As part of concerted efforts to provide credible reports and reviews on the candidates and the electoral process of the UISU, UCJ UI under its Election Watchroom Initiative reached out to UISU Presidential Candidate, Covenant Odedele (Visionary). In this exclusive chat with UCJ correspondents, Covenant spoke about his candidacy and discusses his plans for the Union.
UCJ: Good day everyone. Welcome to this ninth interview of the UCJUI Election Watch Room interview session. Today, we have with us one of the aspirants for the position of the Students Union President, Covenant Odedele (Visionary)
UCJ: Can we meet you?
Covenant: Okay, thank you so much for having me here today. My name is Covenant Odedele, popularly known as Visionary. I am a 400 level student studying Medicine and Surgery in the University of Ibadan and alongside my academic engagement, I invested the past four years in social impact engagement bordering around social entrepreneurship, healthcare innovation, civic engagement and policy and I am privileged to be a recipient of numerous local and international awards namely the Princess Diana awards, also, I’m a recipient of couple of fellowships counting youth fellowship, Nigerian Higher Education Foundation Scholarship Program. I’m a TedEx speaker, I spoke at TedEx mOAU in March 2024. I have lived all my life in Ibadan, I grew up and stayed in Ibadan and I remain committed to the development of students in University of Ibadan and Nigeria at large.
UCJ: Thank you very much. Can you tell us more about the position that you are running for?
Covenant: I am a candidate for the position of Student’s Union President in the coming UI’SU election which is just a few days away and my intention, my decision to vie for this office stems from a deep seated passion to educate our union and contribute to the development of students of the University of Ibadan at large so, yes I am presently in the race for the position of students union president in the upcoming elections.
UCJ: Thank you. You’ve mentioned quite a few awards that you’ve been a recipient of, even outside of UI. Some might say that the UI’SU president in comparison with winning Princess Diana awards and other things that you have mentioned is a position that you do not need, so why are you running?
Covenant: Like I said earlier, my four to five years in the UI ecosystem and in Nigeria has been marked with focus and investment in students development. So, for me, it’s not necessarily about trying to add another thing to my portfolio. I am very big on selfless service. Like I said earlier, it stems from a deep-seated passion to contribute my quota to students’ development in the University of Ibadan. From my experience over the past few years working in students development, I realized that when you have the privilege to hold certain positions, you can make some development on a larger scale. You can be able to contribute positively to more people because of the position you are holding and because of the influence that that position carries. So for me, it’s not necessarily a title, I want to serve UITES, I want to do my best through this position to improve the campus experience of every student of the University of Ibadan, so it is a clarion call to service. It is not another opportunity to amass recognition. It’s to serve.
UCJ: Okay, thank you. I believe that at this point, you already have specific plans to make this great change you’ve spoken about. So what are your plans if you eventually get elected.
Covenant: Okay, thank you very much for that question. At the heart of student unionism is actually the welfare of students, that is, after all is said and done, the essence of student unionism is to champion the welfare of the University of Ibadan students, so that is the ground goal for me. How will I serve the interests of the students? How do I solve the day-to-day problems that students face? As much as possible, I will be a responsive president who will be ready to face the day to day welfare challenges. When I talk about welfare, I mean the immediate things: light challenges which also sparked the water challenges, transportations, security, price control. These are the day to day immediate needs of students and that is one thing I am ready to do. Another thing I also want to do is expand the capacity development project for University of Ibadan students. In the past time and even up till now, there are a lot of initiatives that have gone into supporting students development, enhance capacity development for students, help them pursue the interest they have even beyond the academic engagements and I am very much open and committed to maximizing my resources, my influences and leveraging partnerships with relevant stakeholders to expand how can we better help University of Ibadan students to sustain the prestige of this great institution. Another thing I really want to do and see get done if elected is that I want to do as much work to restore and regain students’ consciousness. I know that the union has evolved over years but, we can have more people who love the union. We have to bring back the fervent love that students once had for the union. These and many more are things that I intend to do if elected.
UCJ: Okay, thank you very much. You’ve mentioned quite a lot of things and we know that these things, they require funds, where are you going to get the funds for these projects and are there people that you’ve spoken to that are willing to sponsor such projects. Have you conducted a feasibility study? Just tell us about that.
