Unfair Hike In Students’ Accommodations -By Ahmad Affan

Students of Bayero University, kano, (BUK) and other residents around the institution are left in confusion and bitterness due to the outrageous hike on house rents in the year 2022. Many are left to ponder if the landlords, agents, government or institution is to be blamed for the hike, as they hope for a way out of the unfair capitalism.

Bayero University, kano. On 5th of March, 2020 matriculated total students of 7,343 according to the university’s portal, although there was a dual admission in 2021/2022, the total list of admitted students is currently unavailable prior to matriculation. Some of these students, especially those from within Kano come directly from their homes to school daily, many of the students are from far places which requires them to get an accommodation throughout the period of their program in the institution.

According to records from the institution students’ affair, the university is providing 8,236 beds space yearly to accommodate students. Some students find it very difficult to secure bed space due to the high rate of competition, the only alternative is to get an accommodation close to the institution. Some neighboring areas around the institution are Danbare, Rimin Gata, Janbulo, Rijiyan zaki, mostly occupied by students of BUK.

Over the years, there has been continuous increase in buildings around these areas and recent hike in rent which is making it difficult for students financially.

A final year student of computer science Garba Nabil said “I honestly don’t like the idea of staying in the hostel, especially when you consider it numerous challenges like lack of privacy and insecurity of one’s properties but the cost of staying and maintaining off campus is very high around here”.

He further stressed on insufficient spacing in the hostels and number of students in a single room is not comforting for him.

A students of Mass Communication Khalila Abbas on the other hand said “I prefer staying hostel over off campus because of the security that exists within the walls of the institution and also I get easy access to my lecture halls while people off camp have to take more time before getting to school. The issue of infrastructures cannot be over emphasized because light and water are always steady and available for free, we also get a constant maintenance of the hostel daily without any hardship for a small price of bed space, while students off campus have to pay for some of these aside from the high rate of rent they pay yearly.
While the students on campus expressed their opinions in regards to the cost of staying off campus compared to on campus, other students staying off campus further expressed their situations.

According to Omimi Probity; student of BUK staying off campus lamented “The size of my room is okay for me but some rooms I have seen in Danbare, it does not worth the amount they are paying, you will see a very small self contain room with very small spacing, without kitchen just bathroom and the occupants are paying N150,000 or N120,000 for them.”

She added that most of these rooms with high rents don’t have adequate light or water supply, unless they buy water from outside the compound. She however concluded that though the institution may not have power to remedy this, it can however plead with the landlords to ensure a reduction or a uniform payment of rent around the school and houses inside town”.

Although some of these students chose to stay off campus for some personal reasons, others were not left with any option, since they couldn’t secure bed space.

Emmanuel Godwin from English Department of BUK affirms “we are currently six in a small self contain room without kitchen, which cost us N140,000, we barely have enough space to do anything in the room, we sometimes have to sleep with a friend just to create space in the room, especially during heat period.

“We do not desire for such but we were not able to secure a bed space in the school due to competition and some other reasons that has to do with some students evil way of selling bed space three times what they got it for, so we had to contribute the little we have to rent a space”
The unfavorable issue of hike is extending not only to the students but other residents around the institution.

A resident of Rimin Gata Mallam Idris Kabiru expressed his bitterness and concern on issue of accommodation in recent time. “I honestly don’t understand these landlords anymore but I know students are the reason for the increase in rent, since there are high demands. An apartment you get for N60,000 in areas far from the school, we end up paying two times the amount or even more just because we want to rent house close to our workplace that unfortunately happens to be close to the university. Honestly this is not right and perhaps they don’t want youth to school again, because this is not encouraging”. He maintained.

According to Muzakir Rabiu Aliyu; a shop owner of building materials explained that there is an indirect link between the hike of rent and increasing price of building materials in this current time but he said “some of the landlords are business men and are after making maximum profit which is why they have a serious price difference between houses around the institution and the ones far from it, we cannot blame anyone for trying to make money they invest back”.

He noted that building blocks used to be N65 some years back but now is sold around 115 naira, cement use to be N1,800 but it is now currently around N5,000. This is among the reasons why houses are costly.

To this end, an estate agent Musbau Ashiru (Danbaba) explained that price of rooms are lease out depending on their future; water, tiles, well and kitchen. For a house which is newly built with all these features tends to be more expensive, but old buildings that are constructed 10 years ago should not be as expensive as the new ones.

“We have rooms starting from N100,000 to N220,000 for students, sometimes the hike is as a result of strong desires to make more profit by some landlords compared to others. We try our best sometimes to regulate this and ensure that the prices are within a reasonable figure but we cannot force anyone into doing what they don’t desire doing with their properties”.

He mentioned that an apartment leased out for N45,000 previously is now raised to N110,000 without any development or improvements made to the room.

“Among the reasons why there is a significant hike in this year’s rent is as a result of dual admission from BUK due to Covid-19 pandemic, there are a lot of demands from students and landlords use this as an opportunity to increase the price of the rents whichisunlikely to go down. Since there are no authorities checking this, there’s nothing we can do about it”. He emphasized.

He concluded by pleading to the school authorities to allow private hostels in the institution ” although the institution is really trying in providing accommodation to it students, It is obvious that the institution is lacking at providing enough accommodations to the students and BUK has a lot of space which they can allocate it to private individuals and set conditions for these individuals which will be in favor of both the students and owners of the building, if there are enough private hostels in the school, this will help to remedy the problem and also allow a fair or considerable amount as payment for rent”.

Habeebat Tinioula Ismail; a final year student of BUK similarly said “As a married woman, my apartment cost 150,000 yearly for rent, regardless I still have to face some challenges staying off campus, such as insecurity and proximity to mention but few, I would have preferred staying on campus with a private space to myself but the institution has no provision for this and I cannot cope with general hostels challenges of roommates, that is why I had to stay off campus”.

Leshi Bagauda James; Another student of BUK narrates “Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic and ASUU break, in 2020 I paid N150, 000 for myself contain room but I only stayed for 2 months before the lock down and after I returned the next year, the landlord demanded that I pay a fresh rent of 150,000 I have no choice than to do so. I know of landlords who are generous enough to split the price for students that were affected by strike and lock down, it is almost like these students are staying on campus because any unexpected break does not affect their rent”.

With the growing number of students yearly, it’s paramount that the institution builds as many hostels as possible to accommodate the students or allow private individuals to build hostels in the institution, it will be more conducive for those that can afford it. It will also serve as a source of employment to the host community and development to the institution.

Students are indeed capitalize on, when it comes to accommodation, BUK considered as one of the best Federal University in North deserves more to be done to tackle the grave problem of accommodation hike. Having considered the economy situations of the country, the students are pleading to the stake holders of their accommodation to consider them as students and be fair in the price of their accommodation, especially for those whose buildings have been constructed when things were really cheap compare to now.

The government should increase the quota allocated to education sector generally to bring more development to education and also help to provide authorities who will monitor and ensure that price of houses close to the institution are regulated to the minimum, compared to houses far from the institution to help make things less difficult for students all around the nation.

For the meantime, students are pleading and anticipating that the right authorities will take decision to help handle these difficulties of accommodation and bring more development to the institution.