Olayiwola Ayobami
Poor management or poor maintenance? Definitely, one of these is the issue that has left the Faculty of Arts in a deteriorating infrastructure. The daily use of facilities available for students in the Faculty of Arts tells a different story of an institution that claims to be the best. Looking at the current state of lecture rooms, toilets, and shared spaces, Student challenges and experiences then raise questions about prioritisation and accountability.
The bigger issue, however, is that these problems are not new, and they are not hidden. Management sees the same broken chairs, faulty fans, leaking toilets, and spaces that students complain about daily. Yet, little changes. As a matter of fact, maintenance appears reactive rather than planned, and repairs often come late or not at all. When facilities continue to worsen despite repeated use and obvious signs that some things need to be repaired, responsibility cannot be pushed aside. At that point, the problem is no longer just about facilities failing, but about management failing to act. Broken chairs do not appear overnight, faulty fans do not stop working without warning, and unusable toilets do not become that way in a day. These are problems that grow over time when maintenance is delayed, or poorly supervised. When the same problems persist across sessions, it becomes difficult to separate lack of resources from lack of commitment. However, students are left to adapt to discomfort while questions about responsibility remain unanswered. It is very obvious that the University of Ibadan lacks a maintenance culture. Most important, this is not to exaggerate failure, but to reflect the reality students face every day.
Classrooms
Classrooms are supposed to be the centre of academic activity, but in many lecture rooms in the Faculty of Arts, basic comfort is missing. Fans are either not working well or are far too few for the number of students in the room. During hot periods, lectures become exhausting, not because of the course content, but because of the heat. Even extension boxes meant to support projectors and other teaching tools are often faulty.Seating is another constant issue. Some chairs no longer have seats, while others are simply useless, leaving students struggling to find where to sit. It is also common for lecture venues to be too small for the number of students offering a course. In such cases, students and lecturers are forced to look for alternative venues because the space provided on the timetable cannot contain everyone. Overcrowding then becomes normal, with students sharing seats, or sitting in ways the furniture was never designed for. Projectors, when needed, are either unavailable or not working. Under these conditions, learning stops being engaging and turns into something students simply endure.
Faculty Toilets
Furthermore, the state of the toilets in the Faculty is honestly embarrassing. Most of the time, the toilets are locked. When they are finally open, there is usually no water. Both the male and female toilets lack working sinks, so basic hygiene becomes a problem students are forced to ignore. What makes it worse is that these toilets seem to “come back to life” when accreditation was done. After that, everything returns to how it was. At some point, Room 36, which is right beside male toilets, had to be abandoned during lectures because the smell coming from the toilet was unbearable for both students and the lecturer. That is not an exaggeration.These toilets have become places students avoid, not because they want to, but because the conditions are terrible. This is not just about discomfort anymore; it is about health and dignity. Toilets are basic facilities. When they are this neglected, it says a lot about how students are being treated.
Nescafe Garden
The Nescafé Garden is intended to serve as a shared space for relaxation and informal interaction among students, yet its current state suggests neglect. Many of the chairs are broken and insufficient for the number of students who use the space daily. The canopy, designed to provide shade and comfort, is damaged, leaving many students unable to use parts of the area. The plastic tables are often in poor condition, making the space less functional for group discussions, light study, or relaxation. As a result, the garden no longer fully serves its purpose as a social hub for students.
Air Conditioners
There is a quiet contrast that many students notice but rarely speak about. Walking past lecturers’ offices, the steady hum of air conditioners is hard to miss. Doors are shut, offices are cool, and work continues in relative comfort. Yet, a few steps away, in lecture rooms filled with dozens, the air conditioners are either non-functional, switched off, or completely absent. These classroom ACs were not installed by accident, and their failure is not new. Many have remained broken for long periods, with no visible effort at repair or replacement. As a result, students sit through long lectures in hot and poorly ventilated spaces, while relying on faulty fans. Over time, this situation has been normalised, as though discomfort is simply part of the learning process.While lecturers are not solely responsible for infrastructure, their proximity to this contrast makes the silence around it more noticeable. The abandonment of classroom air conditioners raises questions about advocacy and concern for shared learning spaces. If comfort and functionality matter in offices, they should matter just as much in lecture rooms where learning actually takes place.
New Faculty Complex (NFC)
It is funny how a building that’s over seventy years old still feels stronger than one that hasn’t even hit ten. That’s the reality of the New Faculty Complex (NFC), a problem everyone sees but no one talks about. Seriously, this building, which hasn’t even reached 10 years, already feels like it could collapse long before the old Main Faculty building ever does.The NFC was supposed to be a symbol of modernity, and a space where students could actually learn comfortably. Though there are big rooms, fancy designs, air conditioners, projectors, all meant to make learning easier. But walking through it now, the story is completely different. Students and lecturers fill these buildings every day, yet instead of repairs or maintenance, what we get is silence. It’s like the building was finished, celebrated, and then left to itself. The older buildings have stood the best of time. NFC? Already showing cracks, literally and figuratively.Every time students walk in, there is that nagging worry at the back of your mind: will this room hold up until the end of the semester? You shouldn’t have to think about safety just to attend a lecture, but here, it’s impossible not to. What was meant to be a symbol of progress has become a daily reminder that good intentions and fancy structures mean nothing without proper care. Similarly, air conditioning and public address systems that are available are often abandoned and completely non-operational in the lecture rooms.
Air Conditioning
NFC classrooms have an air conditioner, but most of them are not working. And that raises questions: why ACs in lecture rooms if they are not maintained? Students spend long lectures in rooms, while offices nearby remain cool. It’s a reality that is hard to ignore. The presence of the ACs shows that comfort was considered at some point, but their non-functioning state makes learning unnecessarily difficult. Having a working AC in a lecture room is not a big deal, it is an essential part of creating a conducive learning environment. Students should be able to learn without struggling with heat, and maintaining these systems should be a priority to ensure that the purpose of these facilities is fulfilled.