Covenant: Thank you very much. Yes, I have. Every project, needs some level of funding and I believe that University of Ibadan student union is foremost and is a great institution in itself that is beyond being a Union. We are beyond being a pressure group and like an organisation if we can pitch our tent right we can present ourselves well to potential funders. It is very possible that we can get all the funds for what we need, the various projects we have to run. We would be leveraging the CSR of many companies. I’ve spoken with a good number of people and I can confidently say that if elected, I can get them on board easily, to donate their projects or services to the development of our project. Also, like we always say, everywhere, we have a large alumni pool. I just think that they need to see that you’re ready to use the money or the support rightly, so we would pitch the union as much as possible to many alumni that we have from the University of Ibadan and by doing this I can be sure that really they would be very very interested in supporting not just even money, not just fund, there is a lot they can do. We can leverage their influences to get money or to support project even if not in cash, but in kind. So I think that we need to present ourselves in the right way and we’ll get all the support that we can get even beyond what we expected.
UCJ: Okay, thank you very much. As a potential student leader, can you comment briefly about the ABH light issue.
Covenant: Okay, when I answer the questions everybody asks me, I say that many of our issues in Nigeria are systemic problems and one of these, is the light issues we’re facing in ABH. It is a systemic challenge that is now affecting the entirety of the University of Ibadan medical and dental students. It’s a problem because of the under funding of the power sector in Nigeria and just like every systemic issue it cuts across not just one system. It’s affecting the education sector, it’s affecting the healthcare sector and this is a sad story because presently, many medical students are not in school, consultants are on strike because they cannot continue to cope and work in such a very hostile environment. I will say that it’s a problem that the Federal Government needs to really focus on. It also reveals our priorities as a country. It’s very important that if the foremost tertiary institution in Nigeria is still not surviving, with incessant, blackout before leading to this one. It shows that the problem in the system that we need to look up is a systemic problem and truly there is no other solution that can replace restoring the light in UCH. I think there’s no alternative that can replace that and there is no other thing the Federal Government can do save to fund appropriately and do the best to pay IBEDC. So it’s a sad systemic problem and we have to keep fighting to make our voices heard and hopefully we get across someday.
UCJ: Okay, thank you very much for that analysis but seeing that the government is not too responsive on issues like this, what part do you think that the Student Union can do?
Covenant: Thank you very much. Like I said earlier, the Students Union is a pressure group and because we’re a pressure group it means that we must have our values and stance on certain issues. There must be things we would never back down on. There must be things that we can make a little compromise on, there are certain things that we can even let go of. But when it comes to certain issues our stance must be fixed and one of such is the light issue. The student union has to keep advocating because really like I said there is nothing else that can be done to mitigate this problem, no alternative power supply can adequately help carry the capacity of such an hospital so everything still goes back to how can the government pay this bill and our responsibility is to make sure that we remain on our stance. Let’s keep advocating, advocacy can never be too much. Like I say, when it comes to, agitating for change, it’s a process, it’s not a destination. So it means that even though we’ve not gotten to our destination we are making progress. We witnessed the last protest that medical students rallied round and we made some noise, we went to the Federal state secretariat in Ibadan and we made our pleas known and of course, the man pledged that something will be done. Yes, it’s not yet done but we still have to go back again. Let’s revisit the drawing board, let’s go back to negotiation. While exploring options for negotiations we still have to make our voices known through the protest and hopefully, something is done someday.
UCJ: Okay, thank you very much so you mentioned that we have to keep applying pressure, keep protesting if need be.
Covenant: Yes
UCJ: Over the past seven to eight months, UI students have protested for different things, light, fee hike, better welfare, if you emerge president what are you going to do to mitigate these issues.
