Flood submerges federal varsity, Lafia as students take lectures under water

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Students take lectures under water

By our correspondent, Lafia

Nasarawa State Government has taken steps to mitigate the effects of floods in flood-prone tertiary institutions across the state.

The state Commissioner for Special Duties on Humanitarian Services and NGOs, Princess Margaret Elayo disclosed this shortly after she inspected the multi-purpose hall of the Faculty of Arts, Federal University of Lafia which was submerged by flood following the heavy rain down pour in Lafia on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Princess Elayo, who expressed worry over the situation, assured the university management of government support, urging students to remain calm as efforts are already on top gear to address the situatiin.

The Commissioner reiterated the state government commitment to finding a remedy to mitigate the impact of the floods and support the university community to enable its students resume their daily academics activities in the institution.

However, the commissioner alongside her entourage visited some of the lecture halls that were submerged by flood to include the English and Literally Studies, History and International Studies all in faculty of Arts of the university.

Other faculties are Faculty of Science, Faculty of Social Sciences and Visual and Creative Arts respectively.

According to her, the aim of her visit to the university was to unveil herself with the first hand information and to also see the extent of the damage caused by the floods.

She, however, promised to engage with the Nasarawa State Emergency Management Agency (NASEMA), to explore possible solutions and ensure the swift return of students to their normal academic lectures.

Some of the 200 level students of the institution who spoke under the condition of anonymity told our correspondent that the flood has brought a major set back in their academy pursuit, adding that having their lectures at the normal times became extremely difficult and they are no longer comfort to continue having their lectures in a pond water.

A student said “We are passing through a difficult moment. Our examinations is fast approaching. Our lecturers are not finding it funny standing in a pond water to lecture us.

“It has come to a point that a lecture had to appealed to three and four hundred levels student to reschedule their lecture time for our sake. Some of students had to stand outside the lecture hall to receive their lecture because the lecture is not big enough to accommodate over two hundred students.

“In the lecture hall we had to seat on the chair six students per roll to have our lecture and even at that some students had to stand for two hours while the lecture is goin on,” the student said..

They, however, appealed to both the federal and state governments to urgently come to their aid and address the situation as their second semester exams is around the corner, saying that if urgent measures are not taken to mitigate flood problem in the university in the nearest future they might wake up one day to see all the building collapse.

They faulted the siting of some of the edifice in a slump areas, urging the federal government to send a team of land surveyors to visit the institution to tackle the persistence flood that has been confronting the university community.