By Sailor
Adeniji Akanbi Uthman, Yamburger, The Nnamdi Azikiwe hall Chairman in this interview with the Nnamdi Azikiwe Hall Press Organization (ZHPO), discussed the hall executive’s plans regarding the the hall facilities, Zik at 60, and other issues as it concerns the hall.
Good afternoon, can you please introduce yourself?
Good Afternoon, My name is Adeniji Uthman, the executive hall chairman of Nnamdi Azikiwe hall.
The New session is about to start, what are the plans set in place to welcome and accommodate the New students?
Actually we have a lot of plans. I believe we need to do things with priority and we need to do things according to plan. At the moment, the plan is the fresher’s orientation. We need to orient the freshers. And also, Zik hall 60th anniversary is coming which is September, and we are planning to make the anniversary and the freshers welcome together with the freshers orientation.
Celebration will start on September 18, that’s like three weeks. And that’s where we will do the freshers orientation. Also the baptism will take place on the day of the matriculation, that is September 12.
Aside from the Zikhall anniversary, we have a lot of plans for Zikites, one of which is Zikhall Bursary. We have plans to help indigent students. At the moment we have been able to raise three hundred thousand naira, for the Bursary. We have a Bursary committee and the plan is to help at least twenty students with 20,000 naira each. When the proposal for school fees was released we changed the plan to 40,000 naira for ten students, but now that the basic fee is not increasing, It is going at the normal price. We have returned back to our initial plan of 20,000 for 20 students.
You said the basic fee has not been increased, are you saying there will not be an increase in the school fees?
The proposal has not been approved by the federal government. There will not be an increase in school fees, but there will be bills that will not be reduced. According the report we got from the meeting we had with the student union, is that the utility bill will still stand, that’s #20,000 for everybody. And I think some faculty are paying some fees, like faculty of law they asked them to pay #10000, while my department we are asked to pay #50000 for Field work, but the basic fee is still standing, that was the report we got from the student union executive.
Aside from the Zikhall Bursary, we are also working on setting up a committee, zikism orientation committee, the committee will include Zikhall stakeholders that are well, that understand and practice the tradition. So those people will be in charge of orienting Zikites and will do regular check ups on the freshmen to ask for what they need, and what are the challenges they are facing. So that will be a form of feedback. So that we can know what we need to do about it.
Aside that, we also have plans because we don’t want everything to come at thesame time. So we have the time tables for activities and also renovation of facilities within in the hall like the gate. If you have payed tour dues you will notice that we are collecting #1000 as additional fee from returning students. The reason behind this fee is that we observes that some facilities in the hall are not in good condition and if we keep waiting for the management to do something… The previous administration waited, and I don’t also want us to wait. A good example is the Zikhall gate; the brick that is holding the gate is supported by an iron and if anything happens to the iron the gate will fall and also the security lights for the quandrangle is bad. When I reached out to people and did the quotation, the amount I got from, It was like #570,000 to fix the gate renovate it, paint it and also do an arc inscription of Nnamdi Azikiwe hall and also getting the security lights in the quandrangle. So when we did the calculation over 229 freshmen have paid their dues, which means that 229 freshmen have shown interest in staying in the hall at the moment. And we have a room capacity of 900 students excluding D block. So that will be like 600 students returning to the hall, and if we get #1,000 each from each returning students, we should be able to repair the gates and fixed the security lights for the strategic places in the hall. That was the idea behind the #1,000 additional fees for returning students.
With what happened last session and the expected number of staylites and freshmen, how do you intend to curb the situation of bullying among freshmen and staylites?
Personally I believe that a society without law will not be ok, it will not stand, because I understand that even within freshmen, there will be situations where there is disagreement within themselves, but the fact that we have code of conduct in the hall and rules and regulations which should guide the freshmen and even the finalist. An example was last week when a parent requested for the inbuilt wardrobe for her son, I had to explain to her that the wardrobe is particularly meant for staylites and finalists. And on Friday in a meeting with the hall warden I explained to him to avoid disagreement between the finalists, that the porters should be telling them at the point of registration that the inbuilt wardrobe is for the staylites and finalists. I also explained to the floor reps in the case of disagreement between a freshman and staylite, there shall be no room for favouritism. I believe there is a code of conduct, anybody that goes against it will be reported to the management, and whatever happens to him, I will not be there.
We noticed that the numbers of freshmen coming into the hall this session is quite low compared to previous years, what do you think is the problem?
I think the problem is the proposed school fees and the increment in the accomodation fees. I believe many were scared due to the increment in this fees. The economy is not that okay, and some are not financially bouyant.