Covenant: Thank you very much. It’s still at the heart of getting things done. It’s a process not always a destination and I believe that when it comes to agitating [students interest] we have many arsenals that can be deployed. We just need to know how to apply them at every point in time. You know, generally people say that when you’re dealing with something like this, you do the three Cs: Consultation, Consolidation, Confrontation, it’s not linear, that means it’s not that you have to do confrontation last. There are times when confrontation comes first, there are times when it comes last, it’s all about understanding the dynamics, the battle you are fighting, and then knowing how to apply these different arsenals that you have. For me, this is where we stand on issues like this and always we must make our stance known at every point in time through negotiations, through demonstrations. When it comes to negotiations, we must always make sure that every action we take towards championing our interests, fighting for our rights, is to make sure that at every point in time our voices are represented on the tables that matter. When we go out to protest, the goal is not just to make the noise or let people see that you’re making noise. It is the fact that after all is said and done, can we get representation, can we get a meeting , can we get them to hear our voices?. Yeah, that’s the goal. So, at every point in time, we must make sure that there is an opportunity for us to always be at the negotiation table to always get the points at the table or in the rooms that matter. That is very very important. And also, we must also make sure that we keep options for negotiation open at every point in time. I don’t think negotiations should be closed, especially with unionism, I think I’ll stop there.
UCJ: Okay. Talking about negotiation, there would be instances where the management have interests that differ from what the students want, so, as a prospective student leader, how do you ensure that at all times, the negotiation is still in favour of the students, it still represents our interests?
Covenant: Like I said earlier, one of the cardinal points of student unionism is having your stances. As a union, we must have our stances. This is something we are never going to back down on. This is something when it comes to this issue, this is our stance and we are not changing. So when the negotiation or the conversation goes further, yeah, you can actually make a compromise. We can manage to go a little further, but, beyond this, we are not going. So I still think that, we still have to make our stances known and really when it comes to the heart of it, communication is very good to every stakeholder involved, the school management, the students because usually, we’re like that bridge, between the school management and the students so as much as possible, we must make our stances known to both parties and communicate adequately to these parties. Truthfully, it happens that you don’t get all you want, like I said, it’s a process, not a destination, but when we understand this and we have that core values, we have our stances where, what do we believe, why are we staying on this, are we all agreeing on this and then we keep pushing, we’re not backing down. For saying this is what we want. We want 75% of this if the negotiation goes further, okay, we can manage 70, but beyond 70, we’re not going anymore. So it’s just about making our stances known, making all relevant stakeholders aware about what we choose to go with and making sure that we don’t backdown, even when we’re not necessarily winning, we don’t back down, very important. It’s not the destination, it’s the process.
UCJ: Before you declared your intent to run for the student union president, you were a press man. What fostered that change?
Covenant: At every point in time, in my first five years in this school everything I’ve done, I was very genuine. I did everything with a sense of commitment and selfless ambition. So when I joined the school at 100 level, looking at the resources and the skill I had at the time, I could write well,I could speak well and I had this flair for creating change. I asked around and got multiple recommendations from people. “You can join the press. It’s a good place for you to hone your skills and also contribute to the development of the Union and the school at large”. Looking at the skills I had at the time, the exposure and the resources, that was the first decision I could make.
But you know, between then and now, I have involved myself in multiple things and they have opened my eyes to also see from multiple lenses. From being a press man, from being a social impact advocate, from being a leader, from executing projects, seeing from multiple lenses, I realised that with the exposure and experience I have, I think I can do something bigger for students from that seat, so it’s not a switch it’s a transition and yes, I am still who I am. Maybe, titles may be different but it’s still the same person with the same vision.
UCJ: Okay, when you realized that you have served in these organizations, in these committees, served here and there, there were some allegations from the students community that in some of these committees and organizations you were not that much of a team player or you were not that of a functional team member, so what can you say to these allegations?
Covenant: Okay, I don’t know, but I think everyone has a right to their opinion, right, but like I said earlier, at every point in time, everything I’ve done is with all sincerity and as much as possible, I gave my best and I’m trying to see any committee that I’ve served. if I didn’t serve in a committee and I didn’t give my best, I would probably won’t even list it because I’m not doing anything for the CV or just to amass recognition. Everything I have listed out as my track records for student developments in this school are things that I commit and I gave my best to. Anything I list out was definitely from the product of commitment to the development of the school . So every one of the positions or committees served or anything you see on that list there is barely any one of them where I didn’t give my best as much as possible.
