SHODEINDE HALL – SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST

Shodeinde hall, one of the craziest places to visit in UNILAG, has never failed to leave an impression, though a bad one, in the minds of those that come across it.

As a visitor to the hostel, I was greeted by the overwhelming stench of urine. Locating the toilet, which was my primary purpose of visiting, didn't give me problems as the smell got more concentrated with as each step I took brought me closer to the source of the embarrassing stench.


Staylites have a worse tale to tell. First the hostel is generally dirty making everyday there a sad story.
The rooms were initially meant for four students, but with the influx of squatters who in turn bring floaters with hangers attached to them, the final number usually sky rockets to sixteen students or there about in a miniature room.

Nightfall is the dawn of misery as bed spaces are provided for only the four 'bona fides'. For all to survive, guys sleep two to a bed in that manner eight people are already accomodated the remaining eight divide themselves into two groups four sleeping on the floor and the rest sent on a forced mission to AKT and the next night they alternate. In y room sometimes a milder form is experienced but this time one who wants to sleep wakes you up and tells you to go and read against your wish quickly he goes to sleep on your spot and leaves you dosing at the reading desk till further notice.

Lest I forget ‘Channel O’ - the hole bored through the wall dividing Shodeinde and Makama through which Makama girls are peeped at when they take their bath goes a long way to prove the notoriety of the guys in that hostel. A guy has been said to be injured severely in the eye by a Makama girl when she pushed a stick through the hole into the right eye of a guy while he fed his eyes.

Nonetheless, Shodeinde, where freshers have been said to get lost due to its complexity, might be a place to visit but just not a place to live in.