PEN PRESS UDUS

NOSA-UDUS to Host Annual Health Week, Organizes Free Visual Screening

Azeez Aisha reports,

The Nigerian Optometric Students Association, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto chapter, in commemoration of its annual health week, has organized a free visual screening aimed at promoting eye awareness and encouraging early detection of vision problems within the university community.

According to the flyer released by the association, the outreach will be held at the main campus, university clinic on Thursday , July 9th, 2026 at exactly 9:00am prompt.

The free visual screening is aimed to benefit students, staff and members of the university community as it serves not only as a community service initiative but also as a practical demonstration of the association's commitment to promoting quality eye care and supporting the global vision of reducing preventable visual impairment and blindness.

Students, staff and members of the university community are urged to seize the opportunity to benefit from the initiative.

Season of Fear: What Rainy Season Means for Students in UDUS Private Hostels

By Luqman Kamaldeen Oladayo

The tall green millet plants sway gently in the evening breeze, the kind of green that photographs well. It was in that stillness, around 5:00pm, that Jimoh Zainab Olamide, a 200-level law student at Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto (UDUS), was strolling to class from her hostel along a narrow footpath. Zainab’s phone was glued to her ear when she heard footsteps behind her. She curiously looked back, but before she could comprehend the situation, a stranger had stepped out of the plantation, snatched her phone, and disappeared into it.

“That experience made me realise how dangerous the plantations around our hostels can be,” she sadly noted.

Over the years, the arrival of the rainy season transforms UDUS campus and its environs into a lush, flourishing, green landscape. At the university’s private hostels, however, that same beauty hides a growing unease, as villagers in the surrounding communities cultivate crops, particularly millet, around the hostels, taking advantage of the fertile season. These tall crops have, in many instances, served as an enabling tool for petty thieves like Zainab’s assailant.

From a distance, the plantations paint and curate a vivid picture of nature’s beauty. But beneath the greenery that gives solemn visibility lies a growing concern among UDUS students who have found the same vegetation becoming a source of constant fear, discomfort, and insecurity. For these students, the annual return of the plantations signals not only the beginning of another farming season, but also the return of mosquitoes, reptiles, restricted movement, and criminal activity.

Abdulwasiu, (first name withheld) a mathematics student, echoed the same concern to Pen Press UDUS, pointing to the risk of snake bites, dangerous animal attacks, and robbers who ambush passers-by to steal their belongings. “The thick vegetation reduces visibility in some areas, especially at night, and this makes students feel uncomfortable when moving around alone,” he observed.

Zainab’s experience runs deeper, she has watched students stop attending night classes altogether, afraid of being attacked in the plantations around campus. Overgrown vegetation, she said, cuts visibility at night, giving wrongdoers cover to attack students, a fear made real when she herself was robbed of her phone in broad daylight while passing through the plantations.

Watching it grow again this rainy season has left her deeply unsettled. For her, it means restricted movement, a disrupted study routine, and night classes that now feel too risky to attend.

On 17th July 2025, Pen Press UDUS published a report titled “UDUS Students Suffer Unsuspecting Attacks Amid Darkening Environments, Wanting Security Personnel,” confirming cases of stolen items and ambushes across the university that year. The report also cited Chief Security Officer Colonel Abdullah Gwandu, who explained that the university authority had employed close to 50 private security officers, stationed strategically around the school premises to support existing personnel and tighten security.

When Mosquitoes Become Unwanted Roommates

For Yakubu Sadauna, a 200-level law student, his first-year experience was horribly disrupted by the arrival of mosquitoes during the 2025 rainy season, when they became almost impossible to avoid. This, he opined, is primarily a direct consequence of the dense vegetation that breeds mosquitoes around his hostel.

“These plantations can affect students’ overall comfort within the hostel environment,” he noted.

According to experts at the 2022 World Malaria Day, Nigeria spends over $1.1 billion (₦645.7 billion) yearly on the prevention and treatment of malaria, yet the disease killed no fewer than 200,000 Nigerians and afflicted 61 million others in 2021 alone.

Zainab, too, has felt the weight of what the data describes. “We can’t stay outside for too long because of mosquitoes,” she said, recalling how the vegetation around hostels has become a threat to students’ health. “We can no longer leave our windows open, and many students now depend on mosquito nets to avoid malaria and other mosquito-related illnesses.”

A 2025 study on ResearchGate examined how mosquito-borne diseases pose a significant public health challenge, pointing to agricultural expansion and urbanisation as major contributors to rising mosquito populations and, consequently, the transmission dynamics of diseases such as malaria, dengue, and Zika virus. The latest World Malaria Report shows that Nigeria accounts for 31.9% of all malaria deaths in Africa — the highest of any country in the region.

Students Call for Action

Many students, while speaking with Pen Press UDUS, opined that the problem is not farming itself, but the proximity of tall crops to student residential areas.

While Yakubu agreed that farming cannot be completely stopped, he urged the university management to prevent villagers from cultivating tall crops close to hostels. Instead, he suggested, farmers should cultivate shorter crops such as beans and groundnuts, while the university champions regular environmental sanitation, vegetation trimming, and pest-control measures.

Zainab similarly encouraged the university administration and relevant authorities to put a stop to farming around hostel areas, arguing that students deserve a safer environment. Abdul Wasiu echoed that the concerns are alarming, insisting that the plantations contribute little to campus life while exposing students to avoidable risks.

Management Promises Intervention

Speaking with Pen Press UDUS, Professor Zayyanu Umar Usman, the Dean of students’ affairs, acknowledged the students’ plight and promised further interventions to serve the students rightly.

