By Sheriffdeen Hameed & Blessing Bello
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| Credit: Ucjfuta |
The city of Akure has faced an escalating fuel scarcity for the past couple of weeks. Most of the petrol stations in town are closed, while the few that are open have a long and heavy queue.
While this persists, its influence is getting felt in the FUTA environment. Throughout the week, the serenity of the University atmosphere got tensed up with several lamentations of Futarians over the constraint on the major means of transportation (shuttle) within the campus. Due to fuel scarcity, the shuttle drivers have stopped operating on campus, causing a lot of problems for everyone.
Amidst this, UCJ FUTA correspondents met with some students who expressed their plights concerning the situation.
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| Credit: Ucjfuta |
Aderinola, a 300-level student of Ecotourism and Wildlife Management, said it’s annoying and highly inconvenient.
“It is very annoying because I have to wake up early to prepare for class, only to get to the park without getting any shuttle.
“I have to either trek or board a bike for ₦400 to the Southgate. This is so annoying and highly inconvenient.”
Oluwaseun, a 300-level student of Biotechnology, also confirmed that issue of transport has been unpleasant.
“Apart from taking expensive bikes from home to the school gate, there’s no shuttle that can be taken to the North gate, Obanla.
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“I’ve had to take Maruwa (tricycle), which has become more expensive, and also plead with those with private cars for a lift,” she lamented.
Similarly, Praise Oreoluwa, a 100-level student living at the South gate, stressed that she would have missed most of the morning classes if not for her alarms.
“If not for my alarms every morning, I would be missing most of my 8 am.
“My experience has been a stressful one. I hope the issue of no transport is resolved quickly because I can’t wait to be stress free and relieved from trekking every day.”
While speaking on the possible steps that the FUTASU executives can take to remedy this issue, Oluwaseun opined:
“I think the possible solution would be to allow bike men to transport students to and fro, pending the time shuttle would be active again.
“To my knowledge, those bike men should be given a means of identifying them as FUTA bike men. Although the issue of fuel scarcity also affects them, but not as much as the shuttle drivers.”
Meanwhile, all efforts made to get any information about this issue from the Chairman of Shuttle drivers proved abortive. The chairman refused to grant an interview with the UCJ FUTA correspondent.
However, speaking with the FUTASU Welfare Director, Comrade Samuel Adeyemo, he reiterated that fuel scarcity is a challenge in the nation at the moment and FUTA is a part of Nigeria’s ecosystem.
“I would say fuel scarcity is the major cause of the recent transport issue on campus. Understand that the issue is a national one and everyone is affected and not the FUTA community alone,” he mentioned.
“Actions have been put in place to manage this. We are liaising with fuel stations to provide fuel for drivers in FUTA, and, to an extent, this will resolve the situation of fuel scarcity within the FUTA community.
“We are also working on making the Student Union bus readily available alongside other school buses to be available for transporting students,” he assured.
While giving hope to Futarians, Comrade Adeyemo asserted, “As earlier said, this is a national issue. We will have a lasting solution when fuel scarcity is over, but before then, we’ll be working on new ideas and ways to improve the present condition for Futarians.”