The students of the University of Calabar are facing a huge challenging period following the disengagement of workers cleaning the institution’s restrooms.
The workers were sacked on February 28 and the toilets have been shut since then.
Reason for the sack, according to the school management is because they could no longer keep them as part-time staff.
This has resulted in students now easing themselves in the open, inside the bush or any other available space on the school campus.
According to a report on TheNation Campuslife, since the facilities were closed, it has been difficult for students to get a place to ease themselves.
John Etido, a 200-Level Management Science student, said many are now forced to walk a long distance before they can use the toilet.
Charity Enung, another student, said she prefers to use the public toilet in the academic area to the one in her hostel, which, she said, is always messy. But, with the public toilets shut, Charity has been compelled to use the “dirty” lavatory in her hostel.
A 300-Level student of History and International Studies, Cynthia Ando, said: “It is very frustrating to come to school and start to see public toilets under lock and key.”
Their closure has forced students, who read in classrooms at night, to pass excreta indiscriminately. To many of them, areas around the classrooms serve as toilets.
Students of the Faculty of Social Science pee at a spot behind the Department of Public Administration.
Other spots reeking of urine include alleys around Abraham Ordia Stadium, New Library, Natural Science Lecture Theatre (NSLT) 1, 2, 3 and 4.
Those who sweep the classrooms and surroundings are not happy with the development. They described the students’ behaviour as “very bad”.
A sweeper, who simply identified herself as Florence, said: “We don’t understand why students urinate everywhere they see when they have toilets in their hostels. The other day, I picked up a sanitary pad along the corridor. Why should girls be so careless in disposing such a material? Students should know that some of us are old enough to be their parents.”
On why the school toilets were shut, a former cleaner, who gave her name as Mrs Idiongesit, said: “We were sacked by the management. They told us to stop working with them since February. That was why we stopped working. They said they don’t want us again because we are not staff. They want to employ full staff. They asked us to leave and we all left.”
While some of the toilets have been re-opened, others are still locked. When our correspondent visited toilets between Pavilion 2 and 3, the doors and burglaries were locked.
For the disengaged cleaners, it has been a tale of woes. One of them, who gave her name as Mrs Adams, said she was owed 10 months salary before her dismissal. “I beg the people in charge to pay us. They said they will pay us but we are still waiting on them,” she said.
The school Information Officer, Effiong Eyo Bassey, said the disengaged cleaners were absorbed on part-time.
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