As part of concerted efforts to provide credible reports and reviews on the candidates and the electoral process of the UI’SU, UCJ UI under its Election Watchroom Initiative reached out to UI’SU Public relations officer aspirant, Adekanmbi ‘Ezekiel. In this exclusive chat with UCJ correspondents, Ezekiel discusses his plans for the Union.
UCJ: Good day everyone. welcome to this third interview of the UCJUI Election Watch Room interview session. Today, we have with us the Public Relations Officer (PRO) aspirant, Mr. Adekambi Ezekiel. Please kindly introduce yourself?
Adekanmbi Ezekiel: Good afternoon. My name is Adekambi Ezekiel, popularly and politically known as ‘Eazy the big propeller’. I’m a Public Relation major from the Department of Communication and Language Arts, the 58th public relations officer of the Great Independence Hall, and also the chairman of the Student Union Board of PROs. I’m an individual passionate about pursuing excellence in all I do.
UCJ: So, you’re contesting for the post of UI SU PRO, what do you think this position demands from you?
Adekanmbi Ezekiel: This position demands a lot, actually, but then I feel what this position demands from me is to be able to practicalize my skills and also be able to further shape the perception of the University of Ibadan Students Union. To be able to foster effective engagement and to be able to carry the University of Ibadan students along on the activities of the union and to be able to make them see the union in a good light.
UCJ: Okay, Mr. Ezekiel, you’ve said a lot talking about what the position demands from you, and you said building relationships and all of these. But why do you think you are an appropriate choice for this position?
Adekanmbi Ezekiel: Okay, thank you so much for that question. I think I’m an appropriate choice for the position because ever since my 100-level days, I’ve always been in one publicity committee or the other. When I was in 200L, I was the social media campaign coordinator of the students union, under Adeona Tosin, 2tancos, a former PRO, and now I’m working as the chairman of the UISU student board of PROs under Senator Olumighty. This clearly shows that I’m experienced, and I’ve successfully learnt under the PROs, and I’ve seen the gap that needs to be filled. I am willing to bring all this experience together to give us a better and more effective public relations office.
UCJ: Thank you very much. You mentioned that you have worked with different administrations and you are also currently working with this administration. How would you describe the current image of the union?
Adekanmbi Ezekiel: Okay, to describe the current image of the union, I would say that the image of the union is quite good; to some extent, the public relations office is trying, you get, but then I just feel like there are still more areas of improvement that we can work on. I am willing to work on [them] if elected.
UCJ: Okay, Mr Ezekiel. Like you said earlier, the image of the union is not at par with what is expected of some students. It’s inevitable that some students will believe that the union is not properly representing the interest of the students in whatever manner. So, if you were the PRO in this scenario, in a scenario where the students are perceiving that the union is not properly representing them, what would you do?
Adekanmbi Ezekiel: Okay, first of all, I do not agree that the image of the public relation officer is not at par with what the current students are expecting. I did not agree; I did not say that. So, if I’m the PRO of the student union, what am I going to do differently? To project a better image and to make people have the correct representation of the student union.
I am an individual that is passionate about branding. One time or the other, we’ve all bought a product, not because it’s nice based on the contents, but we love the way it was branded. One of the things that I’m committed to doing as the public relations officer is to properly brand the image of the student union.
You know, show the union in a positive image and make sure that the university of Ibadan knows that the student union is an extension of them. The Student Union is not Kunle Adepeji Building. Yes, the Student Union is each and every one of us. So when they are all properly aware of this, they are going to see the Students Union as in a positive light and be able to relate with the Student Union.
One of the things I plan to do differently is to at least be able to make sure that they are properly engaged. I want to be able to at least to some extent boost the publicity strength of the Student Union. And through boosting the publicity strength of the Student Union, they will surely be connected and feel involved.
UCJ: Okay, so you’ve said quite a number of things, and you talked about branding, and we all know how important branding is to the student union and all of that. So it means that you know that to some extent your position, it carries with it, you know, a lot of responsibilities. So how important do you think your position is? Do you think it’s even more important than some other positions in the student union executive body?