NFC Lifts
The NFC is about seven floors high, so naturally, a lift was included in the design. Not as decoration. Not as an idea. A lift that was meant to work. But here’s the problem: since this building was completed, that lift has never worked. Not once. Not “it used to work before.” Never. At this point, calling it a lift feels like a joke. It just sits there, silent, watching people struggle. Every day, students and lecturers climb those stairs like it’s normal. By the time a lecturer reaches their office, they’re already tired. One could then go for consultations and arrive breathless, trying to catch one’s breath before even asking a question.And then there’s that moment. A student hears, “My office is Room 33.” Immediately, your heart drops. You start counting stairs in your head. You ask yourself if that question is really urgent. Some people genuinely turn back. Not because they’re lazy, but because climbing floors just to ask a question is not something you prepare for mentally. However, what makes it worse is that this lift was planned. It wasn’t forgotten. It was built and then abandoned. A long-storey academic building without a working lift is not an inconvenience, it’s an insult, ignoring the daily stress placed on both students and lecturers and turns what should be a modern faculty into a daily endurance test. At this point, the lift isn’t broken. It simply never existed in practice.
Ceilings, Stair Rings, and Floor Tiles
The ceilings in the NFC deserve special attention, because they constantly look like they are on the verge of surrender. Some parts already appear weak and uneven. Walking through the building, you catch yourself glancing upward more than necessary, not out of curiosity but out of concern. The rings along the stairways were clearly installed to provide support, especially for people climbing several floors daily. Unfortunately, many of them are now almost damaged. Some feel loose, others feel weak, and a few look like they would betray you the moment you put real weight on them. At this point, holding onto the rings feels like a gamble. You’re not sure whether they’ll help you or make things worse. Students quickly learn to avoid them entirely, choosing balance over trust. That alone says enough. Safety features are supposed to reduce risk, not introduce it. As a matter of fact, when people stop using what was designed to protect them, it’s a clear sign that the system has already failed. In addition to this, walking through the NFC requires constant attention, not because the building is complex, but because the floor itself cannot be trusted. When a new building starts losing its tiles this early, it raises a simple question: if the floor cannot hold up, what else is slowly failing unnoticed.
The WiFi at NFC
To be fair, not everything about the NFC is failing. The WiFi installation in the complex is one area that deserves credit. Compared to other parts of the faculty, the connection here is noticeably better and more reliable. Students can actually browse, download, and access academic resources without constant frustration. For once, the expectation of a “modern faculty building” is met, at least in this aspect.
Toilets
In the Faculty of Arts, using the same restroom as the opposite gender has quietly become normal. Not because it was planned that way, but because there is often no real choice. When facilities are limited or poorly maintained, people stop asking questions and simply adapt. What should raise concern has instead become routine, and that alone says a lot. A faculty environment should respect basic standards of privacy and dignity, yet here, the line has been blurred so much that no one even reacts anymore. Then there’s the state of the toilets themselves. At certain times, walking into one feels less like entering a restroom and more like stepping into a shallow swimming pool. Water sits on the floor, while the actual tanks seem to be doing nothing useful. You find yourself calculating where to step, lifting your trousers slightly, and hoping your shoes survive the visit. What makes it worse is that this situation isn’t occasional. It happens often enough that students expect it. People joke about it, laugh it off, and move on, but underneath the humour is discomfort and frustration. Toilets are supposed to be the most basic facility in any academic environment. When they become places students dread entering, it reflects neglect at the most fundamental level. If a faculty cannot guarantee clean, functional, and separate restrooms, then something is clearly wrong with how priorities are set.
Large Lecture Theatre (LLT)
This piece would not be complete without talking about the Faculty of Arts Large Lecture Theatre (LLT). On paper, it is the biggest space in the faculty, designed to hold large classes. In reality, it often feels like a test of endurance. The capacity is large, yes, but so are the problems.The fans alone deserve their own discussion. There are many of them, but most seem to exist only for decoration. Some don’t work at all, others move so slowly they make no difference, and a few sound like they are struggling more than the students. When the hall is full, the heat builds up quickly, turning the space into something closer to an oven than a lecture theatre. Once there is no general power supply in the school, the entire hall becomes dark. In a space meant to support learning, darkness should not be the default setting. A large lecture theatre that goes completely dark whenever there is no light in school defeats its own purpose. What makes the situation almost unbelievable is the absence of a proper public address system. This is a lecture hall that sometimes hosts well over hundred students, yet lecturers often have to raise their voices just to be heard. A space designed for large numbers without a functional sound system defeats its own purpose. When communication becomes a struggle, teaching suffers, no matter how prepared the lecturer is. Therefore, the LLT has the size to be one of the most effective learning spaces in the faculty. Unfortunately, poor ventilation and the lack of a proper public address system have turned it into a place students endure rather than engage with.Finally, it is high time the Management of the University of Ibadan stops pretending everything is fine. Enough of excuses, enough of promises that vanish once the ribbon is cut. Repair what is broken, maintain what is functional, and ensure that every space in this university is usable, and dignified for the people who occupy it daily. The University of Ibadan prides itself on being the best, but infrastructure falling apart tells a different story. Management cannot hide behind glory while infrastructure crumbles around students’ heads. Action is needed now. What is broken should be fixed, what still works should be maintained, and learning spaces should be usable for the students.
Nobody comes to the University to suffer in the name of learning. Struggling academically is one thing; enduring broken facilities, and failed basic amenities is another.