He told Pen Press UDUS that the management has never ceased to commit resources toward students’ wellbeing, and that the university continues to manage limited resources in order to serve many competing units across the institution.

“We have recently sent away a villager who planted maize in our environment within the university,” he noted regretfully, adding that management had to compensate the displaced farmer before he would consent to uproot his crops from the university community.

The return of the rains comes with mixed emotions. While students appreciate the beauty nature brings to the environment, many admit that memories of past experiences overshadow the scenery. For Yakubu, the plantations mean mosquito infestation, poor visibility, and insecurity. For Zainab, they mean a threat to her safety, her academic routine, and her freedom of movement.

Although, the university’s early steps, from the deployment of additional security personnel to the removal of encroaching farmland suggest a management that is not indifferent to these concerns, even if progress has been gradual. As the rains return each year, so does the challenge of balancing a community’s agricultural livelihood with students’ safety and wellbeing.

Dankali and Chronic Bad Breath: Why UDUS Students Should Take Proper Oral Hygiene Seriously

By Luqman Kamaldeen Oladayo

At Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto (UDUS), students wake up every day with many worries, including the hot, scorching sun. Regardless, they leave their hostels determined to make the most of each day. However, many of them barely consider cooking a proper meal for survival, not because they don’t care, but because they’ve found solace in one of the most affordable and widely consumed street meals: Dankali and Awara, often served with shredded cabbage, onions, pepper, and spices.

Dankali, made from fried sweet potatoes, and Awara have become a staple meal for many students because they are financially friendly, filling, and readily available around hostels. However, while the meal itself is not inherently unhealthy, a common habit among many students raises serious concerns, in my opinion. Many consume Dankali and Awara, especially at night or before lectures, without brushing their teeth or properly rinsing their mouths afterwards.

The combination of fried potatoes, smoked flavouring, spices, onions, cabbage, and proteins creates a persistent, unpleasant odour that can remain in the mouth for hours, and I think it poses a risk many students simply aren’t thinking about.

The Science Behind the Smell

The natural smell associated with Dankali and Awara results from several interacting factors. Firstly, onions contain sulphur-containing compounds, including allyl methyl sulphide. These compounds, after digestion, enter the bloodstream and are often released through the lungs while breathing. This means that even if a person drinks water immediately after eating, the odour may still continue for several hours. The fried nature of Dankali, in addition, contributes aromatic compounds that cling to the tongue and oral tissues and are not easily removed by saliva alone.

Furthermore, Awara is rich in protein, and its particles left between the teeth become food for bacteria naturally present in the mouth. As these bacteria digest protein residues, they also produce volatile sulphur compounds (VSCs) such as hydrogen sulphide and methyl mercaptan, which are largely responsible for bad breath. Cabbage, pepper, and other vegetables served alongside the meal can add to this too , if trapped between teeth and left unattended, they become fuel for the same bacterial growth.

The Role of Poor Oral Hygiene

The mouth is home to a genuinely staggering number of bacteria, researchers have put the figure at tens of billions, spanning hundreds of distinct species, many of which are harmless when oral hygiene is maintained. But after eating Dankali without brushing, food particles remain on the teeth, tongue, and cheeks, giving that bacteria every reason to multiply rapidly.

It’s also worth noting, and this is backed by dental research, that most cases of chronic bad breath actually originate in the mouth itself, rather than the stomach or digestive system, as many people assume. The real culprits are bacterial activity on the tongue and poor oral hygiene , not the food itself.

The Health Risks Are Real

A 2026 study by Bernard J. Hennessy of College of Dentistry in Texas A and M University revealed that the major consequence of poor oral hygiene is halitosis, commonly known as chronic bad breath. Students who regularly eat Dankali and Awara without brushing often unknowingly carry a strong smell into classrooms, hostels, libraries, and social gatherings. Beyond the discomfort of oral decay, this can quietly affect interpersonal relationships, classroom interactions, and self-confidence and I’d argue this social cost is the part students underestimate most.

Another avoidable risk is an increased risk of tooth decay. Potatoes are not particularly sugary, but they do contain starch, and when digestion begins in the mouth, that starch is broken down into simple sugars, which oral bacteria then convert into acids. Those acids attack tooth enamel, and the results can include dental caries, tooth sensitivity, tooth pain, and, in the worst cases, tooth loss.

Beyond the health implications, I think it’s fair to say that inadequate oral hygiene like skipping brushing or a proper rinse after eating Dankali and Awara can quietly chip away at social and academic confidence. Communication is central to university life, which is exactly why oral hygiene matters more than students give it credit for. Students dealing with persistent mouth odour may find themselves facing frequent embarrassment, hesitating to participate in discussions, withdrawing socially, or leaving poor first impressions.

Not an Argument Against the Food

To be clear, none of this is an argument against Dankali and Awara, their nutritional value stands on its own. Awara gives the body high-quality plant protein, iron, calcium, magnesium, and essential amino acids. Potatoes, meanwhile, provide carbohydrates, vitamin C, potassium, and dietary fibre, while vegetables like cabbage and onions bring antioxidants and vitamins that support immunity. These benefits are precisely why the meal has held its place in UDUS campus life for so long, and I don’t think that should change.

On a final note, Dankali and Awara remains one of the most affordable, satisfying, and nutritious meals enjoyed by thousands of students at Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto. But eating it without proper oral hygiene creates an environment where bacteria flourish and no amount of love for the meal changes that. A fresher breath, in this case, really is just one habit away.