GIVE US OUR TESA!
“And even when they refuse to listen, I’ll keep talking anyway, hoping on a slim chance that the things inside my head are worth something to someone.” – Nagede Richards
We have lingered too much in this, we are worn out. We can no longer stomach the restrictions. Not anymore! So it is time we vented our frustrations on the powers that be. It is about time we dis entangled ourselves from the chains of suppression we have suffered for years. We therefore speak collectively, hoping the inscriptions of my pen pierce through the men that manage us.
TESA is an acronym for Technology and Engineering Students’ Association-with a strong emphasis on the word student-A body that has existed for about 30years with tenures rolling in and out like the spherical balls on a snooker board. We have had Presidents worth immeasurable accolades, we have seen tenures that stemmed fury from techites, we have seen Presidents whose names are long-forgotten. Not because they were terrible, but because they weren’t spectacular either.
In recent years, we have seen a TESA governed solely by the Faculty management. ‘Governed, not in the sense of directing and coordinating the affairs of students. The management has out rightly trampled on our rights as students of the University of Ibadan, and we have kept mute on several occurrences that infuriates us. Over the past four years, Presidents of this Faculty lament on the unfair intrusion of the management in the matters of students.
The Faculty of Technology already possess a mockery-image amongst Faculties in the Premier University. Located at the tail end of the University is a disadvantage endured by techites for years. We are imagined as a crop of students too brilliant to earmark our calculus textbooks for extra-curricular activities. We are that faculty over-populated with guys and consequently, the dearth of fun as a result of gross gender imbalance. Matters are made worse with the inconsiderate policies enforced by our fathers. Our dues have been a constant grudge from Techites.
We are tired of paying the meagre sum of #500. In as much as we understand the non-uniformity of pockets’ depth, we have settled for mediocrity for too long. And we can not get what our money can not buy! If we must keep to half a thousand naira, the management must be ready to invest richly in the body. Students are fed up of the service rendered by the executives, mediocre performance yearly put by executives with the flimsy excuse of ‘no money’.
The frequent interference in other matters are a burden too heavy for us to carry. Scrapping of programmes, threats from lecturers are not particularly portraying democrats. It seems to me as though we run an association actually ‘run’ by the faculty.
We need a more proactive association. TESA deserves some autonomy in decision making. 30 years of toddling isn’t any message of hope and we are sick of being paraded like dogs whose necks are belted.
I send these words to the powers that be! Let our fathers accept us with the new trends we are accustomed to!
TECHPRESSORG