UCJ: Okay, accepted that that is their opinion. In your opinion, do you think you’ll make a good student leader?
Covenant: Yes, I think so and I mean [it]. You know, when I was engaging someone recently, you know, we were in a conversation and the question I asked was what do you think anybody who wants to run for the Students union Presidency should have. What do you think are the qualities that they should have and really, I think I’ve ticked the boxes. I have demonstrated a great deal of personal leadership over the years with the University of Ibadan students and I really think, yeah, I’ve worked closely with, you know, multiple administrations in the University of Ibadan, even beyond. I have a wide range of experience, serving student development, executing projects and all of that. So, I really think that I’m at the core of everything, being available for students, understanding the pain point of students and having a creative approach to solve those problems. Also, I mean, leveraging all the influences, pulling resources together, you know. I’m organizing mass action, organizing and deploying resources for student developments. All of these things are things I really think I have, you know, done as a student, so, I really, believe that I am well positioned to lead the University of Ibadan Student Union in the next academic session.
UCJ: Okay, so, if luck shines on you or hard work or grace, whatever you call it and you emerge as the student union president, you know, stakeholder meetings, congresses are some of the tools, leaders use, so do you think that these tools are important, how would you use them to move University of Ibadan Students Union forward?
Covenant: Yes, thank you very much. That’s a good question. Of course, yes. I am of the strong opinion that the identity of our union is not always established only when there is opposition. So what do I mean, I am trying to say that stakeholder meetings, congresses are very important not only when there are issues. We don’t have to convene a Congress when there is a strike or when there is a challenge against light or something. These are things that should happen continually and like the earlier I talked about consciousness. We need to ask as much as possible to make sure that everybody is carried along. We need a union where everybody does not just think that the Union or Student Union is [about] the eight executives that make the executive council . We need everybody to see themselves as part of the stakeholders. Stakeholders are not just presidents of faculties, hallchair persons or department presidents. Every student of University of Ibadan is a stakeholder in the union and we need to carry everybody along as much as possible. So, yes, periodic meetings, periodic congresses, these are things that can never be obsolete. We can be creative around how we do them, but as much as possible we can never throw them away. They are very important to us and will go a long way in helping us.
UCJ: Okay, thank you for that. Now, to one of the elephants in the room. Will fees fall? This is a question that has been on the lips of UI students and we’ve all seen the trajectory since last session, there is still a chance the fee hike will continue. So, as someone who wants to assume this position, I’m sure you probably have something in mind to do. Can you share it with us?
Covenant: So, like I say and know, school fees issues are not necessarily new. It’s a problem that we’re facing from a bigger system. There’s a problem with certain ministries and institutions in Nigeria including universities. Ideally, we’re in a Federal institution and we don’t pay tuition, we pay levies including the GES bundle levy, utility levy, all of those things, but we don’t pay tuition and because of all this, the federal government is committed to a large extent to supporting these schools. So, because the Federal government instituted NELFUND, we have a bigger issue. NELFUND is like an “option” for students. So, what if they don’t want to take NELFUND, should they not go to school? Like I said earlier, all these issues are systemic problems. However, we have to keep fighting, that’s the truth. As a union, we have to make our stances clear about certain things. I am more concerned about the fact that even with these fees we pay, do we get value for the fees we pay? And also, can we make it focused? I know of some faculties that pay studio fees and they don’t use studios and they pay lab fees and they don’t, you know, very unjustified fees. So how can we rather focus our agitations on the unjustification? I see the breakdown of certain school fees and certain departmental fees and levies and I can say that okay, we can understand some fees, fine. However, some fees are not justified. So, how can we remove and single out these fees that are not justifiable and you know, be more tactical with approach. The last protest, I was particularly happy to see that boldness was restored in the University of Ibadan community after seven years. But you know,I don’t think it was a failure, like I said, it’s a process not the destination. However, I just think that going forward, I would be more tactical. We need to single out more certain fees that are not very justified. The goal for me is to make sure that no UI student has to leave school because they cannot pay school fees. In fact, I’ve been chatting with some students interestingly enough, some people don’t consider the fact that the fees are high. Some people think that the fees are normal and their parents can afford it. But we have to consider many among us who cannot afford these fees. So, our goal is simple: how will we ensure that through multiple ways, no student of UI had to leave school because they cannot afford school fees. So, we will be fighting, we keep pushing, we keep making sure that our voices are heard,we keep making our stances very firm as much as we can and we need the unity of everyone. Everybody has to be committed. Every student, everybody, every stakeholder. Thank you.
