Students’ Union: Ibadan University In Transition Again

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By Covenant Odedele

It is the Students’ Union election in the University of Ibadan, and it is not exactly breaking news. At the moment, the rumbustious campaigns for the Students’ Union offices are now ended— as the election is today. 

Prior to the present Akeju’s administration, there had been a two-year hiatus in student participation which was as a result of the ban of the Students’ Union in 2017. Also, in January 2020, the University alongside other Nigerian universities was closed down due to the pandemic, making the Adekunle Adepeju building a desolate ground. And in this year of our Lord, the election is revamped in all fierceness. This contest between Adeyinka ‘Mascot’ Adewole and Richard Oluwaseun Oladeji has raised debates among students. The two names who are stakeholders in the Akeju administration are not alien to the ears of those who have walked the surface of Ibadan’s first and best. Richard Oladeji served as the House Secretary while Adeyinka Adewole served as a committee chairman and while one looks like an eminent right-of-centre gentleman, the other poses to be an acknowledged and unrefined ‘alutan’

Variety is the spice of life, and as always, offers the latitude to select from a wide range of choices for those who deem fit. There are eight offices in the SU which are keenly contested for. The offices of the President, Vice-president, General Secretary, Assistant General Secretary, House Secretary, Sports Secretary, Treasurer and the Public Relations Officer. In previous years, these offices each are known to wield at least five aspirants but presently, tables have turned as there are just two or three tied to them, and four offices who are presently unopposed.

History has always been an answer to the many puzzling questions and would not fail, not even now. There have been many questions as to the importance of the union, and even the role it plays. Do we need a union? What is the worth of a union when it cannot champion the cause of students without any fear? The same routines are performed every year. Campaign. Presidential Debate. Manifesto Night. Elections and all. And these have left many with the opinion that nothing of substantial value has been achieved even with the Union in place, hereby breeding political apathy and indifference on the larger part of students. However, the popular truth about UI politics is that it is polarized, and there are hundreds of UItes who do not fall into these poles. It could be either they do not trust the judgement of the gladiators in the divergent poles or they just choose to be neutral. The basis of voting over the years has not yielded on right grounds making the best not always winning. Electorates do not vote based on the performance of the candidates, but by their cajoling and spending strength. In fact, the trend has been one of endorsement — by halls of residence and faculties, and nothing else. Manifesto nights have not manifested any form of intellectualism on the sides of the aspirants as, we witness this aimlessness and haphazard sense of purpose in our leaders.

Seeing that the UI SU has witnessed a series of bans, with the aspirants showing up yearly with a promise of resuscitation, it becomes important to weigh the decisions again. A mind that knows is a mind that is free, but how best do we express our freedom few days after October 1, except by knowing the way to be free? Would our born-again, 21st century candidates truly change the status quo and bring a broadened capacity for balanced judgement and a richer perception of the Students’ Union culture — which are all implicit in the University motto, ‘Recte Sapere Fons’? 

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