In the late hours of Friday 5th of January, electricity went off in some halls of residence, and some other areas on campus. The affected halls of residence include Fajuyi Hall, Awolowo Hall, ETF Hall, Angola Hall, Mozambique Hall, Alumni Hall and the Murtala Muhammed Postgraduate Hall.
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The outage also extended to the Central Market of the University as well as some other areas on campus. However, there has been electricity at Moremi and Akintola Halls of Residence and the academic area of the University.
The current situation has been detrimental to the students staying in the affected halls of residence as electricity is one of the basic amenities needed by students to read and charge their devices where important academic files are stored.
Awo Cafe, Faj Cafe, Hall Reading Rooms Deserted At Night
This power outage is coming at a time when students across all departments are preparing for the mid-semester examinations. The population at Awo and Faj Cafes, where most students read overnight, has reduced drastically as students resorted to going to academic areas to prepare for their tests. Meanwhile, those still reading at Awo or Faj cafes can only do so with the aid of a torch or lamp.
Furthermore, most students residing in the affected halls of residence have to go to academic areas to charge their electrical gadgets such as phones, power banks, laptops and other useful electronic materials.
Students Source for Alternatives
Students staying in Awolowo and Fajuyi Halls have sourced alternatives for charging their electrical gadgets at the Awo and Faj Mosques whose sources of power supply are not affected by the outage.
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Speaking with a student at Awo Cafe using his lamp to read on Friday, he expressed his displeasure about the situation hoping that the light would be restored soon. According to him ‘I have a test tomorrow (Saturday) and it is so sad this is happening. This is a new year and many tests are on the way, the issue should be fixed as soon as possible.
Central Market Traders Lament
A trader at the Zone A area of the New Market, who sells frozen foods, hopes that the electricity will be restored soon to avoid affecting her goods, which could result in losses on her part.
Speaking about the power outage, a staff at one of the popular printing shops at the market stated that, in order to ensure continuous operations and satisfaction of their customers, they had to source for electricity alternative which is getting petrol (PMS) to power their generator. ‘This is not a small money, considering the price of petrol now, running a 24-hour printing press service on a generator is not viable’ – he corroborated.
DSA, Students’ Union React
Reacting to this situation, the Vice Dean of the Division of Students’ Affairs, Dr. L.O. Olasunkanmi in a release, stated that he had called the appropriate unit to report the situation to them. He also noted that the Head of the Electrical Unit has been informed and has promptly mobilized his people to the site.
The Students’ Union also in its release acknowledged the impact the power outage has had on the daily activities of the students while affirming that the situation is currently being worked on and power will be restored soon.
However, as of the time of filing this report, power is yet to be restored to the affected areas on campus.