As part of its efforts to provide credible reports and reviews of candidates and the electoral process of the University of Ibadan Students’ Union (UISU), the Union of Campus Journalists, University of Ibadan (UCJ UI), under its Election Watchroom Initiative, interviewed Yusuf Ibrahim, an aspirant for the position of General Secretary. In this interview, Ibrahim discusses his motivation for contesting, his plans for the union, student activism, protests, transparency in negotiations with university management, student congress, political participation and other issues affecting student unionism.
UCJ: Good evening. Welcome to the UCJ’UI Election Watchroom. To start with, can you kindly introduce yourself?
Yusuf Ibrahim: So, my name is Yusuf Ibrahim. I am a resident of Ransome Kuti Hall.
UCJ: So, why did you want to run for the position of General Secretary?
Yusuf Ibrahim: Firstly, to me, leadership is more than just a position. Leadership is an opportunity to actually effect the changes you want to see, and currently, I am a three-time legislator, both in the faculty and hall of residence. Being a legislator has actually made me understand that students actually need to know what is going on and what you are doing. As a legislator, you are representing a particular constituency. So, you actually need to know what you are doing, what you plan to do and everything. And that is what led to the movement, the SYNC, which basically means to synchronise. What we plan to do is to synchronise the student union with the students actually serving, you know, to provide a better and more connected union.
And why the Office of General Secretary? Normally, traditionally, people see the Office of General Secretary as just, you know, the secretary in charge of correspondence and traditional responsibilities given to the union constitution. At time, we plan to do better, and I see the Office of General Secretary as the right office. So, I will try to synchronise this union.
UCJ: You talked about the SYNC movement. So, the question is, are you running to represent the students or to manage students’ perception of the student union?
Yusuf Ibrahim: We are going to be doing this. We are also going to both, as a representative of the students, we are going to represent the students to the best of our abilities and also, I want to use this opportunity, if I get elected, to change the students’ perspective of the student union. Oftentimes, whenever I meet with students by the roadside, I ask them questions about what they feel about the union. Some students just feel like they don’t know about it. They just want to vote and forget about the union. We are also planning to change the perspective of the students about the union and also try our best to serve them.
UCJ: If I may ask you, what’s the perception of students about the union? What do you think students—what do you think about the student union?
Yusuf Ibrahim: Not every student, or quite a number of students I’ve actually met, random students, what is my perception I think they have about the union is just that they are just there. They are like, their activities don’t impact their lives. That whatever they do doesn’t impact them. It doesn’t impact their academics, or they are not just representing them. They are just there for their own, you know. Some people will be telling you that when you get there, you don’t really know about the student union. And that’s one of the things that we will be doing if elected.
UCJ: What’s your understanding about student activism?
Yusuf Ibrahim: My understanding of student activism, from the world of activism, is actually, like, you need to represent students, and you need to fight for their rights using the law and other means available.
UCJ: If you are elected and during the course of your administration, students are ready to protest against an unjust policy, but the university management threatens sanctions and you are asked to discourage students from going ahead with the protest, what will be your reaction?
Yusuf Ibrahim: What will be my reaction? Firstly, before there can be any protest, there is going to be a dialogue. We are going to speak to the management about the policy they introduced and how it is going to affect the students. After that, if it doesn’t result in anyway—if they don’t try to ease the policy or change it or anything—then one of the next steps is to protest. If elected as General Secretary, we are going to have a meeting with the Executive Council. The Executive Council is going to have a meeting and discuss how we are going to address the issue, whether we are going to continue the protest or not.
UCJ: So, what will be your reaction? Being the third person in the union, being the third officer in the union in hierarchy, what would be your position? Would you risk facing disciplinary action, or are you going to allow the injustice to prevail just by playing safe?
Yusuf Ibrahim: If the management should ask us to suppress the protest, they are going to address the students. The more important reason why we are elected as the executives of the Student Union is to fight for the rights of students, to represent them. I don’t think currently—I don’t have—my opinion will change. We are not going to ban them from the protest. There are other ways to go about it. We can meet government officials to appeal to the student management. We are all students here, and no one wants to get dismissed from the university. So, there are other ways to go about it. We can meet with government officials to appeal to the student management.
UCJ: To broaden that question, let’s say you had a family meeting with the management, and in the course of the dialogue with the university management, the management has rejected student demand, but the president instructs you to tell students that the negotiations are progressing well. What would be your reaction?
Yusuf Ibrahim: First of all, I was instructed by the president, the head of the Executive Council, to convey a message to the students. I’m going to do as he said, and that would even be the best thing to do. You know, sometimes you don’t have to, like, review the whole process. So, the people you are serving, once they know the stage where you have such a critical issue, a critical matter like that, you get to know. It’s not even just from the plan that you have for them. So, it’s best to just tell them that there’s negotiations. Negotiations are still going on.
UCJ: You are saying that you are going to share a misleading statement just to risk conflict with the students, the Executive Council. Is that what you are saying?
Yusuf Ibrahim: The main reason why I said I’m going to do as the president said is because while we say that, while we tell the students that negotiations are still going on, we are still going to explore other options available to us to make sure that whatever they want gets to them.
UCJ: The student union leadership has become more interested in protecting their relationship with the university management than defending the students.
Yusuf Ibrahim: One of the major reasons why I contested for this was to fight for the rights of students, to make sure that they know what’s going on and that students are not treated badly on campus, and if the activities of the student union and the way the student union is moving is not moving towards that objective, I can’t agree with that.
UCJ: Another question that looks like that is, if the management invites the union to discuss or to have a dialogue after students have mobilised against a policy or an issue, but no concrete consensus follows, should the union call the meeting a progress or tell the students nothing has changed?
Yusuf Ibrahim: I will still stand on the answer I gave you earlier. Once it is not final, that the university has not said that there is nothing to tell about it, we are still going to study student complaints and we are still working on it.
That is still progress.
UCJ: What’s your position about student congress?
Yusuf Ibrahim: Student congress?
UCJ: Yeah.
Yusuf Ibrahim: Calling congress is very important. Even in my manifesto, it’s one of the plans that we tend to have.
But it’s not going to be congress. We are going to be having town hall meetings, where we will get to have feedback from students and tell them about what’s going on on campus, what we are discussing with the management, and everything like that.
