Substituting Students’ Congress For Stakeholders’ Meeting: Plot to Strip Students of Their Constitutional Power
Oluwatayo Ogundare
An ideal students’ unionism in the university runs on democracy. In the thought of Abraham Lincoln, it’s a system of government of the people, by the people and for the people. Students’ unionism is a platform for students to collectively voice their concerns, promote their welfare and engage in governance within their institutions. With democracy, students can either make their voices known through the right to vote and be voted for during an election or through participating in the students’ congress to discuss concerning issues.
The students’ congress is an assembly of students within a university or tertiary institutions, where issues affecting the students body are discussed and deliberated upon. The congress holds absolute political power and ensures prevailing issues are attended to. However, it seems the idea of upholding a relevant Students’ congress in the university of Ibadan is gradually fading and going into extinction.
The trend in UI now is that student leadership always tries to avoid congress, which is the highest decision making body of the students, or manipulate the resolutions of the congress in order to conform with the dictates of the university management. It’s a harmless general meeting of students. However, in the UI student leadership landscape, they always opt for an unknown, strange and foreign idea of stakeholders meeting where a handful of selected students gather to decide for the mass of students. This is said to be undemocratic and alien to the founding ideal of unionism. This has been the watchword across different halls of residence, faculties, and the university at large.
Perhaps, maybe we need to jog our memories on the importance of students’ congress in the university. Just like it has been emphasized earlier, the students’ congress is the highest decision making body of the students and its resolutions are always subjected to no alterations. It’s the platform that allows for the equal representation of students when addressing important issues that may range from academic challenges to welfare and other infrastructural needs e.g tuition fee, cost of transportation, unnecessary charges by vendors, etc. Through various students’ congresses in the University of Ibadan, students have been able to call the union executives into order and a lot of ordeals facing the students’ body have been managed.
Academic critics have emphasized the role of students’ congress as a training ground for showcasing leadership and negotiation skills. It’s an open space for students to evaluate the leaders they elect in offices based on their responsiveness to issues and respective ideologies. It also promotes accountability and transparency within the student leadership structure. It’s an avenue for student leaders to be accountable and answerable to the students they represent. Congress is always a call up session for student leaders to showcase why and how they’ve been representing the students.
Hence, the few selected who think they have the majority influence cannot act in these positions on behalf of the students. This begs the question of who the real stakeholders are in the University of Ibadan. The few majority or the entire students’ body? The faculty presidents, SRC majority leaders and other few selected or is it the entire students’ body? Perhaps, maybe our student leaders need to revisit the constitution henceforth before calling for the next stakeholders’ meeting.
