CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the study
In the face of growing enrolment of students in tertiary education, students’ accommodation has become one of the teething problems faced by higher institutions in developing countries (Centre for Global Education, 2005). In many countries, especially in developing countries, governments have been the main provider of student accommodation for public higher institutions. As a result of limited government resources, government in developing countries are unable to adequately meet the accommodation demand for all public higher institutions. Over past two decades, governments in many developing countries have involved private hostel providers to participate in building hostels and halls of residence for students in order to meet the demand for more accommodation infrastructure (Centre for Global Education, 2002). This has attracted some private individuals into investment in students’ hostel accommodation.
The importance of accommodation covers the entire aspects of human life. Primarily, it involves physical protection from hazards which ordinarily may be regarded as shelter but also provide the setting from many of the basic biological and social processes necessary to sustain life, which permit the healthy growth and development of the mind. In all, accommodation as a unit of the environment of man, has a profound influence on the health, social behaviour, satisfaction and general welfare of the community. It reflects the cultural, social and economic values of a society as it is the best physical and historical evidence of civilization in a country (Aluko, 2009). Research on student development in higher education system in many developed nations is not restricted to academic activities; diverse issues relating to hostels are also involved (Shelton, Nicole, Tessa and Trail 2010; McCorkle and Mason, 2009; Hanasonso and Nadler, 2012). Thus, problems relating to students campus residential settings have been of interest to many researchers, most especially human resource practitioners, Social Psychologists, Sociologists and scholars in humanities etc, in these societies for decades.  Despite the prevalence of a large body of literature on college roommate relationships in developed nations, literature on roommate interpersonal relationships among tertiary students is very scanty in sub-Sahara Africa (SSA). The dearth of knowledge in this area in Nigerian higher institutions of learning is precarious and it is traceable to the poor-state-of- the- art-facilities, which have been hindering effective learning. The most crucial aspect of these facilities as related to this study is insufficient accommodation for students. Where accommodation is available, it usually is poorly maintained and managed due to poor funding of higher education and prevalence of endemic corruption in higher institutions.  Consequently, the management of higher education system resorted to ‘private developer policy on students’ residential matters’ in order to make provisions for students’ accommodation without any financial implication on the institution (Omonijo, Uche, Rotimi & Nwadialor, 2014).