Adekanmbi Ezekiel: Okay, my position is extremely important. According to the University of Ibadan Student Union, the public relations officer is like the 7th, but then that is just constitutionally; we all know that an administration cannot function effectively well without the public relations officer; it cannot function at all because even if the administration is doing great and there is nobody to be able to at least sing praises of what the administration is doing to the students, if there’s nobody to connect what is being done to the student union, that means they are not doing anything.
UCJ: In the course of your campaign, there have been allegations of plagiarism, of copying your opponent’s strategy, in particular with Chat GPT-inspired posts. What are your thoughts on this? What do you think about this?
Adekanmbi Ezekiel: I believe in my creativity, and I believe that as a public relations student and a computer science student, I don’t need to plagiarize to have content, and then, I don’t think anybody can point to any content that I have ever plagiarized, and concerning the ChatGPT stuff, I don’t know about it sincerely, and it’s not like I replicated any ChatGPT stuff on any of my campaign flyers, but then sometimes your supporters can just create content on your behalf, and when they are too hyperactive, they can want to at least help you to do content on their own, maybe just find something and just post it. The allegations of plagiarism in my campaigns are not true; I believe so much in my creativity, and my creativity has been displayed well in my hall. You can go and check out our graphics, things we’ve done in the Great Independence Hall, and you’d see that there’s an intentional brain behind those graphics. We do graphics with all intentionality, and we always want to play out our creativity in it so plagiarism is not my thing, and I strongly advise against it.
UCJ: Now we want to know your motivation. Why are you contesting? Because you mentioned that you are a part of a committee under Olumighty. So, I mean, that should be enough. You can continue the good work without having to go for a position. So, why do you want to lead?
Adekanmbi Ezekiel: Like I said earlier, I said I have successfully served under two PROs at the University of Ibadan: first, as the social media campaign coordinator under two Tancos, and now as the chairman of the student union board of PRO. As someone that has effectively served under these administrations, I’ve seen the gaps. I’ve been through everything. I’ve seen what we need to do. I’ve successfully learned well under both PROs. Now I’m willing to bring all this experience together to give us a better, more effective union. And I’m willing to boost the publicity strength of the student union. And it can only be done with the support of Uites.
UCJ: Okay, thank you very much. You just talked about boosting the publicity strength of the union. Do you think spamming is like an adequate method to do that? And why, because some sections of the student community have complained about spamming, a strategy that some of your followers have employed, do you think spamming is an effective way of doing publicity?
Adekanmbi Ezekiel: One thing about publicity is that when you’re contesting for a post, there are times when you need people to be able to at least notice your content, so that’s why sometimes, people result to spamming. But then you’re holding a public relations post; you can’t spam people with content, it’s unethical, but there are times when followers are hyperactive, and then they want to let people see something. You really can’t tell them to stop because if you tell them to stop, it is going to dampen their energy, and when it dampens their energy, it is hypocritical. And then, publicity is quite different from public relations. I would also like to make notice of that. Publicity is different from public relations. Public relations is, to me, about the sustenance and maintenance of a relationship between an organization and the target audience. So you connect an organization with the stakeholders, you carry them along and you make the stakeholders have a perceived notion of what the organization is about. And that notion must be very positive. That’s your work as a public relations officer. So, like I said, it’s quite different from publicity.
Just to add, like I said earlier, I’m passionate about public relations and the way it is being done. And that is one of the new thing I’m bringing on board to show better ways we can do public relations without necessarily spamming groups. My experience is more aligned toward being the public relations officer of the union. Other positions I have served that is not public relations oriented is the social director, National Association of Ogun State Students. I was also an honorable member of the Great Independence of Legislative Council as a 200 level student. While most of the other posts are more towards the public relation aspect. I have served in my faculty, I have served in my hall, I have served in the student union, I have served in the national association of Ogun States students as a publicity member, so most of it is more towards publicity.
UCJ: Okay, so you’ve mentioned earlier that you worked with this particular administration, and you think they are doing well, but they can do better, and you also mentioned that you want to do things better. How do you think that the union can bridge the gap of communication between the students and the union? Give specific examples.
