SIR: I write to intimate you of certain untoward developments in some of our ivory towers, particularly the University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria, and humbly request that you use your good office to at least stop them from this shameful and disgraceful act.
It is not only annoying, it is disgraceful for an institution of higher learning like the University of Ibadan, which is the premier university in the country to descend so low as to ask students to bring their own mattresses to the school campus.
One would have expected that given the situation in the country, and the fact that they may not have the funding to provide this basic necessity for the students, the least they could have done is to add the cost of the mattress to each student’s accommodation fee, which the parents of incoming students would gladly have paid. The idea of asking students to bring their mattresses to school is not only degrading, it goes against every grain of civilised behaviour in institutions of higher learning all over the world. The authorities of the university should stop this shameful act and at least pretend to be an institution of higher learning it is meant to be.
• Ufuoma Whiksey,