Academic activities resume at UI after six-week closure

Academic activities resumed on Tuesday at the University of Ibadan after a six-week closure over students’ protest.

The students had protested what they called erratic power supply in the institution.

Authorities of the 68-year-old institution had closed it down in April to prevent further escalation of the crisis.

A News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) correspondent, who visited the university, observed that many students in the various faculties and departments had reported at the lecture halls as early as 7.00 a.m.

Mr Olatunji Oladejo, the Director of Communications in the university, confirmed the resumption of academic activities.

He said some measures had been introduced by the management to address the contentious issue of power supply.

According to Oladejo, the management would soon increase the number of hours of power supply provided by generators.

‘‘As soon as the situation gets better, the students will get more hours of power supply,’’ he told NAN.

A student in the Faculty of Arts, Olawale Akeem, said he was happy to be back in school.

‘‘Staying at home was already boring after six weeks; I am happy to be back to receive lectures.’’

He said he never thought that the closure would be long.

Some students, who spoke with NAN, also commended the management’s decision to introduce some palliatives.

‘‘Four hours of stable electricity daily will help the students and that is better than total darkness,’’ a student said.

NAN learnt that the university has worked out an arrangement where generators would run for four hours daily from 7.00 p.m. to 11.00 p.m. at the various halls of residence.