Dear UITEs, the 2024/2025 session was a run for you, and we are here to remind you of it all.
From the end of the last session to now, things have gone south, and you let them; we have receipts.
To give a rough estimate, things went south a total of 10–20 times, in fact, we could say 50 times, but we’d bring only the important ones to your screen today.
Your Top Miserable Moments Summarised
Miserable Moment #1: The 2023/2024 electioneering process was a total mess.
We know this is supposed to be the wrap for this session, but a throwback won’t hurt, would it?
As always, the 2023/2024 electioneering process was organised by commissioners who were appointed by the school management, a clear reminder that our SU will always be under heavy influence of the management. Whether you have a student union or a caretaker committee your interests will largely be at the mercy of the management. From the selection of the commissioners to the approval of their budget, everything happened without the input of the student population, but it’s not something you aren’t used to. This, however, doesn’t mean that it isn’t wrong.
But unlike every electioneering process, last session’s election had a twist — electoral violence. Maybe you’ve only read about it in civic textbooks, or you saw it on Channels TV. The last session aimed to give you real-life lessons and it did. This clash mainly involved Zik and Indy Hall, who seemed to have the highest stake in the election.
In case you need help putting your thoughts together, we’d help you out. The violence that rocked last year’s election was an indication of how much disregard U and I have shown towards the basic principles of democracy.
A lot of violent acts were perpetrated on the day of that election, but do you know what didn’t happen? The people you threw stones at said nothing about it. Not one thing. You were on your own. It was that same election you threw punches and stones for that led to the emergence of our very own Auspicious Team.
The SRC election, which followed a week later, saw you vote in people you couldn’t vouch for or even say anything about as your representatives at the SU level — but that is a subject for another time. After the SRC election, Nice Linus emerged as the Majority Leader of Awo Hall, but was arbitrarily removed by the Deputy Registrar of the school. And you said nothing. I know, it’s hard to speak up against evil when you don’t know it was evil.
But let’s say we permit your initial ignorance, how about after we schooled you through various press reports, telling you that Nice Linus had been removed unfairly? Or maybe the court pronouncement that was blatantly ignored by the university management and SRC? But how can I judge you? Your leaders failed you repeatedly on this issue, so you chose the back seat as you mostly do. First, Busoye Mathias Opegbemi, the then Speaker of the House, removed Nice Linus from the group of intending honourables of the 12th assembly immediately the school management said the word. This individual, who was supposed to help speak up for an Honourable and a UIte, made himself an available instrument for this injustice. And it was Rt. Honourable Shoge Quadri, a law student, who decided that the school management should be feared and revered over the federal high court. He also failed to reinstate Nice Linus as the majority leader of Awo, while giving the excuse of self-prescribed due process.
But they aren’t the only ones to blame, as even Awo Hall honourables, hypocritically called him out, yet failed to add her to their constituency group.
And when Nice Linus stepped into Trenchard Hall on to be inaugurated with her peers, she was dragged out by the Security Unit of UI and manhandled. When the UCJ tried to cover this, members of the press were assaulted (you probably thought that was what they deserved, right?). There were over 100 UITEs in that hall, including the honourables you voted for and the Auspicious Team (it was their inauguration after all). And you all sat and watched. The President continued with his speech, and when he was done he sat on the high table with the management. Was this a sign that he was no longer one of us?
And when the UCJ went to meet him repeatedly to let him know that members of the press were attacked with some of their phones seized, he chose to bask in the attention of his fans and take pictures, only giving us attention more than an hour after. But we understand, that was his big day too; there was no way he would let us ruin it.
Miserable Moment #2 You watched as your fellow students were victimised.
On May 13th, 2024, Aduwo Ayodele, Mide Gbadegesin and Nice Linus raised placards as a show of dissent towards the fee hike. And ever since then, they’ve been thrown into a cycle of Victimisation, one that peaked at four semester rustication. So what is your part in all of this? Complicity. In your head, you probably think, “Oh well, they knew what they were getting into when they raised their placard, and so there’s no need to sympathise with them.” This time, the executives and the Students’ Representatives Council left the bud. In fact, allegedly, during the CSDC when the verdict was given, Mr Covenant Odedele, the SU President, savoured the chicken and moimoi, caring less that students like himself, who did a better job than he did in speaking for UITEs, were being victimised.
If you think we judged too early, then this is for you: on getting inaugurated, one of the few things Covenant Odedele did was to announce that students who were unable to pay their fees or complete course registration, should write a letter to the Dean asking for the suspension of their session. A session that they had worked hard to complete.
Miserable Moment #3: Tokenism was the order of the day and you loved it.
You’ve always loved tokenism and past years have shown it, so when the Students’ leaders this session showed it to you, they didn’t have to shove it down your throat because you did so yourselves. Here are some of the times you dined and wined on tokenism like it was no man’s business.
In July, when the Council of Hall Chairpersons and Faculty Presidents asked you to fill forms on whether you wanted hall dues to be increased, you jumped on that offer because you heard “more parties,” “a nice JCR,” “PA system for your LLT,” and so on and so forth. All of these things (except for parties) should ordinarily be covered by your school fees, hostel fees, or utility fees. But your hall chairs and faculty presidents are too scared to speak up for you and ask for the barest minimum, so they lobby you to accept a fee increment as a temporary solution to these problems.
