The battle in-between students, caretakers, agents, and landlords in Akungba community hosting Adekunle Ajasin University Akungba Akoko, Ondo State one of the most renowned state universities in Nigeria.
This made one of the student activists popularly known as Folorunsho Ahmed Adekunle also known as Shelter Of Freedom come to see what the students are passing through in the hands of the agent, caretaker, and landlord put the story together titled “Majiyagbe Of Yoruba land”
With joy and happiness in my heart I welcome every new student to school and the Akungba community, I pray you all have an amazing campus experience and memories of good as an undergraduate. The journey is not a journey of one month neither is it six months it’s obviously an unavoidable journey of four years which gives you the opportunity to learn and unlearn, do well to learn the good, and unlearn the bad for the sake of your survival.
Just like I penned out in my previous article that exposes the odd regular trademark of Akungba landlords and caretakers, the need to consistently remind and wake slumbering minds of the staylites and inform the freshers with virgin minds of the unjustified extortion and oppression of our students living outside the campus will keep rising until the needful is done.
It was of great joy and happiness getting heartfelt assurances and glittering promises from the office of Dean of students affairs, all these preceded the previous article which agitated for welfarism of the students outside campus.
This is to reaffirmed and maintains the stand that we need a swift response and feasible measures so as to curb the extremism of landlords and caretakers in Akungba. I strongly believe the needful will be done as soon as possible by appropriate quarters and those in positions to bring about change.
Nevertheless, the new students need to bring down the volume of the excitement in their hearts to avoid falling victim to all forms of extortions by caretakers, landlords, and some kangaroo agents. It only takes a little time to feel the pain of their dancing serpent tongues that lure you to the bed of exploitation and oppression.
There are so many houses and buildings that don’t worth the living for animals take less of students, don’t be too desperate to put your own life at risk by “managing” devastated and abandoned buildings, houses built close to the lung of terrible cannas will with high probability be washed off when heavy erosions decided to strike.
May we not be washed off from the surface of the earth trying to find shelter. There is always a choice, do well not to settle for less even if the house is being given out for free remember it doesn’t worth your own life.
Read carefully the term and conditions on the agreement form, don’t be sold off on paper due to your inability to calmly read. Be sure you are good with those agreements before signing up, it’s advisable to seek legal interpretations of those terms and conditions if you cannot comprehend them, AAUA LAW CLINIC is best for that service. Disagreements after legal agreement and consensus are like wetting the ocean, indeed futile efforts.
Avoid full payment rather pay 70% if there is still anything yet to be fixed in your new apartment, it’s slippery and easy to say “we will fix it” before payment than fixing after payment. Don’t be fooled with such watery assurance as the next time some will show at your doorstep is another year for the collection of house rent.
Make it known that whatever is expensive will be deducted in the next payment if that stuff is not being fixed before a stipulated time and you eventually used your money to fix it. It’s a new apartment you paid for not your parent’s house direct your charity to somewhere else, it doesn’t worth it in the end. Those little unfixed faults are what formed the basis of your house rent, don’t sympathize.
Before paying hugely for any house make sure it is worth it, don’t pay for 70k to 100k house and still be running around to fetch water, no secured gate, compound, and other things than living an inconvenient life despite the exorbitant amount you paid. Make sure you enjoy the dividends and everything attached to the said fee.
Note that little and affordable maintenance that could come up maybe due to your own carelessness or so after some months or years of living in the apartment should be fixed by you. Stuffs like socket, water tap and other mini stuffs that were in place and intact before you pack in should be fixed, don’t be destructive and do well to be considerate.
Enjoy your stay and don’t be too quick to make clingy friends with people you don’t really know much about in your apartment, it only takes a little time to realize the good, the bad, the friendly and the pest, don’t end up with a circle of neighbors that will set your feet on a pact of lifetime regrets, be civil and formal in your engagements but be watchful.
Don’t inculcate the attitude of spending money for your house rent to avoid subsequent unnecessary embarrassment, pay up your security and electricity bills, the problem of electricity is a general phenomenon in Nigeria don’t let “Nepa did not give us light” the reason for not paying your electricity bills.
Haven’t said all these, with a bleeding heart and a sobering voice, I call on the school management and students union to look into the insane and unjustifiable increment of house rent in Akungba, the extortion and oppression. There is a swift need to bring the caretakers and landlords to the ground of justice before it gets out of hand.
Only a few percentages of AAUA students are living on campus and those living outside the campus are going through a hell of disheartening experiences in their quest for shelter and accommodation.
Other recommendations which will bring sanity to the relationship of students and landlords/caretakers are as follows:
Creation of a platform that will listen and hastily act on the complaints of the students outside campus.
Partnership with the state housing commission to bring about good town planning and construction of houses in Akungba for the safety of the residents.
Marking down those devastated houses that are not suitable and safe for living.
Regulation of house rents to avoid unjustified increments and exorbitant fees.
Bring all landlords and caretakers in Akungba under a single and feasible umbrella for the sake of accountability.
Peace talks with indigenes and other appropriate quarters.
All these among others are things that should be done for the sake of welfarism of students.
The welfarism of the students should be the priority of the Students Union and school management and I hope that feasible necessary actions will follow this up.
Confidence flows in my blood, eloquent flows in my saliva if someone asks you about me tell them I am never an accident of history I am part and parcel of the struggle so far, I am Folorunsho Ahmed ADEKUNLE Adisa (shelter of freedom), Majiyagbe of Yoruba land.
Thank you.
Majiyagbe Of Yoruba land.
This piece was published on AAUA INSIDER with minimal editing to preserve the author’s original meaning.
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