the halls as well as financing any minor projects embarked upon by the halls.
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