Those who live with the aged ones in the village will remember the word of the wise that says “a god that cannot uplift one should not demote one.” The 5 years sojourn of the University of Ibadan Students’ Union is like that of a child who keeps growing but can not help itself stand on its toes, hence, he has to crawl.
As we keep adding days to our age, we feel we are growing; having four successive administrations with the successors not matching up with the predecessors. This reflects the saying that the king that ensured the town was coordinated and peaceful during his reign will never be forgotten; also a king that did otherwise and witnessed the town becoming a forest or desert will also not be forgotten. Just like the great philosophers, Socrates and Aristotle, have said that the most brutal of dictators are those who misuse opportunities.
Tokunbo Salako (T.Cool) and his Pathfinder team would always be remembered for being a compatriot, giving the students a voice; not allowing the rights of the students to be trampled upon thought the administration did not end without expressing the intoxication of power on the press, some members of his cabinet and some other individuals on campus.
The sophomore team will forever be remembered for what he has done even though some people still credit his success to the voluntary Students’ Union dues he collected. Ekhator Raymond Edosa, a medical student who many belittled and thought could not produce the faintest voice for the union made the loudest voice at a point and had sore throat that seals the voice at another point in time.
The sophomore team who came into power after the 31st March, 2012 election remembered the first student matyr, Adekunle Adepeju with a programme that glows the tribute and reviving the team spirit; the current SUB reading can never be overlooked when talking about his administration but the last minute revolt on the non-cooking policy, poor coordination of the Kunle Adepeju Scholarship and notorious security challenges which topped the priority list of his predecessor marred his administration.
The two years of moulding and feeding the infant Students’ Union was over. During the third year, we needed to walk like a giant in a unified form; it became the time to start growing in length and weight had come. But our feet lost it strength like that of an over-fed broiler in a poultry farm.
The Commander-in-chief of all Aluta forces, our own Mushin boy, Babatunde Badmus, was waiting in earnest to unite us after winning at the polls. He started his administrative irresponsibility when he created faceless executive members “cabinet 2” for the Union. The power-drunk president runs an administration of self-centredness, ego wars, negligence and hypocrisy. He tried to cover up his entire misdeed in a book he called a souvenir for the compulsory payment of the Students’ Union due.
Most of the students in the so-called “Urban area” rushed to lick a hot soup without thinking of the consequences, adding to it religious sentiments by voting Odesola Victor who leads the Redemption Team. From the word redemption, a lot of people thought now that our union has left the hands of those who could not create unity among eight students left alone 20,000 students, our union’s image will glow from height to heights but their wishes were not roses that could be easily plucked from the plants.
He has followed the footsteps of his predecessors and has done even worse than him. Can we overlook the N500,000 given to the students on 28th August, 2012 or the recent one that was given during the election to buy the students votes? No financial report has been published since the inception of his administration and the Students’ Representative Council (SRC) audit committee are still sleeping with saliva coming out from their mouth. Why won’t they be sleeping if the speaker is not corrupt?
If at all it is stressful to keep publishing financial report of the union every month, at least we deserve to know what happened to the sky scrapping budget for the S.U week that was slashed down by the SRC. Up to this moment, the redemption team felt we owe them no explanation on how the money was spent on the S.U week that has generated a litany of complaints.
If this is the Students’ Union the University of Lagos has observed and convinced themselves that they can experiment on their campus, then the question is what is worthy of emulating during the 5-year journey because if you have to eat a frog, at least eat the one that has eggs.
UISU 5-YEAR JOURNEY-ANYTHING TO EMULATE?
