The parents of students in University of Lagos (UNILAG) Akoka have expressed strong displeasure with the management of the university for directing the students, who will be in the school hostels to come with their own mattresses when resuming for the 2023\2024 academic session at the end of this month.
The parents and the students alike received the information with surprise and vowed it would never stand.
The university authority had sent to parents’ forum WhatsAap platform announcing the decision, citing students’ health reason for the new policy.
The university’s spokesperson, Mrs Adejoke Alaga-Ibraheem, also confirmed the development to Nigerian Tribune without giving further details on the matter.
However, the Chairman of the school’s Parents’ Forum, Mr Olayiwola Aderemi, in an interview on Thursday, told Nigerian Tribune his stance on the matter.
According to him, as a representative of the parents of students in UNILAG, I held a meeting with the Dean of Students Affairs of the university, Prof Musa Obalola, on Tuesday, this week.
The chairman said his immediate predecessor in office, Mr Babatunde Majekodunmi was also in attendance and actively participated in the meeting and this claim had been confirmed by Mr Majekodunmi in an interview with Nigerian Tribune, also on Thursday .
Speaking further, the Parents’ Forum boss said, “We met with the DSA face- to-face in his office as parents’ representatives.
“DSA office is an interface unit between the school management and the parents and it was the DSA, who forwarded the information that students are to bring their own mattresses to campus on resumption at the end of this month to the Parents’ Forum WhatsAap platform.
“It was on the platform we got to know about the development. And we were not happy about the information.
“Because apart from the financial burden this will bring on parents, who are still not come out of the huge obligatory fees palaver, we saw the information as an absurd.
“That public university students and UNILAG for that matter, should be coming to campus with personal mattresses when we were not living in the dark age.
“Even the primary and secondary school students in hostel accommodation were not asked to come with their own mattresses let alone a university.
“And we could also remember that just about two years ago during the NUGA games hosted by UNILAG, the Parents’ Forum under my predecessor bought 1, 000 mattresses to support the school and another 500 were bought earlier during the Bedbugs crisis in the hostel.
“That is 1,500 mattresses all together bought by the Parents’ Forum in the recent past.
“And so, we told the DSA that parents have already been exhausted financially with all manner of charges by the university and it would be unfair and unacceptable to add to our plights.
“That the school management should allow us to breathe at least for now.
“That to ask students to come with their own mattresses under the current harsh economic condition is totally unacceptable to us the parents.
“I personally as the chairman of the forum know how difficult it was for many parents to meet up with the recent increment in various obligatory fees being charged to the students.
“And so, we pleaded with the DSA at the meeting that the management should shelve the decision at least for now and right there, we offered suggestions that the school can explore to address the matter.
“We suggested that the management should check all the mattresses in the hostels and separate those that are not good from those that are still in good condition.
“We said this will give us the idea of the number of mattresses that the school will need and that the school authority and some of us in the parents’ forum can pull resources together to fill the gap rather than asking general students to come with their own mattresses.
“He told us the decision for students to come with their own mattresses was that of the management to prevent further spread of bedbugs on campus.”
He said the school had used up to N3.8 million and N2.9 million on the ongoing fumigation of girls and boys’ hostels respectively and without eradicating all the bedbugs.
“He also said the school observed that the students are the ones infesting the hostels with bedbugs and that if they could come with their mattresses, they would keep and use them well throughout their stay on campus.
“But we asked him to help us get to the management on our stance against the new policy and he promised to get back to us with a feed back from the management and that was what we are still waiting for when we read in the media the school justification for the new policy.
Mr Aderemi said even though the Parents’ Forum is not formed as a pressure group to fight management on its decisions on any matter, it is the interface and joint voice for all the parents of students at UNILAG on issues affecting them.
He explained further that even though, the students would go for balloting as the usual practice for hostel allocation next Monday because of inadequate room spaces available on campus, the parents should exercise patience over the matter.
He noted that the Parents’ Forum would continue to engage the management on the matter and optimistic that their Will would prevail.
“And if the management is adamant and insisting on students coming with their mattresses from home, I will be the one to lead other parents in protest against the policy.”
