Danger of bad precedents: Bringing to the fore (mis)deeds of Aweda-led Team Amelioration (Part II)

Dovetailing from the immediate previous editorial piece, once again, this editorial will start by reminding everyone of the importance of keeping history, the importance of keeping records, and most importantly knowing how to refer to them and make serious use of them. Hence, the importance and significance of history, cannot just be over-emphasised, and in cases where or when it seems as though, it has been over-emphasised, it can only point to certain perilous reality, such as; public drowsiness, or a condition of public transience, a public negligent attitude, which are all socially and communally catastrophic. Transience is a condition that Harvard Health Publishing on their website describes as, the tendency to forget facts or event time. However, from observations, it is clear that lack of adequate and accurate knowledge and a proper education are the vector-carrying agents that threaten the sanity and all-round development of any community, society, or country. 

It is enough maladministration on its own that the UNION’s executive council, have not taken it as a very cogent priority that all students must at least be informed basically on matters of the UNION’s constitution, and what it means to be a member of the UNION. After all, every single student of the University of Ibadan that, by virtue of paying their school fees, is a financial, and by further implication a bonafide member of the UNION. Therefore, it is the duty and obligation of the executive council to see to it, that every member is informed as much as possible. The University of Ibadan is not the inheritance of some set of people, neither is it their personal belonging, it is an institution that is publicly and communally owned, and specifically, in the case of the University of Ibadan, it is also a national property, hence, the incident that occurs in the University of Ibadan should be regarded as a national impacting consequential incidents. It is not to operate on the whims of personal inclinations and non-democratic policies and conduct.

And that is why, federal and public institutions equally own a Student Union Government body, also known as SUG. The reason for this is a no-brainer, it is a government-owned institution, and by a further implication, Nigeria running a democratic government, the policies enacted or executed in the University of Ibadan, must be democratic, not according to the opinion of some set of people, but inline with the constitution of the federal republic of the University of Ibadan. Starting with, Section 1 (1) of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution, states that “This Constitution is supreme and its provisions shall have binding force on the authorities and persons throughout the Federal Republic of Nigeria.” The management of the University is not outside the jurisdiction stated clearly in that part of the Nigerian constitution. In Section 1 (3) of the Nigerian Constitution, also states that “If any other law is inconsistent with the provisions of this Constitution, this Constitution shall prevail, and that other law shall, to the extent of the inconsistency, be void.”, this further points out to the fact, the University of Ibadan cannot just make arbitrary policies, or policies that attempt to undermine the expressive freedom of Nigerians, as seen in the preamble of the constitution:

…And to provide for a Constitution for the purpose of promoting the good government and welfare of all persons in our country, on the principles of freedom, equality and justice, and for the purpose of consolidating the unity of our people

That is it right there, on the principles of freedom, equality and justice, and furthermore in Chapter II Section 14 (1) of the Nigerian Constitution states that, “The Federal Republic of Nigeria shall be a State based on the principles of democracy and social justice.” Subsection 2 of the same section further has it like this: “It is hereby, accordingly, declared that: (a) “sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria from whom government through this Constitution derives all its powers and authority;”. So if any President of the UNION is slightly short of the full understanding of this knowledge, it is only a matter of very short time before the UNION degenerates into what its current state is at the moment, especially under this, Bolaji Aweda’s regime.

