“Let there Be Light”… But Not in Zik Hall: Reliving Last Semester

By Adebowale Akinjide 

Power outage was a bane in Zik hall for a significant period of last semester, from the one month of power outage that affected the whole school and its environs due to a maintenance project by the Ibadan TCN company, to some specific electricity faults in Zik Hall which made it more endemic for Zikites.

The gravity to which electricity is important to students cannot be overstated. It is an established fact that the school libraries cannot wholly satisfy the students’ needs of materials, textbooks and other academic equipment that aid learning. Consequently, most students resort to outsourcing textbooks and other learning materials on the internet.

Storing and consuming these materials on their phones, and for the privileged ones, laptops, is a common phenomenon among students. This is majorly the significant reason why students constantly need electricity in the halls to power their gadgets. This shows that lack of adequate power supply in halls can jeopardize the performance of students.

Michael, (not real name), a 200 level Zikite, shared his experience on how power outage in Zik Hall almost cost him a class test last semester:

“There was a day I had three classes back-to-back that lasted five hours. One of the lecturers announced in class that day that there was going to be a test the next day. I ended all my classes that day ended around 6pm, and I had planned to get to my room, charge my phone and laptop, sleep and wake up later that night to read. On my way from my faculty, I noticed there was light in Bello Hall, only for me to get to Zik but that there was no light. I wasn’t shocked as that was always the case; they always have light before us. I later slept with the expectation that I would wake up to meet light. When I woke up, one of my roommates told me that Indy already had light and Zik was the only Hall without light. Thank God I had a friend who is a Kutite; I had to carry my gadgets to his room that night to charge and also read overnight”.

Uneven distribution of power?

 Many feel the power distribution method to the halls is uneven, to start with. Zik is one of the halls at the disadvantaged side of the divide. It has become a norm that halls like Bello, Tedder, Kuti and the other halls who maintain close proximity to these places, commonly referred to as ‘school area’, get their share of electricity before the other halls that are further back the periphery like Zik, Indy, Awo and Idia.

Yusuf (not real name), a 100 level Zikite, expressed his displeasure with the method:

“I still don’t understand why they always have light before us. We pay the same amount as them. The worst thing is that they take our lights off at the same time. Sometimes, Kuti would have had light three hours or more before it gets to Zik”.

While the situation is displeasing, Zikites have found a rather interesting way to deal with such situations when they arise. One significant thing that they do is cracking themselves up by dropping hilarious one liners like: “ina ti de Kuti oh!” (there is light in Kuti), “ina ti de Agbowo oh” (There’s light in Agbowo) et cetera, as they anticipate the ‘traveling’ of the light to Zik.

During the last Christmas/ new year break, there was an installation of a new transformer in the hall which kindled the hope of Zikites of a faultless electricity supply. After the Christmas break, a little bit into January, the whole of UI was heralded to a new era of one month power outage after a press release from the Ibadan TCN company in Ayede. Several attempts by ZHPO to reach out to Ayede TCN for numerous clarifications during the one month  period proved abortive.

During the one month maintenance period, the University had to resort to alternatives to feed its power needs in the school. However, the short period of the alternative power supply offered no difference: the unequal distribution persisted..

Averring from the Hall Chairman, Moriselade Faruk, the structuring of the power rings is the major reason for the imbalance in electricity distribution. The maintenance unit travel round the school in their van to put on the lights in the halls, one at a time, which sometimes, takes a significant amount of time to complete.

The school management also informed that it will cost the replacing of the underground power-transmitting wires with modern ones before all the hostels begin to have electricity simultaneously.

Absence of power, presence of water scarcity

Among UI’s halls of residence, Zik hall may be the most exciting to live in but certainly not the best in water supply. Expectedly, power deficiency translated into water scarcity for Zikites last semester. We gathered that the pumping machine that supplies the Block A tanks ran to a fault at the latter part of last semester, in conjunction with the pumping machine in front of the finalist Block that functions no better than an epilepsy patient, leaving students stranded.  

Zikites had no trick in the bag than to find an escape route. The good Samaritan that rescued the water-starved Zikites was the availability of huge black tanks meant to serve the staff quarters, adjacent the famous black market, and their neighbours, none other than Indy hall.  

It became normalcy for a long queue to assemble in this said water tanks for basic water needs like bathing, washing clothes and dishwashing during the exams periods. In few times, when water was not available in the quarters, Jaja clinic became another way out.

A new transformer: less power issues?

There were some specific power cuts noticeable in the hall. Some of them include blackout in Block B for several days. These two faults were from wiring and a problem from fielder pillar, respectively. The purchase of a new transformer does not translate to lesser power outages, especially when those faults cannot be traced to the new transformer. Also, according to Morriz stated that sometimes when a part of the hall suffers from one power fault to another, it might necessitate the shutdown of power in every part of the hall until such repairs are completed.