TheCable

The Rivers State University of Science and Technology (RSUST) authority and students have lauded the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) for the donating an ultra-modern 522-bed hostel worth N427 million to female students of the institution.

The three-storey state-of-the-art hostel accommodation built for female students has continued to generate encomium nearly two years after it was inaugurated.

The hostel is equipped with 171 rooms; two common rooms, paraplegics facilities; beautified internal court yards, green areas, cyber café and water treatment tanks, among other facilities.

Some of the students, parents and university management told NAN on Tuesday the hostel had eased accommodation deficit in the university campus.

The respondents added that the complex has drastically lessened hardship and unnecessary exposures of students to shylock landlords and reckless life outside the campus.

Kate Brown, a 400-level student of Chemical Petroleum department, said that she had squatted with six other students outside campus before NDDC prototype hostel came on stream.

She said due to acute shortage of bed spaces in the past that many students were forced to seek male partners outside campus while some moved in with their “Aristo” lovers.

“Before now, hostel accommodation in the campus could be likened to a prison. The living condition was extremely uncomfortable and not suitable for learning.

“We struggled with poor ventilation and poor toiletry system that exposed us to contagious infection. But thanks to NDDC all that has changed now with the prototype hostel,” she said.

A 300-level student, Boma Fynface, said the inability of school management to tackle the accommodation deficit head-on by building additional hostels had been a source of concern.

“NDDC hostel has really ameliorated the sufferings of students. But NDDC alone cannot provide the entire accommodation infrastructure that is needed to improve living condition of student,” he said.

“The state government, university management and private companies should come to our aide by replicating the NDDC hostel in the campus.”

Bestman Azuonwu, president of the student union Ggvernment (SUG), said the hostel had reduced cases of rape of female students who before now resided outside campus.

The unionist said the hostel has been helpful to the student community and parents who paid exorbitant funds to secure accommodation for their children and wards outside campus.

“We also want NDDC to build another hostel for male students and assist us to complete walkways from Faculty of Engineering to Faculty of Sciences,” he said.