Adekanmbi Ezekiel: Thank you very much. I would just like to just give two scenarios. Number one, one of the plans I want to do is to effectively gather Course representatives together, like having a board of course reps group and this is going to be in collaboration with the Assistant General Secretary of the Student Union. These course reps, they are going to know that the essence of gathering together is for public sake so that you can connect with the Student Union through your class members. Because evidently, as University of Ibadan students, there are University of Ibadan students that don’t like joining general groups; they don’t like joining any group, and this alienates them from information somehow. But then, one group that you cannot survive without as a University of Ibadan student is your department group.
So imagine the course rep now being a member of the student union publicity team and they are actively trending our contents. So that means nearly all the University of Ibadan students are going to be connected with the student union. They will see more information directly from the student union. And another thing that I plan to do to increase the visibility strength of the student union is to bring back the traditional way of publicity. Combining it with what we have now, with the social media leveraging. This means that when the student union has events like congress, Freshers week, or any important engagement that the students of the university need to be aware of, we go to the hall of residences with our student union bus and our P.A. system, we visit these halls of residence, and this will be in collaboration with whoever is their PRO or hall chairperson, and we announce what is going on through this to students that are not really active online. They will still be carried along. They will still be aware of what is happening in the students union, and when you’re carried along on the students union activities, you know, that you’re part of the students union, you know, and then you feel engaged and you can successfully defend the students union, because it is only what you know about that you can defend or believe in.
UCJ: Ok, Mr. Ezekiel, state explicitly your thoughts on the performance of the current Public Relations Officer (PRO).
Adekanmbi Ezekiel: Ok, I will say the current PRO has done well. He has plans when he got elected and He’s been doing well in actualizing his plans, even apart from the public relations aspect of his plan, there are also some part of his manifesto that he did some things that are quite notable, one of it is the mental health initiative and I can tell you that to a large extent a lot of University of Ibadan student have benefitted from the initiative, because we are all working, and academics burden in this school is enough for people to mentally break down.
But through this initiative and the numbers on the graphics team, people have been calling, they’ve been sharing their experiences and then they’ve been getting attended to effectively. So I can say the current public relations officer is doing well, you know. But then I’ve seen some area of improvement on my part that I intend to do better on if elected.
UCJ: Okay. Just to put a quick contrast between his plans and yours, what exactly are your plans for the union?
Adekanmbi Ezekiel: Okay, one of my plans for the union is to redefine what public relation is. Because I believe that a lot of students have the perception that public relations is just about creating a WhatsApp group, forwarding messages and sharing contents. It starts from idea conceptualization. The moment you conceptualize your idea, your graphics, and the content you are sharing with the general students, are they what they want? Are they resonating with the general students? So these are part of my plan. I want to bring in a new dynamic. I also intend to be able to teach, not necessarily being the one to teach it but to give a seminar to everybody or those interested on the best way to carry out their works. I also want to further influence the perception of the student union. So that all students can see the union in a positive light.
UCJ: Let’s assume now that you are elected the PRO, and there is a major protest going on, or say, there is a controversial decision that was taken by the student union executive body and the students are not happy with it. What do you think is your role as a Public relations officer?
Adekanmbi Ezekiel: Okay, number one, if there is a protest going on, one thing I believe about protests is the fact that, like the three Cs of Aluta says consultation, consolidation and confrontation. I believe so much in the fact that we can always find a way to reach our goals. As a pblic relations officer, in case there is a protest, one of the things I intend to do is to always inform the general populace on what is going on.
Transparency is key in public relations. And there are some times where students are dissatisfied, not necessarily with what is going on, but because they are not carried along in the process. So if I’m the Public Relations Officer, I will make sure that the general students are carried along, they know what is going on, and they are going to know the approach that the student is taking to combat the situation.
UCJ: Still on the issue of protest, protest was done for ABH students regarding the light issue and I believe you participated in the process, yes? After the protest we began seeing pictures of aspirants and student politicians publicizing images of them participating in the protest and this is can be easily interpreted of them exploiting the plights of the students for their own political gains and you also participated in this protest so i would like to ask you what motivated your participation in the in the protest is it of genuine concern or was it a political strategy
Adekanmbi Ezekiel: No, it is of genuine concern because I believe so much in the fact that we should not politicize a grave situation So, 82 days without light is a very grave situation and students cannot cope with that, me going there to participate in the protest is of genuine reason. You get to at least be able to solidarize and at least make sure that our grievance are known to the appropriate authorities. And then, like I said, it is not a political move for me. It is not political at all.
