Students of the University of Ibadan (UI) have decided to take to the streets to protest against the blackout that has plagued the University College Hospital (UCH) for over 60 days.
According to a post by the Alexander Brown Hall X handle, the students want the school to restore power to UCH, implement a 50 per cent power subsidy for healthcare facilities and tertiary institutions, and a reformation for quality healthcare delivery.
✊ pic.twitter.com/3CdXFxUt1o— ALEXANDER BROWN HALL 🤎 (@abh_parrot) January 21, 2025
The Alexander Brown Hall serves as a hostel residence for students at UI’s College of Medicine.
READ MORE: Month-Long Power Outage Forces UCH Doctors to Perform Surgeries With Phone Lights
This is not the first time a prolonged blackout would affect the UCH. In 2024, FIJ reported that the hospital underwent a blackout that forced doctors to use flashlights to do surgeries.
A student told FIJ that fellow UI students residing in Alexander Brown Hall had to move all the way from the hall to the other halls of residence on the main campus to charge their gadgets.
“There has been nothing less than 80 days of darkness in ABH in the students’ community in UCH, and students’ lives are no longer the same. People come all the way from UCH to come and charge on campus,” he said.
WHY THERE IS BLACKOUT IN UCH
Before now, the UI students union had written an open letter to the federal government.
In the letter addressed to President Bola Tinubu, the student body lamented that the genesis of the blackout could be traced to the increased electricity tariff by the Ministry of Power in 2024.
OPEN LETTER TO HIS EXCELLENCY, BOLA AHMED TINUBU, PRESIDENT, FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIAcc: @NGRPresident @officialABAT @nassnigeria @HonTJAbbas @pharmatechie @muhammadpate @Fmohnigeria @FMINONigeria @HMMohammedIdris @NigEducation @DrTunjiAlausa @seyiamakinde @oyostategovt… pic.twitter.com/AKmBqYtb65— University of Ibadan Students’ Union (@studentsunionui) January 14, 2025
READ ALSO: ‘Significant Debt Led to UCH Disconnection’, IBEDC on Hospital Blackout
The letter also stated that the power outage left the students in conditions that made learning difficult.
The university was plunged into darkness because the institution owed Ibadan Power Distribution Company (IBEDC) approximately N495 million in March.
The post UI Students to Protest Months-Long Power Outage in College Hospital appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.