Saturday, May 05, 2007

Campus

Please note, I am not a student of Unilag

I had to write some exams recently and as a serious student, I journeyed all the way to Unilag (University of Lagos) to read in their classrooms. This was never my plan but I found it impossible to read at home-what with friends dropping in and staying for hours. In fact, the first day I got to Unilag, I got a call from a friend who told me in an exasperated voice that she had been knocking for a long time and that no-one had come to let her into the house!

Anyways, my game plan was simple: Get to Unilag as early as I can (say 9 a.m) and study till about 6 p.m-with a few breaks in between of course. Nothing was supposed to distract me and I figured that the only way to justify the distance I had to travel from my house to Unilag was to make sure that I actually acheive all the targets I set for myself for the day. So I packed my bag and wandered forth.

In my mind, there would be no distraction. I was not to know that the biggest distraction would be the school itself. I will not say much more, just that by Day 2 I knew that I had to definitely take my camera with me.


Let's go on a journey together. (By The Way, I only made it as far as the Education faculty..it's the one closest to the main gate. I did not have the strength/need to go further in)



Walking into the faculty. I used the classrrooms on the first floor of the building ahead.



A view of a section of the grounds.


Another section of the grounds. Students are usually found taking a break under the trees.

Ready to come into class with me?



TBack of the class. This is a view from my ..erm...seat. My back hated these seats. I wonder if they have any courses in ergonomics? The person who approved these back breakers needs to take a course ASAP.



Picture surreptitiously taken of the other people in the class. The school was on strike so there weren't a lot of students around.




This black thing on my seat took me a while to figure out. No matter how hard I wiped, it did not come off. I think someone just stuck their bubble gum on the seat months ago. It has become one with the seat.


Yep, that's my foot. I propped my legs up on the seat in front of me.


That's Madam Amina Hall across the road. I took this picture from the class. I could hear the female porter making announcements: "Residents of Madam Amina Hall that goes out should make sure that they have their ID card with them when they comes in." She said that ALL day! LOL!



Unfortunately, this picture is not clear. See all the writings on the wall? A lot of them are requests for a girlfriend/wife. The one above the door says that the writer needs a girlfriend. He even provides a phone number that he can be reached on. All the classes had these. Why, one even said that he needs a nympho. No Unilag babe should tell me that she can't find a man...I meaan they are advertising in the classrooms. LOL!



The classrooms had windows that went all the way to the floor. So I looked down and took a picture. The presence of refuse was predominant throughout the faculty. Only thing is, I don't think it was regarded as refuse anymore. People had probably gotten used to seeing the refuse that they did not see it anymore. Capiche?


Luckliy, the classrooms were really airy and I did not need to put on the fan.

But then, I wonder if I would have been able to do so. You see, There are 2 fans in the class and the fan in the picture is controlled by the thingabob on the right. O.k, I confess, out of curiosity, I actually tried to put on the fan but I was not able to work all those wires. Meanwhile, some experts would walk into the class and in leass than 30seconds would have the fan going.

About these controls, notice that the one that has the cage is the one that still has it's casing. Is that because of the cage? That would have been an obvious yes, except who steals only 3/4 of a control panel?

That cage is intruiging. If it was closed, then an individual with short fingers may not be able to reach in sufficiently enough to reach the knob and turn it. Who knew that long fingers would actually be necessary to survive in the world?



I was on a break and decide to walk around a bit. Stretch my legs and rest my back. Those seats...chei! That's a picture of the staircase. What you have next to the light is not a piece of string. It's a cobweb! The spider that started this web must have passed on the job to his children who passed it on to their chilren and so on and so on.
This is on a wall along the hall. The exco of that year justifying the dues that each student is made to pay. Need a definition for ugly? This is it.



This was a source of fascination for me. Perhaps because of it's location. Let me give you a better view.


And another.


