Demand For Off-Campus Accommodation Rises As UNN Students Abandon Dilapidated Hostels

…Private Hostel Accommodation Hits N470,000 Per Room

Students of the University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, have embraced off-campus accommodation following the dirty state of hostels on the campus.

A survey conducted by THE WHISTLER on Tuesday showed that private hostels built around the university have been taken over by the students, while university hostels are being occupied by students who have no options or cannot afford the high cost of living outside the campus.

“The hostels are just something else,” Joshua, a student of faculty of medical sciences, told our reporter. “I was living at Kenneth Dike before. Our toilets were nothing to write home. No water supplies.”

Nkechi said she is a nursing student. According to her, “I paid N470, 000 for a ‘self-con’ located at College Road. It is far cheaper to live inside the university. The hotel accommodation of the university is less than N40, 000. But it is unbearable. No parents will like their children to live in such environment.”

Moses Ossai manages private hostels at Obiagu. According to him, “Our prices are moderate, and we hardly have vacant rooms. The failure of the government to provide conducive hostels makes our investments boom.”

A cleaner cited at Kenneth Dike Hostel said, “We can’t perform magic. If there is no water and other cleaning tools, we won’t use our blood. The environment is bad indeed. That is why students now prefer to live off-campus.”

Our correspondent gathered that off-campus hostels cost between N230, 000 and N470, 000 for initial payments, and reduce by about 15 percent for subsequent payments.

It is the same story at the Nsukka campus of the university. Zik’s Flats reputed hitherto for their nobility are now abandoned, except for some corps members that occupy there.