UCJ: Okay. Just for clarification, are you saying that some of these hikes are justified, some are not?
Covenant: Well, if you break down the school fees, because every school fees, for example, if you see the portal, you know, the student portal or maybe let’s say a total of N278,000. There’s a breakdown for that fee. If you look at some of these breakdown we can say some are justified. Like, we pay let’s say, N20,000 for utility, that’s fair enough. But if you look at certain fees, I don’t think they are justified. I don’t think they should be there because you are not getting value. What is the essence of that fee? What are we paying for so we need to make our stances clear on what exactly we get for what we are paying for and why they are there.
UCJ: Can you give a brief comment on the accomplishments or failure of the current administration.
Covenant: That’s a very dicey one. But like I say, as a student union president, I really want everyone to understand this, it’s a process, not a destination, so if we see everything as this, we don’t think or we have failed because when we only see things from the point of view of what we they will do, you know, usually, when it comes to fighting or engaging or doing things generally, there is the expectation that the masses have and there is an expectation that they have. But you know, most times, things don’t go that way. So, for me it will be very difficult to point out what they did right, what they did wrong because after everything is said and done, even our “failures”, I rejoin it as success, right? So, I don’t necessarily want to say or feel in certain aspects or anything. It’s a process and it’s not a destination. We may not have gotten the result we expected, but we didn’t fail, the fact that we came out and did certain things means that we made progress, I want every body to see things from a progress point of view with the fact that are we better from where we were coming from? Yes, that’s the most important thing. So, I won’t necessarily say that there were failures, I’ll just say that we are in a process and the most important thing is that we are advancing.
UCJ: Okay, so, lastly, you’re not the first student politician that would make promises. You’re not going to be the last, what is going to make you different? How are we sure that this “it’s a process, not a destination” “our fees will be justified” how are we sure that you’re going to uphold these promises when you get to office?
Covenant: Thank you very much. So, usually when I speak, I engage people. I like to talk about my candidacy as a person. So like, I’m the one running, I’m putting myself as president and it means that you will judge me by my values and my ideologies. Every year, candidates come and put out their promises, but for me, that was why I said that the most important thing I would promise is that I would be a president that would ensure that day to day challenges of students are very much attended to. You can have a very good manifesto and then the challenges that you’ll face even in your tenure will be way different from what you’ve planned to do, so the goal is that at every point in time what can you do to mitigate, to solve the problems, the day to day, evolving problems that students face to the best of their abilities, with the available resources you’ll have in the shortest possible time. That is one thing I can guarantee the university of Ibadan students.
UCJ: Okay. We would like a response to this. You’ve used words like you’ll be available, you’ll be present, you’ll be responsive. But earlier you mentioned that you’re a medical student in your fourth year and this is a course that we all know that is quite demanding and intensive. So, how do you assure the masses that if you assume office, your course of study will not interfere with your responsibilities?
Covenant: Thank you very much. You know, before making this decision to run, I’ve considered every possible factor. I’ve counted the cost. I stopped taking classes in UI in March. But, between March and now, I stay in UI every day. There’s barely a day I have not come to this school. Right, so, it’s not something that we’ll just start when I become president. My calendar presently is very flexible. It’s a good time for me to do as much as possible. And medical students have that track record of not just being focused in their books. You see medical students doing other things. In fact, we have medical students who have gone on to be Union student presidents. President of OAU, the Great Ife Student Union, you know, is a medical student. So, you’ve seen, you know, this happens over time and yes, I am fully committed to doing this for University of Ibadan students.
UCJ: Alright, thank you very much. We hope when you get to office, you uphold all these things that you’ve said. This has been very enlightening.
Covenant: Thank you very much for having me.
• This interview is part of a special series on the dynamics of the 2025 Students’ Union Election by the Union of Campus Journalists under its Election Watch Room Initiative.