Every single time an aspirant in your hostel, faculty, or department told you they’d provide teaching materials, you thought they were doing wonderful things. However, you failed to realise they were helping the management set a precedent. The management probably said to themselves, “Their executives provided markers and cleaned the blackboards; we don’t have to take up that duty anymore.” And before you know it, you are commending your executives for buying one marker when you could get a thousand more if they spoke up and addressed things the better way.
You also accepted tokenism when you accepted NELFund as an alternative to affordable education. Your executives will tell you that encouraging students to take NELFund is not the same as encouraging a fee hike. However, you don’t have to outrightly encourage a thing before it can be said that you did. It is enough that you tacitly encouraged it for us to infer. The SU executives did not make things better when they took ₦2 million out of the Student Union dues and used it for a bursary for 37 students out of thousands who couldn’t pay their school fees.
Miserable Moment #4 Financial Misappropriation is the New Norm
The one thing that never disappoints in UI’SU is financial wahala. Every session, like clockwork, something goes missing. Money grows wings. Budgets start shape-shifting. Excos start doing “projects” nobody approved, and after all the noise? Nothing happens. Life goes on. Because you, dear UItes, have made peace with nonsense.
This session was no different accusations of misappropriation rocked the Auspicious Team — funds that didn’t match the receipts, expenditures that didn’t match the projects, and excuses that didn’t match common sense.
And while the disciplinary committee of the SRC—you vote in without much thought—presented a finding of procedural breeches instead of financial misconduct, the point is you have remained compliant in enabling the “procedural breeches” of the executives you elected. But wait, can we really blame you? For even the SRC, your direct representatives refused to assign appropriate sanctions for so called procedural breeches. Instead, people found guilty received community service that was prone to be used as a “we are a proactive Union, see as we were here on the road to avert what would have been a major accident”. But they know who they can deceive—you.https://www.ucjui.com/uisu-president-gen-sec-and-treasurer-cleared-of-financial-misconduct-sanctioned-for-constitutional-breaches/
Miserable Moment #5: You Spit on Democracy
Let’s talk about democracy — or whatever remains of it.
Under Covenant Odedele’s administration, congresses were treated like optional chores. One congress was cancelled arbitrarily by the Executive Council, as if democracy is something you postpone the way you postpone washing. It was a complete disregard for democratic process, but very on-brand for this generation of UI politics.
Then the electoral commission happened, just like the 2023/2024 session, the 2024/2025 session repeated the same insult: students did not choose their electoral commissioners. Instead, people were picked quietly, strategically, and politically, including individuals with past political affiliations. We’ve heard you say that it’s not that deep, we concur. It’s not that deep because you repeatedly pick the shallow end.
We only have all these problems because you vote for people who cannot stand up to management, cannot defend the constitution, cannot protect democratic rights, and cannot hold anyone accountable. Yes — you.You who vote based on hall endorsements, vibes, friendships, etc. You who want “intellectual unionism-president,” “fine-boy house secretaries,” and “hall chairs with cruise.”
Miserable Moment #6: You Demonise the Press
Of course, how could we forget this? At this point, dragging the press is a hobby for you. You forget that if not for the same press, half of you would still be walking in ignorance, believing everything the management and their mouthpiece (the SU executives) tell you without blinking.
This session alone, you dragged the press for everything — from reporting the injustices you ignored, to pointing out the hypocrisy you supported, to reminding you of the things your leaders didn’t want you to remember. Instead of asking why the system is broken, you asked why the press reported that it was broken. Classic UItes behaviour.
Many times you’ve referred to the press as “biased.” and to be disregarded. The only time you praised the press was when they reported your faculty’s dinner pictures — stunning behaviour.
Because let’s be honest: you only like the press when they are hyping your hall week, covering your pageantry, or posting your birthday pictures. The moment they do their actual job, the journalism you claim to study during elections, you demonise them like they are the problem, not the system that has held your union hostage for years.
But the funniest part? You demonise the press… and then run to them when you need someone to expose your lecturer, your executive, or your hall chairman.You hate them publicly but beg them privately. A tale as old as UI.
In all, you repeatedly enabled your executives and legislators to lead you astray, so we can’t pin the blame on just them. Your wrap says you have a huge part to play in this, and this has left the student union in a miserable state.
Don’t feel bad, misery loves company and you are company. Sufferhead no dey pass like this. You’ve been into sufferhead since the SU was reinstated, so we understand.
Your Top Moment
Your top miserable moment? Demonising the press. You did that a total of X times. X being every time we wrote an article that called out the failings of your executives. Cheers!! Dedication doesn’t come in any better form.
Your Fan Club?
All of your Miserable Moments made you part of something bigger: A typical Nigerian, docile and enabling in the face of bad leadership.
The Complicit Club
Role: You are a follower. While you take the back seat in everything about your interest, you are complicit to a fault, and it will get you nowhere.
You are in great company as 95% of UITEs are in this group with you.
Our Prediction
It’s another election period, and depending on who you vote for, the next session will be another miserable rise, this time, worse than you’d ever see. They say failure builds character, but for you, it doesn’t; you’ve repeatedly chosen questionably. You’ve chosen questionably because you let your hall decide for you, because you’ve let surface-level thinking decide for you, and if you do again, you’d be letting things go south.