The need for the public to understand that the work, duty, calling, and obligations of the Press in any society, have nothing to do with the attacking of persons, but instead, to serve as a draft of and for history, to point out, to correct and remind all for progressive development, can in no way be over-emphasised. If Bolaji Aweda, or any other Public Officers, were just class reps or course reps instead, or probably just a student, the chances of mentioning their names are -1 (+1) literally speaking. However, every public office is a public concern that affects the lives of individuals. A very good instance that can be cited is the issue of fee-hike that equally occurred at the Obafemi Awolowo University, at Ife, Osun state, not only did the students protest against the fee-hike, but they saw to it that the inflated prices of the school fees were totally reversed. OsunDefender, a News Agency, reports this on their website: “The management of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Osun State, has reportedly suspended the proposed 50% increase in tuition fees, following a series of intense negotiations with the university’s Students’ Union.”, When you read this news, the effort of their Student’s Union’s President and Secretary-General, Omoboriowo Isaac, and, Babatimehin Kinfeosi, was overtly seen. This standing up to the duties of a public office that have been done by the student’s public officers of the Obafemi Awolowo University, has no doubt, affected the individual lives of the public directly, in this case, a positive effect. The insensitivity and ineptitude of the Aweda-led, Amelioration administration, have led to the truncating of certain individuals’ destinies. Students have not been able to either continue or further their education as a result of the uselessness of an administration. Hence, it is not about the person, but about the implications of the doings and undoing from that public office the person occupies

Now, on July 17, 2024, a protest broke out at the University of Ibadan, of which the main cause of the protest was basically as a result of an earlier released memo that went viral. The memo contained that, the University Management planned to ration the electricity supply on campus. This memo met with an instant, nearly spontaneous reaction, that led to the first protest at the University of Ibadan since 2017. Now, it is quite very important to note and remember that, the Executive Council was silent throughout the release of the memo on electricity rationing up till the protest broke out on its own. Not a single word, or reaction from the so-called students’ leadership, whose obligation is supposed to be to look out for the welfare of students. However, before that July 17 electricity rationing protest, remember that there had been student-problem-related issues on ground already, the matter of the unjustified fee hike, being the most paramount, or better still the one piece that caused the domino effect-like events. Freshers had found it very difficult and almost impossible to pay the hiked school fees, which were revealed before the end of the Host-led Administration, of which the agitation for the fall of fees had begun since then, and negotiations kick-started. In fact, resolving this issue was what led to the Congress deciding to suspend the elections till a solution was reached, and counter-Congress overruling the decision of a previous Congress. Then, the problem persisted till the inauguration ceremony when and where the origin of the UI 3 (the arrest of Nice Linus, Mide Gbadegesin, and Ayodele Aduwo) saga took a more definite form. So, the UI Student Union’s President, the supposed leader, never said a word or addressed the issue till the outbreak of the first protest at the University of Ibadan since 2017.

So, when it seemed obvious, and rather inevitable that the Union had to answer to the school authority, as it was more than obvious, that the newly elected members of the executive council, led by Bolaji Aweda, laid passive incognito. The most bewildering and annoying turn of events was that a protest the Union did not call for, the Union had such boldness and a very high level of maximum disrespect and disregard to release a statement, calling off the protest, and telling students to go back to class (accepting defeat literally speaking), and sort for any means to pay the unpayable amount of school fees. Talking more about disregard and betrayal, a series of protests ensued after the July 17 protest, and everyone is aware of it. However, a consensus was made on the ground of the protest, at that time, the SUB foyer, which was in summary, that since the persons of the leadership steering the affairs of the Student Union, for some reason, could not confront the University’ management, as it was obvious, which most likely heavily hanged on the fact that the leadership is heavily plagued with a deep seething ignorance, some other firmer students, would be chosen right there, to consolidate further the representation of students during the negotiation. However, about an hour to the set meeting time, Bolaji Aweda, disappeared from the SUB foyer. He had sneaked away, leaving protesting students at the SUB Foyer, and went on his own accord to the Senate Chamber to commence negotiation. Bolaji Aweda’s betrayal today has led to the dropping out of school of many students, the campus of the University of Ibadan, is quite noticeably light, compared to what it used to be. More 3000 University of Ibadan students are currently debtors, just because they want to get educated. While Bolaji Aweda’s counterpart fought for the public, Aweda was busy, sabotaging the future and destinies of the public, betraying and releasing the most despicable of memo any Student Union Executive Council should never release. 

It is to this end that the importance for student leaders to first know, then understand thoroughly, and what it means to be a student leader cannot be over-emphasised. In fact, understanding portions of the Nigerian Constitution and the Union’s Constitution should become a litmus-paper test for all potential student leaders.