By Isha S. Mansaray
After years of dormancy, life has been pumped into the Fourah Bay College hostels as they have finally been opened to students.
Founded in 1827, Fourah Bay College is the oldest university in West Africa, and between1827 and 1948 it was the only institution of higher learning in West Africa leaving Sierra Leone with the moniker, Athens of West Africa.
However, over the past decades the institution has suffered lapses among them poor infrastructure and transportation, being under staffed, and the like.
And since the students then occupying the hostel were told to vacate it for renovations in 2010, the hostels had laid dormant, until now.
In an exclusive interview with nightwatch, Director of Media, the University of Sierra Leone, Dr Tonya Musa said, the hostels are ready, adding; “We have asked the students to go through the procedures so that they can apply for the hostels. It’s based on first come first serve.”
He also explained what it would take for a student to get admission into a hostel; “The prerequisite to get access to the hostels is, students applying for the hostels must be a registered student and you cannot register if you have not paid in full.”
However, Dr Musa said the hostels can accommodate 1,220 students, with the 610 rooms accommodating two students per room; the fees will be Le 1,500,000 per student per year.
He said to ensure that the hostels are managed in the best possible way the university hired a different entity for that. “Before now, the college administration used to manage the hostels, but now we have outsourced that management. We now have another entity that is taking care of the hostels and that is SEMCo (Sierra Estate Management Company).”
Sierra Estate Management Company is a real estate management company owned by NASSIT. It was established by NASSIT in 2011 to manage its estate properties across the country.
According to Dr. Musa, the University of Sierra Leone partnered with SEMCo to not only manage the hostels but to offer the best qualities the students would have paid for. “We want to ensure that there is value for money. There is so much expectation about their services in terms of effective water supply, electricity, security, and the like.”
Moreover, the USL media boss said the hostels went out of use due to being mismanaged by students, which happens whenever rooms have excess amounts of students than they bargained for, as those are the ones who are most likely to destroy the furniture and other facilities in the hostels. They are referred to as, Gorillas.
“The hostels were out of use as a result of ‘gorillaism’. For instance, the formal accommodation as for now is two per room and in case where we would have four or five plus per room they would likely destroy the furniture and other facilities.”
To ensure that students occupying the hostels know their obligations and what would follow if they breached said obligation, Dr. Musa added, “There is a tenant agreement for the students taking the hostels. You will not bring any squatter. If you are found doing that, you will automatically forfeit your room without refund. And you will also be fined to pay Le 500, 000. If the individual who is squatting is also a student, that student will be fined Le 500,000, but if he or she is an outsider, we will hand him or her to the police for security reasons.”
Dr Musa concluded that the University of Sierra Leone and SEMCo are together in ensuring that they give quality services and facilities to students occupying the hostels, as they have assigned supervisors even among the students who will be paid by SEMCo to serve as intelligence day and night to ensure that there is are no ‘gorillas’ around. There will also be visiting hours during weekdays and weekends.
Consequently, in another exclusive with FBC Hostels Manager Yusuf Baraka Forewa of SEMCo, he confirmed that SEMCo is involved in the management of the FBC hostels.
“We are going to be involved in the day today affairs of the hostels making sure that students are comfortable.”
Mr Forewa also confirmed that a student can only occupy the hostels after he/she meets the required prerequisites. “We only give accommodation to students who will meet the required criteria.”
He also confirmed that in order to maintain a good standard at the hostels, there will be punishment levied to any student found flouting the rules and regulations. “The company will take drastic actions if we find illegal occupants or what we normally refer to as “gorilla” as that’s one key area that damaged the hostels and brought a halt of over a decade. Penalties will be expulsion from the hostels without refund, and fine for the squatter.”
In closing, Forewa disclosed the kind of facilities the hostels will be providing for the occupants;
“Each room has a prepaid metre. Even though the campus administration will be making sure water is available for the students, SEMCo will do additional water tanks of 10,000 litres that will be reserved for the students.”