Prof. Samuel Edoumiekumo, the Vice-Chancellor of Niger Delta University in Bayelsa State has decried the impact of the raging flood on the university.
The varsity head also stated that the university premises have been submerged.
He said in a particular area of the institution, people could only move around through canoes, but that the management was considering online classes.
In a telephone interview on Friday, Edoumiekumo noted that the institution’s three main campuses; Gloryland Campus, College of Health Sciences both located on Wilberforce Island, Amasoma, and the Faculty of Law campus in Yenagoa, were inaccessible by road.
He said, “The university is submerged and everywhere is affected. We use a canoe to move around one part of the campus. It is at the new site (Faculty of Law) that some places are elevated and they are not so affected but the road to the university is cut off.
“You can’t even get there by road except by speed boat. When you go there by speed boat, you will not have land to walk on because the Amasoma community too is submerged. The whole of the College of Health Sciences; the medical programme is submerged, we can’t even put on power there for now, because if you do, it will cause electrocution.”
He, however, noted that some students will be given access to classes through the university’s online portal.
He stated, “We cannot resume because of the floods, otherwise we would have started. But even at that, we have taken some decisions. There are some students that are going to take some professional exams, so we can’t say that because of the flood they should not prepare for their exams.
“For all those having professional exams, we have directed their provost to work out modalities to teach them online. They will be receiving lectures online to prepare them for professional exams.
“We have an e-learning platform, we can’t just deploy the e-learning tool for all the students because even the lecturers are affected by the flood and they may not be in the right frame of mind to do anything, especially when they are trying to see how their families can be safe.”
While commending Governor Duoye Diri for paying staff salaries despite the flood, he lamented the disruption to their academic calendar.