Students of the Federal University, Otuoke (FUO) in Bayelsa have lamented financial strain due to the high cost of food, house rent, and power, among other expenses in the state.
Some of the students, who spoke in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday, stated that cost of food items and house rent were unaffordable for the average student.
The students called on the governments, Student Union Government and the Otuoke Community to intervene on how the situation could be remedied.
Timothy Udochukwu, a 300 level student of the Department of Engineering, said he was particularly concerned about the sharp increase in house rents, with some landlords reportedly raising prices by a significant margin compared to the previous year.
According to him, as we speak now, they now hike house rent every year, which is too bad; even though building materials are expensive, but the constant increment is too much.
“Another aspect is the issue of rising cost of food. Some of us students spend over N3,000 daily and it is a burden to our parents.
“We are also frustrated with the lack of reliable power supply and the need to purchase water daily, despite high rent costs.
“Students are struggling to afford rent, with some landlords increasing prices. For example, my rent was increased from N250,000 to N300 while others are paying N400,000 or N500,000 for self-contained accommodations and still having to pay for electricity,” he said.
Another student, Queen Amadi, a 200 level Political Science student, said that the students faced challenges of unreliable power and the need to purchase water daily.
She alleged that the Student Union Government (SUG) was not doing enough to address the issues that the students were faced with.
Amadi suggested that the SUG should focus on addressing the high cost of house rent before tackling other issues, such as transportation.
The student highlighted the difficulty of managing expenses with a low income, especially when facing increased costs for transportation, food, and accommodation.
“Some students feel that the increased cost of living in Otuoke is pushing them to the brink.
“Some landlords and house agents are contributing to the high rent caused by inflation and not prioritizing the comfort and needs of tenants.
“We are calling on the SUG to engage with landlords and house agents to negotiate more reasonable rent prices.
“We suggest that the community should also be involved in addressing the high cost of living, including shop and house rents.
“We propose the establishment of a student market within the school premises where prices of goods and services could be regulated,” she suggested.
On his part, an economist, Dr. Onyibrakemi Azebi, Senior Lecturer of Economics and Development Studies, FUO, attributed the major cause of high cost of food items and house rent to excess demand over available supply.
According to Azebi, the population of students in Otuoke is more than the resources available at the moment, that is why house rents are expensive.
He explained that supply was limited and therefore expensive, as most traders have to go to Yenagoa to get foodstuff.
“The businesses that run there have to go to Yenagoa, so they also factor the high transport cost, that is one. Secondly the removal of fuel subsidy also caused transportation to be high which has impacted negatively to the cost of living.
“Transportation, in Otuoke before now, bike was N50 and increased to between N80 and N100 but now the shortest distance you can cover is between N150 and N200, from school to Jonathan’s bridge is N400,” he said.
Azebi said that people did not deliberately raise prices of their goods or rent because people live in a competitive environment, “it is a matter of demand and supply, the way they buy, that is the way they sell.
“The cost of building materials is expensive, so people are buying a bag of cement for N10,000 to N11,000 and a tipper of sand is about N90,000 to N100,000.
“One of the solutions is that the government and well meaning private individuals, can decide to build low cost houses, engage in agriculture in a commercial form, mechanized agriculture; those can go a long way.
“So, when production is more than available demand, it will reduce the cost. Then we can begin to look at alternatives as well, instead of using cement and what have you, we can revert to using bricks and clay, but in a modernized form.
“Since we have perennial flooding here, what we can ensure is that the foundation or the base is covered or built with concrete, but the body of the structure can be made with clay and so on.
“That can be another way of reducing the cost of building in Otuoke,” he said.
He stressed the need for mechanized agriculture and that the government could partner with the university, which had large expanse of land for food production.
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