Student Unionist Says Delta State University, Taken Over By Grasses, Farmlands

By Amos Igbebe
A student unionist of Delta State University has rubbished the Anwai Campus of the university, describing it as a glorified secondary school with no facilities for students to learn and compete with their counterparts in other universities across the nation.
The student (name withheld) said to have a good knowledge of the state of the campus which was one of the pride of the immediate past Governor of the state, Emmanuel Uduaghan, it would be good for outsiders to visit the campus and have a self-assessment of the university.
The student unionist was speaking during Miss DELSU Beauty Pageant contest when students of the university campus converged in the late hour of the night for the award winning event.
He said the university, when compared to others within and outside the state, could only qualify for a glorified secondary school considering the poor facilities on the campus and the unwillingness of its management to revamp the deplorable state of the campus.
While enumerating the infrastructural deficiency of the campus and how it affects the psychology of students, the student said “the leaders should come to the school and see for themselves. We don’t have infrastructure in that campus; we are struggling to feel like we are in a university.  As a student unionist, when I go to other campuses and come back, I feel sad because other campuses look like universities, while mine looks like a glorified secondary school”.
The student, who acknowledged the active attempt of the past administration of Prof. Eric Arubayi as Vice Chancellor and his subsisting successor, Prof. Victor Peretemode, to improve the infrastructural state of the university, however, added that the university campus had been taken over by grasses and farmlands, while the classrooms were no longer conducive for scholarly activities.
He claimed that the Anwai Campus had suffered a severe degree of neglect to the detriment of the students and described it as a place which allows for “just come, read and go”.
He said: “the school administration has been on the average, considering the change in leadership which the school and even the state and country have witnessed. We are calling on the new governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, to come over and put the school in its supposed shape so that students can university community”.
He, however, acknowledged that Abraka, being the head of the university, deserved adequate attention without prejudicing the compelling need of the other mini campuses of the university and appealed to the state government and other stakeholders to come to the aid of the Anwai Campus by renovating its class rooms and making the environment conducive for learning.
On the beneficial effects of the pageant on the students, he noted that it was positioned to serve as another phase of life for the contestants which, he buttressed that, due to the poor state of the labour market, livelihood was not tied basically to only formal education but other skills acquired over time.
He therefore, enjoined the Miss DELSU to be of good conduct as a model other students could emulate while positively representing the school as best as she could wherever she goes without denting its image.