University of Maiduguri Students pay as low as 15,135 naira per session

The University of Maiduguri students pay as low as 15,135 naira as accommodation fee per year and they can apply online, wherever they are without stress.This was said during an exclusive interview with the Dean, Student Affairs Division Dr Mohammed Yahaya, a lecturer with the Department of English, University of Maiduguri, on a Monday at his office. According to Dr Yahaya his career started about a year ago, when he was appointed as the acting dean of students. Before then, he has been the sub-dean for a couple of years. So talking about students' affairs division is as good as talking about a familiar terrain. Dr Yahaya said with all sense of humility, he knows all problems and the successes within the division.

He also added, that the division is divided into two, 'We have the Dean's Office, that directly takes care of students' accommodation, general education, students' associations, their welfare and all things that have direct bearing with the students, particularly their lives on campus especially their halls of residence. The other section takes greater care of National Youth Services Corp (NYSC), pre-mobilisation and mobilisation of graduates. But in any case, both work hand in hand. We're a single unit. Talking about students for undergraduate, I do know that we have about 49,000 to 50,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students but of greater interest and attention to students affairs division is the is mostly the undergraduate students. And as it is for obvious reason, a greater percentage of the students are residing in our halls of residence.'

Dr Yahaya also mentioned that there are about 17 halls of residence for the undergraduates including that of MBBS students at the UMTH, and 2 halls of residence for post graduate  students which they pay as low as 15,135 naira while the highest fee is 30, 000 naira only per session. 

Dr Yahaya said some of his achievements in the office is making sure the students are happy, because, ' I noticed when the students are happy in their halls of residence, the institution is more peaceful. What makes them happy is living in a conducive environment so, I made sure their comfort is being provided for them. We renovated the hostels especially the toilets, there is enough light and they mostly use the solar system now. We also made sure the have enough water by proving more pumping boreholes, storage tanks and taps and also security guards. I belive the school is now more peaceful than ever. Further to that, school buses has been provided at no cost running 6 shifts daily which starts as early as 6am and ends by 5pm to ease transportation issue for the students. 

Dr Yahaya is calling on the students to be good ambassadors of the university, to be of good behaviour not only within the institution but wherever they are, to be hardworking and always remember anything worth doing, is worth doing well.

His call to the management is to invest more in student accommodation, despite the numbers of rooms in the hostels, accommodation isn't enough due the post conflict situation of the city, many prefer to be on campus rather than off campus.