The prohibition of students of Federal Polytechnic, Nekede in Imo State, from driving into campus has continued to attract reactions from concerned stakeholders.
In memorandum dated January 27, 2022 and signed by the Registrar, B. O. Dara, the school said the decision was taken at a management meeting following the nuisance students, who drive recklessly into the campus, were causing.
A new circular issued by the management, therefore, directed all students to park outside campus, while members of staff must present their gate passes for effective regulation of vehicular movement around the campus.
Reacting to the development, a lawyer and rights activist, Kissinger Ikeokwu and a member of staff of the institution, who preferred anonymity, described the decision as one in the right direction.
Ikeokwu said some students were claiming that it was their right to drive on campus, while the constitution guarantees some inalienable rights, the management of the institution has powers to make rules and regulation to ensure that students get the best learning conditions on campus.
“Now the management has a duty to ensure that the environment is well managed to create a good learning environment for the students. Although such regulations must be reasonable, fair and guided towards the overall goal making the students get a good learning experience.
“In our days, we saw the children of governors, commissioners and judges drive around campus, but they didn’t create nuisance with reckless driving and unnecessary display of affluence with cars.
“A few privileged students had cars, but their cars were mainly to convey them to school in real time, and after lectures they drove to town and use their cars for other purposes,” he said.
He argued that if students now acquire cars to the extent that they begin to create nuisance in the learning environment, management has the right to regulate their driving into and around campus.
He said management owed everyone a duty to check the menace, adding: “New trends often lead to new measures. The institution may not have envisaged the ‘yahoo age’ where most students now buy expensive cars and display affluence under youthful exuberance.”
He insisted that the regulation was aimed at creating a good learning environment and that if the management noticed reckless driving within campus to the extent of creating nuisance and set out to regulate it, “they are in order, because the goal is to make the students better and not otherwise.
“I support management for the regulation, especially against reports that the nuisance has evolved to unimaginable proportions.”
