ASUU Strike: Students asked to vacate Mellanby

THE authorities of the University of Ibadan have ordered students of the institution to vacate halls of residence following the national strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
According to the Mellanby Hall Supervisor, Mr. Abu Wahab, the order became imperative due to incident of female students entering the hall of residence during awkward hours.
He further said that the order was to ensure peace and security in the hall of residence as the cafeterias have been shut down because some female students hide under the guise of going to the cafeteria to enter male halls.
Also, the hall’s General Secretary, Mr. Edet Iyamba, has advised students to leave the campus as the university will not be responsible for whatever happens to any student in the hall, adding that only students on industrial training course, final-year students and the executive members of the hall of residence are permitted to stay.
The Dean of Students Affair, Professor Olu Falaye, has also banned the remaining students in the hall from entertaining female visitors. The ban came, when it was discovered that some female students and non-students now live Mellanby.
Other male students, who according to the hall chairman, Mr. Ige Babatunde, had never housed any lady, received the discovery with sadness.
It was claimed that the ladies that were caught in the hall in the early hours of the day by the security unit of the university were actually decorators, who came to do some decor in the cafeteria, in the hall for a wedding reception and had to sleep over in the cafeteria because it was late at the time they finished and could not return home.

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UI destitute
BY KAYODE BELLO
FOR 10 minutes, I looked on in surprise. Tears, which had formed in my eyes, almost rolled down gently, as I saw a middle-aged woman eating as if she just escaped from a war-torn area at a popular amala joint in the University of Ibadan.
She savoured the delicacy as she licked all her five fingers in total enjoyment of the ewedu and gbegiri soup. One surprising thing was that she almost finished the meal while standing before a lad gave her a white chair to sit.
She heaved a sigh of relief from hunger and almost missed the road to where plates were being washed when she was through.

PATHETIC still, a tattered-looking man has for almost a session been strolling in the vicinity. He always appears sick and unkempt. His appearance frightens many. He carries a nylon bag filled with rubbish, and with torn cloths, he would say: “Please, my sister, give me N20.”
For almost a session, the man has been seen, going about begging on campus. Where he sleeps, no one knows.
The number of destitute on campus is growing by day. They are everywhere, littering the campuses. And the thought that has often engaged my mind is why are there beggars and destitute in UI?
Again, I ask: Did our professors and lecturers witness destitute parading the institutions during their days?
Now that ASUU is on strike, and students have vacated their halls of residence, I wonder how these beggars and destitute, who most times depend on them for survival, are coping.

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