Nigeria is arguably the champion of Africa, given its enormous, robust human and material resources as well as population size of 180 million or thereabouts. Therefore, it should be a vivid beacon of hope and excellence for the other countries in the continent. This is achievable through the lenses of world-class educational systems particularly at the university level. Nigeria is not doing badly, in terms of sheer weight of numbers. Thus, for example, the country has over 40 federal universities and at least 38 state-owned ones. But sadly enough, the morphology and content of the grammar of standard of the learning environment are very poor. My emphasis here is on the university hostels including toilet facilities that are in a sorry state. The university is a special institution committed to the development or nurturing of refined personalities capable of combining knowledge in a myriad of disciplines with good character. The essence of all these engagements is the improvement of the human condition across scales.
Every university needs a pleasant, clean learning environment in order to produce gentle ladies and men in the final analysis. The campus is not supposed to be a breeding ground for dirty, violent and rascally graduates. The impact of the physical and social environment on students same as other Homo sapiens is certainly monumental. Refined university graduates will plough back their vibrant knowledge into the larger system or society. This is the cornerstone of social sustainability among other things. Therefore, it is not a luxury to ensure that clean hostels and by extension, toilets are provided for students. Indeed, clean hostel facilities are a necessity as opposed to an option. This reality also determines to a great extent, the academic performance of each student in the long run.
In my own opinion, provision of clean hostels including toilet facilities is part of the process of character building embedded in profundity. University education should not be reduced to the sphere of mere awarding of certificates to students after completing their studies. Every human being is to a certain degree, a product of his socio-physical environment. Suffice it to say, that after training, education is what is left as a perpetual legacy. That is the beauty of university training. This underscores the reason why each university management team must develop a new narrative of total commitment to cleanliness. Thus, for example, the motto of the University of Ibadan, Ibadan is “Knowledge and Good Character”. Other universities have their own too. The motto of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife is “Learning and Culture”. “Naturally Ahead” is the motto for Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
The founding fathers of these great universities knew what they were saying and doing because they had visions and were no doubt, on a mission. Therefore, each management team must search its mind or heart to find out, how its university stands today, in terms of living up to the high ideals of the founding fathers. Much can still be done despite the current lean budgets. But this will entail careful re-prioritisation of the needs of students and the university as a whole. Today’s public universities (with a few exceptions), have very dilapidated toilet facilities leading to several unhygienic practices by students – the movers and shakers of our tomorrows.
It is shocking to say here, that most of the toilets cannot be directly used by students due largely to high population quite above the carrying capacity of each hall and/or the university in general. No running water! No functioning boreholes! Where there are a few boreholes, electric power supply is not available! Not unexpectedly, the whole place stinks to high heavens. For goodness sake, is this the kind of milieu needed for producing future leaders? It is time to begin to rescue Nigerian public universities from the swamp of filthiness into which they have been sinking fast, at least in the last 15 years or so. It is laughable (though painful too) that our often maligned students (victims of a system bereft of ideas, proactivity and financial prudence) now use potties like very young children in Day-Care centres. No student, no matter how careless will directly use a toilet where maggots and flies among other harmful organisms are permanently “holding meetings”.
Unfortunately, contemporary Nigerian university students are becoming more voiceless on a daily basis, in the face of high-handedness, insensitivity and unwarranted arrogance on the part of the management team. The vibrant culture of academic democracy – a reflection of checks and balances, is on its way to extinction. This culture of intellectual retrogression can hardly be found in smaller West African countries like Benin and Ghana. Parents whose children or wards are readying themselves for resumption in these universities must not forget to buy potties for them. Potties are some of the new valuables. Young ladies use more potties than men in their halls or hostels. You and I can guess the coping strategy of male students in this connection. This is definitely an eyesore and indeed, a mind sore as Professor Niyi Osundare once said, in a public lecture he gave many years ago at the University of Ibadan.
This relatively recent development diminishes our students especially the female gender. But they have no choice, if they want to reduce the risk of infection to the barest minimum. The management does not need to look the other way, because this problem or challenge is not insurmountable after all! Companies producing potties should please bear with me. They should not be angry with me because currently, they are smiling to the bank more regularly than hitherto. This is because more potties are in demand by students across the board. This is a blessing in disguise for the companies. However, this blessing may be short-lived, once university management teams see my lamentation here, as a genuine effort to liberate our hostels and by extension, students from the abyss of filthiness.
The popular rhetoric of inadequate funding of universities is not a solution. The real solution here is prudent management of resources and the consciousness to make positive history for posterity. Certainly, more funds will have positive expansionary effect on the university system generally. But this will only be possible if the managers change their current narrative. That is to say, that if they get their priorities straight. It is on record, that a lot of federal universities were well funded during the last administration headed by Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. How was the money spent? What was it spent for? What were the priorities of each university management in the face of such largesse? Problems or challenges of over-crowded hostels and over-used toilet facilities can be successfully addressed, if the management has the political will. But if those in charge didn’t see anything wrong with dirty toilets, then positive change would be difficult to make. It is dangerous to continue to gloss over this issue, thereby sending a wrong signal to our students and of course, the wide world that hygienic culture has no space in the contemporary university consciousness. I will illustrate here, the seriousness of this matter, in order to help those few self-seeking, myopic, unpatriotic academics and administrators who might want to trivialise the subject, by pretending that there is no fire on the mountain.
Some five years ago or thereabouts, a few students from the University of Ibadan were lodged in an unoccupied palace during an archaeological field training in Osun State. Within the two-week period, the surroundings of the sacred building – the heart and soul of the host community, were in a thorough mess. Human faecal and other material wastes turned the palace into a filthy space. Consequently, one of the high chiefs holding the fort while the community was searching for a new king (oba) cursed the students for offending their sensibilities through the lens of desecration. As a result of this poor behaviour, the departmental authorities could no longer use the sites in the community as a field school. Although this behaviour is condemnable by all standards, we should not forget in a hurry, the centrality of physical and social environmental determinism in the evolution of human personality. It is against this backdrop, that all public universities in the country must begin a behavioural revolution with a special emphasis on hostel facilities. This is doable, in the face of unalloyed commitment to the common good, and indeed, our tomorrows. The current narrative of lack of proactivity and near-complete indifference to the sufferings of Nigerian students has to change.
- Professor Ogundele writes from University of Ibadan.
