By: Yusuff, Uthman Adekola
THE MELLANBY HALL ROAD BLEMISH
I was in a cab going from the school’s main gate to the Students Union Building (SUB) when a discussion ensued between the driver of the cab and a woman occupying the seat beside the driver’s. They were talking about the wide pothole that has for a while now been in between Mellanby Hall and the Gamaliel Onosode Park. The duo were not in any casual talk about this hole in the road. No. They were rather immersed in a bitter lamentation of how the pothole has been there for so many days without being attended to. Truly, as I have also observed, the cut is getting bigger by the day most particularly due to the impact of continued stay of water in it especially when it rains.
The whole conversation between the man and the woman actually started at the carpark. The woman had said she was going to Mellanby Hall, but the driver had responded that he would not pass through the road beside Mellanby because of the wide eroded spot therein. He had further explained that the bad road could cause the destruction of some parts of the car. The woman however pleaded until the driver finally accepted to pass through the route. The car was eventually filled up and we began our journey.
As the cab moved on, the woman, whom I suspected to probably be a trader within the school’s premises, initiated another conversation. She uttered some complaints about the bad state of the road. The driver then added that so many drivers have decided not to pass through that route anymore due to the pothole. In response to that, the woman advised that they could have reported the issue to the school’s Physical and Planning Unit.
She had said, though in the Yoruba Language: “Why don’t you report the issue to the ‘maintenance’ ”.
The man however rebuffed the advise by saying that they have always reported the case to the Maintenance Unit but to no avail. He had said also in Yoruba, sneering,: “The ‘maintenance’? Whenever we report the issue to them, their response has always been that we should pass through another route or probably pass across the hole if we think we can”
“And that’s one of the reasons why most of us now hardly pass through this Mellanby Road. We don’t want to get our cars damaged.” He had continued.
The driver and the woman went on with their lamentation until the woman got to where she was going and alighted from the cab. It was thus their conversation that tickled my consciousness, more than ever before, concerning that particular wide cut in the road as well as some other road-related issues calling for attention. Of course, I have always seen that particular ditch/ pothole lying as an eyesore on the road connecting Mellanby Hall and Tedder Hall, and I have always been concerned about it. I have only not vented my concern through pen and paper since all this while. Perhaps, it is just a matter of providence or maybe coincidence that that particular discussion has been the catalyst to this that I eventually write.
Straight to the point: we need not overstretch the ongoing discourse before realising that it is simply a call to attention about the bad state of that particular road connecting Mellanby and Tedder. That pothole has been there for quite some months now, thereby leading to difficulty of vehicular movement. And, as can be deduced from the discussion which ensued between the driver and the woman, the bad road has constituted a restriction to the movement of Mellanby Hall and Tedder Hall occupants, especially because a number of the taxi drivers hardly decide to pass through that route unless they would rather pass through the road in front of the administrative building. This is neither good for the students, nor motorists.
Another thing that I find immensely worthy of note is that which the driver mentioned about the Maintenance Unit or rather the Physical Planning Unit. The driver did bitterly say that anytime they (the cab drivers) lodged complaint to the Maintenance Unit about the bad state of the road, they would be told to pass through another route. If the driver’s claim should really be the truth, then the case becomes an axe upon the heart thus leading to a saddening reality. It would simply mean that not only the taxi drivers are despised and not cared for, but also the students. It would mean that the so-called Physical Planning Unit are not efficient as to what they are supposed to do. Perhaps, they are rather into some other irreverent plans than what sorely needs attention.
This is thus a call to the school management to see into this issue. That pothole remains an infrastructural blot to the revered status of the University, most specifically at this time when we celebrate the school’s 70th anniversary. The pothole is, again, not only close to Mellanby Hall Gamaliel Onosode Park and Tedder Hall, but also quite close even to Trenchard Hall. And since it has a close proximity to Trenchard, it is then inevitably not very far from even the administrative building which, by extension, is also the Tekena N. Tamuno Building and particularly the VC’s office. What anyone would expect therefore is that the closeness of these notable buildings would hasten the repair of that continuously deteriorating road which has been lying there for months. The management is hereby pleaded with that the problem be soon nipped in the bud.