Will this not lead to an anomaly situation were the staylites outnumber the freshmen, since in most cases the freshmen normally outnumber the staylites?
In the situation were the staylites in the hall are more than the freshmen, I believe it is a win-win situation, because I believe the staylites are more than familiar with the tradition of the hall and they know how the hall is, so we shouldn’t have trouble orienting them. This staylites will help us to orientate the freshmen and the hall will still be lively.
Talking about facilities, since there is an increase in the accomodation fee, is there plans to improve the facilities?
The increment in fee is not to improve the facilities, rather it is to maintain the status quo. That was the response we got from the management. It is not that they increased the fee to make service or things better, but we also have plans because it is part of our proposal to our alumni during our pitch. Part of the facilities we are planning to renovate in our proposal are the JCR, the reading rooms, the windows in the rooms. I have had discussion with the dean of students, who is a former Zikites, and he gave me advice to set up a committee and if we can engage with the hall alumnis, we can get the windows and the net done for the 225 rooms. And also the central address system and toilets can be fixed.
When it comes to Zikhall, we noticed that social activities are easily sponsored while the basic amenities are not, what do you think is the problem?
What I believe is that if you want something, it depends on the way you present it, to the people that wants to help you. Even last session the alumni that fixed the reading room wanted to fix the security lights, but when he got the quotation, he decided he could not afford it, and decided to sponsor the reading room solar. So it depends on the way we present it to them and also our priority. I don’t know of other people, but for myself, I have my priorities and it is what I want to do first that I will table when we have a meeting with the people. So for other excos or administration, may be it is the way they present it.
Some are of the opinion that there is a different approach when soliciting funds for social activities, why don’t the excos channel thesame energy for social activities towards renovation of hall facilities?
Like I said earlier, this is my first time of being the head of the executive. Last session I was the IPM, I was not really involved in the process.
But you work with the Hall Chairman, you should know what is going on?
What I believe is that, it also falls back to the way we present it to them. If not for Zikhall 60th anniversary, I will actually look for ways to gather alumnis together because I have the network of different alumnis, but the fact that this is Zikhall 60th anniversary, it will be easy to sell them on the idea of doing something, than to just come on a regular day and time and tell them that we have problems. Another problem is the reach, the network of the alumni. Like the Zikhall Bursary, the person that contributed the highest qouta, I got his contact from the Hall Chairman of 2017/2018 set. Got some contacts from past excos like Otueke, Sebastian, Flames, Teslim and others. So networking of the alumni helps, I appreciate social networking to capital networking. And thank God that I have been getting favourable responses. So it depends on the reach of the people you have, you cannot be reaching out to unestablished alumnis, we need established alumnis.
Another problem is the issue of Zikhall Topography as it affects the pumping of water into the hall water tanks, what are the plans to tackle this problem?
Actually, I observed that also, but I believe something can be done. There are two solutions from my own end, one is to get more pumping machines and tanks, because if we have more tanks there will be more water. Another solution is drilling the borehole from the Zik river. If we can drill a borehole and run the pipe to Zikhall, that will give us a lasting reliable source of water, and I put it in my proposal to the alumnis for the Zik at 60 anniversary.
Have you gotten any response in relation to this?
I have not gotten any response yet, I believe passionately that we should be able to achieve this with the help of the alumnis. We plan on inviting the Obi of Onitsha, through the contact of an alumni, for the Zikhall at 60 anniversary which will be geared toward fundraising for the hall facilities at the event. We hope to get like 25 million naira through fundraising and donations from Alumnis. It will be like a great opportunity to cry out for help and resources and I believe that God will help us.
Still on the water issue, there are two tanks that are not working at the moment, the one Infront of C block and the one at the back of A block. Are there plans to get them back working?
Yes, when the students affairs called a meeting with the Hall Chairpersons, I tables it to the deputy dean of students, that we need three more pumping machines, because of emergency reasons. If you notice all the tanks that are pumping water to the bathrooms and blocks, their pumping machines have been removed to have them fixed. An engineer is working on it and it should be fixed before the end of this month. The tanks behind A block should be fixed before the end of this week.
Finally, your welcome address to new students coming into the hall?
I have actually done a lot of welcome address for Zikites and freshmen. I also want to welcome them all to Zikhall. I will like them to know that the Nnamdi Azikiwe hall is the best environment they can be in, in the University of Ibadan. I believe that the environment will one way or the other shape their life’s, not even in UI but even when they leave UI, so they should make good use of the resources around them, they should make good use of it. ZIKHALL is an environment that helps a lot of people, and if they efficiently use the resources they have around them, they should be ready for not only challenges within UI but outside school. I wish them good luck in everything they do, and I believe before the end of this session they will be a better person.
