By Ibrahim Taiwo, Usman
At the Swearing-in Ceremony of the new student leaders of the University of Ibadan Students’ Union (UISU) held today, Thursday, 5th of February, 2025, at the Trechard Hall, University of Ibadan, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Prof. Kayode Adebowale addressed the newly inaugurated executives of the University of Ibadan Students’ Union and address important issues affecting the students.
In his speech, he reminded the inaugurated student leaders that “you are stepping into leadership roles”, emphasising that “leadership is less about authority, more about sacrifice.”
He assured that the management is ready to listen to any well-articulated proposal. He asserted that there is a unique spirit which Unibadan is known for — a spirit that requires the highest standard. “Let this spirit guide your administration”, he urged the newly inaugurated executives. According to him, “we need to, together, champion academic excellence”.
In his responses to the issues raised by the newly inaugurated UI’SU President, Adeboye Temidayo, regarding issues affecting UI students, he affirmed that “the University Management is not averse to these matters, we are indeed partners”.
He charged the newly inaugurated student leaders to foster innovations and sustainable development. In his words, “focus on how your administration can sustain impacts”, especially digital literacy. He also urged them to lead with integrity and accountability. “Be accessible to those that you serve. And, the interests of the student community should override your personal interests,” he urged them.
Addressing the issue of unstable electricity supply raised by the newly inaugurated President of the Students’ Union, Adeboye Temidayo, he said the challenge of electricity supply is not a challenge of the University, it’s a national challenge. However, he noted that the University of Ibadan is on the priority list of the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC), “not just because of the amount they collected from us, but because we have built a relationship with them.” On the issue with unstable electricity supply, he said most of the time when there is a power outage, it is usually affected by two things: whether IBEDC didn’t supply or there are problems with the cables within the University. He explained that the University of Ibadan employed underground cable for distributing electricity across the campus unlike using electricity poles, modelling the University College, London. However, though the cables used were the best as at that time, there are current needs to change them to the best ones used nowadays. In his explanation, he said, whenever there is a problem with these old cables, there will also be power outages. In his words, he added that, “the challenge of maintenance of underground cable is very high, but I can tell you that it’s the best”.
Furthermore, on the issue of unstable electricity supply, he said the University pays about 144 million naira per month on average to IBEDC, whereas, the University only received 24 million naira overhead from the federal government. And, it doesn’t always come completely.
He added that, all things being equal, the electricity supply from IBEDC is a little below 20 hours per day. However, to be on Band A is almost 4 times higher than Band B, and that’s why the electricity supply has to be below 20 hours. Hence, the cost prevented the university from staying at Band A.
As a solution to the problem of unstable electricity supply, the Vice-Chancellor mentioned that there is a 12 megawatt electricity project, which has been approved for the University of Ibadan, and is going to make it possible to supply enough electricity to the university community and the College of Medicine. He also mentioned that the project will be completed within 12 months.
Furthermore, on the issue of accommodation, the Vice-Chancellor decried the state of students’ hostels within the University. He recounted a few months ago when he decided to visit some of the halls. In his words, “I visited, with the Dean of Students, one of the female hostels, Queen Idia Hall. I, myself, was bleeding inside when I saw the conditions of the hostel”.
He further explained that at one time, all hostel accommodation was being managed by the Federal Government, but it has been returned to the university management with a meagre amount of support from the Federal Government. And, it will be bad if accommodation is administered by private institutions because students will not be able to afford the exorbitant fees they are going to charge.
On the efforts to renovate the halls, he said there are challenges. A challenge he noted is that, “If we want to renovate any of the halls, we need to shut down the halls for several months, however, our calendar is not stable. If we shut down the halls, where are our students going to stay? Even to fumigate, there are challenges.”
In terms of unionism, he said the university will support some members of the outgoing executive and the newly inaugurated executives to visit the University of the West of England. In his words, “we will ensure that the executive members who will go would not be those in their final year, so that they will be able to implement what they learn from the visit”.
In speaking about the current state of security in the country, he added that on the issue of students’ identity cards, he said that every member of the university should carry their ID card, as henceforth, students may be challenged by the security arms to present their ID cards.
In his conclusion, he commended the Covenant Odedele-led Students’ Union Administration and its idea of the University of Ibadan Students’ Union Vision 2030. He commented that “the vision is like the vision of a vice chancellor” and he assured that the University administration will support the vision. “Now we have purposeful student unionism. That a student union will come up with a vision…a vision that is not for today, it’s very challenging to us. I’m going to go through it, to see areas of collaboration”, he concluded.