ANOTHER POTHOLE AT A DANGEROUS SPOT
There is another pothole on the road leading from the gate to the roundabout in front of the administrative building. The pothole is quite closer to the popular Love Garden than to Queens Hall, albeit being flanked by them both. Although this specific pothole is not as wide as the one earlier mentioned above, it equally poses a great risk and also does not portray the school in good light.
The pothole is just a few inches away from a speed hump/bump also called speed breaker. So the space between the speed hump and the jagged pothole in the road is a potential cause of accident. This can lead to a road disaster especially during the night and in the case of a driver who has not been conversant with the state of that particular road.
Let us just imagine that a particular driver were passing through that road at night and, as expected, s/he slowed down upon sighting the speed hump. Then, after climbing across the hump, s/he decided to increase the car’s speed without knowing about the hole waiting to swallow and even scar the tyres. What do you think would happen? Definitely, anything could happen. The tyre could become condemned. More fatal is the possibility that the car could even skid off the road and any oncoming pedestrian might be a victim of such unfortunate circumstance. In fact, this unknown pedestrian, who knows who s/he might be? The person could be anybody— student or staff.
It therefore becomes urgently necessary and needful that the state of the road at that spot too must be attended to with swift response. Nobody would ever seek that something pathetic should happen before we begin looking for cure to the erstwhile preventable problem. On this basis, thus, is the management again urged to do the needful as soon as possible.
THE FACULTY OF ARTS WATER-LOGGED DRAINAGE CHANNEL
This that I have described as a water-logged drainage channel is actually even enjoying a much euphemistic representation of it. The so-called drainage channel is better called a filthy pond of mosquitoes and health assailants or rather called a carnage tunnel against healthiness. Similarly, the liquid substance occupying this supposed drainage channel has become more like a stagnant lake of disgusting slime. It does not end there; it also reeks of foul smells at times. Yet, this eyesore of a thing is right beside a particular garden popularly called “the music garden” where students of the faculty often sit to read or do some other things amongst which include eating!
Likewise, this putrid slime is not faraway from the Department of Music. It in fact shares almost the same spot with the department’s building, since the channel runs through the side of the building. And this also further broadens the level of threat which the stagnant, dirty water poses to not only the students’ but also the lecturers’ health. In extension, the generality of the school community is not safe— whether concerning the academic section or the non-academic, whether concerning the dwellers within the campus or outsiders or visitors. Nobody is safe, especially since that place is not restricted to be used by the students or the staff of the Faculty of Arts alone.
It therefore becomes of dire need that solution(s) be quickly found to this costly problem at beck. The period of time that the filth-ridden water has used in that spot is not a matter of days, not even of weeks. It even usually becomes much more worsened whenever it rains. The water level would rise and, concomitantly, the stench level too would follow suit. Then, the supposed drainage channel would grow above been an eyesore merely but mutate into some kind of a “nose-sore” too. Hence, we would have an increased magnitude of atmospheric threat.
As the bottom-line, the management is again pleaded with to see to this as fast as possible. This of course is another blemish upon the reputation of the school. Such potentially harmful infrastructural phenomenon as this should not be what anybody remember about the school; else, we paint the supposed glory of the institution with gory reservations.
THE GENERAL CONCLUSION
Nigeria has for decades been a nation where the dearth of infrastructural development has always been a common fact. The issue of bad roads particularly take the lead in this regard, such that automobile accidents remain a lingering cause for concern. Almost every Nigerian complains in one way or the other, daily, as they berate the perennially faithful problem of dangerous road networks amongst other infrastructural ills. These that I have stated are common problems which we are all acquainted with, but I ask: what about the ones we have right within the campus?
The University —in this case not only Unibadan (UI)—, being a smaller instance of a nation, should assume an exemplary role to the larger nation that has proven to remain adamant in rot. When the university maintains an adequate provision of effective infrastructural facilities, then pristine confidence grows as to giving enlightened comments about any problem hitting the larger nation. However, when even the university community smacks of the same or a close problem with the larger nation, how well would the supposed enlightened comments on national policies hold water?
In general, this is a pure, non-prejudiced call on the management to attend quickly to the problems mentioned above. The case of lackadaisical attitude on the part of the university’s Maintenance Unit is another issue that requires urgent attention, just in case the driver’s claim might be true. There are in fact some other pressing issues not stated in this article, but which are equally crying for attention. All in all, the university management is hereby urged to solve these potentially harmful problems.
