How Lagos is repositioning varsity with super-structures

By the end of 2015, the Lagos State government would have succeeded in repositioning the Lagos State University (LASU), making it an enviable citadel of learning with a wide range of super-structures and top grade amenities.

Facilities being put in place in the university include a modern central library, a befitting senate building, a functional radio station operating from the school’s main campus, and many other structures that are already at advanced stages of construction.

“These structures are strictly financed by the state government and are aimed at meeting the physical needs of the students,” Obafemi Hamzat, the state commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, disclosed to newsmen during a tour of the construction sites at the campus in Ojo, Lagos.

Other structures expected in the school include students’ union arcade, a lecture theatre for Law students and a prototype of two- and three-bedroom apartments of the state’s Home Ownership Mortgage Scheme (HOMS) house types.

“We have purposely opted for these super-structures because we aim to deliver facilities that can withstand the test of time, lasting as long as 200 to 300 years, with maintenance as our only source of concern after delivering the structures,” said Hamzat in his assessment of the facilities.

The modern central library, which can host about 800 students simultaneously reading, will be delivered on four floors. Currently, the piling work, substructure, frame structure on ground and first floor level (first phase) are already completed, while work on its second phase has commenced with February 2015 set for its delivery.

The senate building, which can be described as another architectural masterpiece, will be delivered in six floors, with about 65 percent of work done already. It would be delivered in the third quarter of 2014.

Amongst facilities expected to be delivered in the near future is the radio station building which is already at the completion stage. The station will avail Mass Communication students of a platform to praticalise what they have been taught and also serve as a transmission outlet for the school’s radio station.

“We will be completing the radio station by April,” said Oluleye Kolade, the site engineer, adding that they only had the installation of equipment left to deliver the project.

Other efforts by the state government to raise the school above its peers include the renovation of a three-in-one theatre for the Faculty of Education which currently boasts of modern lecture rooms and a conference room.

The School of Transport, which was also recently delivered to the university, consists of a lobby, collapsible lecture rooms, offices for administrative staff and lecturers.

The construction of the lecture theatre for Law students, which will come on two floors and boasts of a twin lecture hall and offices, has reached 75 percent completion rate.

Explaining the rationale behind contracting almost all the construction work to China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC), Hamzat said it was because LASU was a learning environment. As such, “it is important we do not over-crowd the school with so many contractors thereby distracting students from academic activities”, he added.

ODINAKA MBONU