On Wednesday, commuters on the Ugbowo axis of the Lagos-Benin expressway were stranded for hours as students of the University of Benin (UNIBEN) blocked the route while protesting weeks of power outages on the two campuses of the university.
For over seven hours that the protest, which spanned over three kilometres, caused gridlock, motorists who were caught in the crisis sweated out as they tried to manoeuvre their way to the other routes away from the highway, with the students blocking all the ‘escape’ routes.
The students who have been without an elected Students Union Government (SUG) are scheduled to start their first semester examinations in two weeks.
The university is experiencing a blackout following its disconnection from public power by Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC), PLC, over mounting debts occasioned by the recent hike in electricity tariffs.
The light bill was said to have jumped from about N80 million to N280 million, forcing the university to resort to power generators and rationalising power on the two campuses and hostels for about three hours a day.
According to the students, the school authority had been supplying electricity for one hour a day since the problem with the BEDC started.
“We have only had one hour of electricity every day since this issue started. We are tired of studying in the dark.
“We need electricity to read and prepare for our exams. The university management needs to take responsibility and fix this issue,” said John Afolabi, one of the protesting students.
“We will not leave until something is done. We can’t afford to fail our exams because of the university’s negligence,” one of the students, Sarah Osaigbovo, a 300-level student on the Ugbowo campus, volunteered.
Corroborating her, another student, who said he is in 400-level, studying statistics, but declined to mention his name, said, “We stay for hours without light. How do they expect us to read well for examinations, which are just about two weeks away?
“Our lecturers are also suffering the same thing. Sometimes, when you go to a lecturer’s office, you see him or her sweating and fanning himself or herself. How can they give us the best under that condition?”
The protest, which began early in the morning around 8 a.m., did not stop until 2:04 pm when soldiers drove to the scene to disperse the students, who defied the heavy downpour to remain on the road.
Meanwhile, the development has forced the University Senate to hold an emergency, where it set up a team to dialogue with the students on their complaints.
A statement by the University’s Public Relations Officer, Dr Benedicta Ehanire, said that the Senate commended the Management for the several steps taken so far to ensure the comfort of the students but threatened to shut down the school if their dialogue with students failed.
The university Senate described the demands of the students for a 24-hour electricity supply and a reduction in the cost of transportation and food within the campuses as “unrealistic”, and “out of the university’s control.”
The statement reads in parts: “While describing the students’ action as unfortunate, the Senate is particularly concerned with the trend whereby the students block the federal highway, thus causing hardship to travellers and other commuters.
“In the meantime, some members of the decision-making body have been mandated to continue with dialogue with the students on their unrealistic demand for twenty-four hours of electricity supply, which they enjoyed before the university was disconnected by BEDC as a result of the disputed monthly bill of over 250 million Naira slammed on the institution by the electricity company.
“The Senate also described the two other complaints by the students about the high costs of food and transportation as out of the university’s control.
“Moreover, the Senate of the University resolved that if dialogue with the students fails and the protest persists, it will have no other option than to shut down the institution.”
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