Yet another


Now, what got me was that this is a roof (obviously) and someone had poured A LOT of refuse on it. What happens when it rains? Note to self: Not having an umbrella in Unilag is not an option.

Anyway, so I went in for a closer look and see what turned up


Did you notice it? On the left hand corner of the picture.

Mmm hmm... I decided to go downstairs for a closer look.



If those are out there and this is the Male toilet....
...with a big padlock on the door, then where are people supposed to go when nature calls?

This room (which I assume is another loo)with all the liquid oozing out of it was on the ground floor. If the outside can look like this, I am not going in there. Lord knows what I will find.

Just opposite the displaced WCs. Nothing like dried flowers to brighten up the scenery.

This notice was stuck on a wall in the faculty.

But they do have a notice board. Here it is:

I guess it's no longer really in use, huh?

And why are they keeping the door? Want to fix it up and use it later?


And for those who aspire to leave the country to further their education, "help" is here.

If the faculty us not winning for points for neatness, maybe they can pick up a stellar award for outstanding Safety practices. I do not care if this thing has no electricity coursing through it (can't confirn that it does not), it should not be there.

The post is about to end and so no-one will say that I did not learn the sandwich method of giving feedback from my "Managing People Effectively" training, here are some nice pictures to finish up with.


Faculty grounds


More of the grounds


More pictures of Madam Amina hall.



I feel that I have to mention that things were not much different when I was in school (LASU). I just got used to seeing those things everyday and they did not stand out that much.
My brother who schools in University of Nsukka tells stories of how there is a wire running through the through his hostel. A naked wire that is obviously overloaded as it glows red hot from all the load on it. At night, it is clearly recognisable from afar. (He just mentioned that it has been fixed, but the job done was really shoddy and the connections are beginning to go haywire).
I find it difficult to believe that the schools do not make enough money to take care of these little things. And because we grow up in surroundings like that, we are not as beautiful as we can be. It also reflects in our attitude to work, our sense of beauty. It has far reaching effects which I will need a seperate post to go into.
Winfrey rejected suggestions that her school was elitist and unnecessarily luxurious."If you are surrounded by beautiful things and wonderful teachers who inspire you, that beauty brings out the beauty in you," she said.
quote culled from Uzo.

20 comments:

  1. lmao@ the people looking for wives.. thats just fucking jokes... i love naija forreal.. but wow@ the dirty state of the place sha... hygiene anyone?!

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  2. you,which schl u go now...

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  3. damn you could be a photographer
    thats some school
    nice to meet you

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  4. LOL... this is what's predominant in a lo of campuses... Nice pictures though... I hope that with alll the filth around you could concentrate??

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  5. @onb: Good question. And this is the state of the school when they have cleaners. If they didn't have nko?

    @anon: A school that was equally as dirty. (It is there in the post if you care to actually read it). The important thing is being able to rise above getting used to and managing surroundings like these. I am no genius but I think that people that say "you,which schl u go now..." see absolutely nothing wrong with the pictures and do not mind living/schooling under these conditions. That's why Nigeria is bad. We too dey manage.

    @diary of a g: Thanks, G. I have been to your blog more times than I can count, just never left a comment.

    @nyemoni: Yep you are right, I challenge anyone that went to a state/federal university in Nigeria to tell me that there schools were cleaner than this.

    I did concentrate despite it all, Thanks Goodness.

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  6. Hiya..I can see you did more than reading for your exams ;)
    You should consider photograph as a hobby if you haven't..nice concept!

    It's really a shame when you see things like this (dirt, wc outside the loo etc) makes you wonder what the school administration does with the fees and funds they get.
    Nawa for Naija o

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  7. I went to Unilag. Left in 2003, was there last in 2004. Seeing this pictures brought back memories...just that half the pix didnt tell a good story abt d school...maybe a true one.Welldone

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  8. Lord, the pics were hilarious! I left UNILAG in '98 & from your pics, NOTHING has changed. Well, we can blame the school authorities all we like, but it says a lot about us too! Of course, the school authorities didn't dump refuse on those roofs. It takes people like you and I to mess up a place & to clean it up. Sad as it may be, Nigerians are really really dirty!!!