And then, even ever since my 100 level days, I’ve always been participating in one or two demonstrations. So far, it is right. Okay, so me now going in 300 level because I’m running for student union doesn’t mean it is politicized. It is what I’ve always been doing as a student leader that cares about the university of Ibadan students.
UCJ: So let’s assume that you’re not running for a position now, you’re in Communication and Language Arts, you stay in Indy Hall, so technically, if you don’t have that humanitarian mindset, you might feel like you’re not concerned with what is going on in ABH. So assuming that you’ve never been a student leader, would you still have gone for the protest?
Adekanmbi Ezekiel: Okay, first of all, ABH is an extension of the University of Ibadan, they should not be alienated from anything in particular, they are all University of Ibadan students. So even if I’m not a student leader, like I said, even when I was in 100 level, I was not holding any position in particular, I always participated in one demonstration or the other so far it is right. An insult on one is an insult to all. As a well meaning university of Ibadan student, I will still be there to show my grievance. Even if I’m not a politician, I have brothers there, I have sisters there, I have my friends that are there. My former roommate, when I was in level 200, he’s there. There was a time we were talking and he was like, even going to ABH has totally affected his business. So even if I’m not a politician or anything, I will still be there at least in solidarity with our people over there.
UCJ: When we were discussing earlier, we set the precedent that there is a disconnect between the student perception and what the union actually is. We would also like to ask you that when you notice this kind of disconnection, what strategies would you use to ensure that information reaches all students including those who are not actively engaged? What strategies would you deploy to make sure that information reaches all students?
Adekanmbi Ezekiel: Okay, like I said, one of my approaches in making sure that information reaches all students is the course rep group creation. Another new thing I plan to do is inclusion. Yes, inclusion is very important in public relations, no part should be left out. I plan to bring some other parts of the school that are a little bit alienated from this community, from this environment, to at least have representatives from there that will be members of the students union publicity team. Hostels like Ayodele Falase, Alexander Brown Hall, Abubakar Abdulsalam, and even the private hostels.
We are going to have members of these places that will be members of the publicity team in order that our information will still be getting there regardless of the disconnection. With that, the disconnection is definitely going to dissolve, when these people are active. This is in addition to other means that I have mentioned earlier, like combining the online means of public relations with the traditional means of letting people know about events, because definitely events have been going on in UI even before the advent of our phones. We’ve been having events and it has always been a success. Why it should be that it is now that we can successfully combine these things with our social media, that we should be having problems? Maybe we are relying too much on our social media, on our phone, so that’s why I said I will be combining both.
UCJ: Thank you so much, now beyond all these committees and boards, how do you intend to make sure that students voices are heard, like the students populace generally, their voices should be heard even if they don’t join any committee, so how do you intend to this, and also ensure that their concerns are also considered in the decision making?
Adekambi Ezekiel: One of the things I plan to do if elected is to have a feedback team, not just a form, but a team that can actively go out and get feedback from people on what is going on around. How best they think the Student Union can come in to alleviate what is going on in the school community. We are going to have a feedback team that will be going out monthly.
They go out and gather an aggregation of opinions and then they bring this back to us and we will work with it. I will also follow them, I will also follow them as the PRO. So, when we bring this opinion, we are going to aggregate it together. I’m going to present this before my executive members, the president and other executive council members. So, we are going to think about how best we can handle this and all
UCJ: What legacy do you intend to leave behind at the end of your tenure if elected?
Adekambi Ezekiel: I intend to be the public relation officer that would redefine what public relations is. I would like to show public relations in a better perspective, make students interested in knowing and in wanting to know more about the union. I also intend to be the PRO that successfully sparks that connection between the university of Ibadan students and the student union, so that, the students can know that the student union is ours and we are the student union. So, we have to be involved in the activities of the union.
UCJ: Thank you very much Mr. Ezekiel, we have come to the end of the interview. Thank you for your time.
Adekanmbi Ezekiel: Thank you so much.
• 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.