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  9. Put in beautiful things and they get stolen by the teachers and students, but then security is practically non-existent.

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  10. first time on your blog. at first your post got me laughing..but then i realized what if i was studying under these conditions??it wouldnt be funny..
    it is actually sad.something needs to be done.
    the looking-for-wife part is funny though.lol

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  11. All these pictures hmmm... you sure say you read so? I think the filthy environment is a sort of logo for all public Universities in the country. Thats just the way things are. The cleaners do their job but lecturers and students dump dirt and things faster than they can clean them up. I guess they just get tired of trying to keep up with the dirt throwing until an August Visitor e.g. the president or state governor comes visiting or an occassion e.g. matric or convocation comes up and then everywhere becomes spick and span.

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  12. @ aloted: Photography as a hobby? Have never really thought about it, but will consider it thanks for even thinking that the pictures are any good.

    @linda: "just that half the pix didnt tell a good story abt d school" I know.

    @random T: I totally agree with you. But if you have an environment that is totally spick and span and you let people understand that it is important to you that the environment remains that way, it can happen. I was really young during the Idiagbon days, but thanks to WAI, Lagosians thought twice before dumping their refuse just anywhere. There was order. It can be replicated.

    @azuka: I see your point, but I think that beautiful things don't neccesarily have to be expensive things, just the basics. Like better seats.

    @ mimi: *clapping* welcome to casa head and around. Something needs to be done, but I wonder who will do it. Part of the reason I put the pictures up is so that if by any chance some Unilag people (lecturers and other people that can effect a change) see what their looks like, they will be shamed enough to do something. Let's see how it goes.

    @adunni: Madam! Where have you been? Hope you are doing okay. You summed it up nicely about how the school is really only cleaned up when there is a visiting dignitary.

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  13. see as unilag doti..n all d babes go com dey feel sa

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  14. It's amazing the things one no longer sees because one's gotten used to these sights. As I viewed the photos, I thought of the "crazy" authorities who call learning in such environments, education; I thought of you, the blogger who saw with a keen eye(tell the truth, you must have been bored out of your mind before you started the picture-taking).
    Well done. That was good.

    I hope you've heard of the naija bloggers book.
    "This is a call to all Nigerian bloggers worldwide to become a part of An anthology of the greatest works of Nigerian Bloggers-

    A book called Naija bloggers Vol 1.

    Nigerian Bloggers around the globe are requested to send in their stories or recommend great posts for the publication of a physical anthology, the first of its kind by any group of bloggers on any continent.

    The categories are anecdotes, short stories, poetry, prose, drama and essays but there is room for as many sub-categories as are sent in as the book will also serve as a platform where artistes can showcase architectural/interior/exterior designs, photography, paintings as well as fashion and textile designs. Submissions are therefore welcome on any topic whether covered here or not.

    For more information, please go to: http://laspapi.blogspot.com/2007/05/naija-bloggers-book-this-is-call-to-all.html#links

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  15. D state of our higher institutions is a joke. It's a shame.

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  16. Its like this in almost all Federal Unis oo . I went UI and first day my cousin came to see me in class after returning from England . she was oo shocked because this was a 'dugbe' class .Students were practically breathing into the lecturer because we were standing sooo close to him
    I wonder when things would be better

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  17. It's such a shame

    You should be a photographer

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  18. This is sucha damn shame and embarrassing to boot....

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  19. wowww! this was good, you walked me through the campus...it was great! Love your blog

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  20. Wow,
    wow. How do we get this post and these pictures to the ministry for them to see what their plundering of the nations's resources is doing to us youth?
    The sad part is, according to popular consensus, Unilag is one of the better ones.

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