Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
The ban imposed on Students’ Union Government (SUG) in the University of Ibadan in the past two years has been lifted to allow the conduct of elections for the students’ body during the 2018/2019 academic session.
The ban was lifted by the Senate of the institution at its meeting held on August 30, 2019, during which the Dean of Students in the university, Prof Adekeye Abiona, made a passionate appeal to lift the ban.
Students’ union activities in the premier university had been proscribed by the institution’s Senate of the Premier University of Ibadan had on May 30, 2017 suspended Students’ union activities till further notice following a protest over the delay in the issuance of digitized identity cards.
Making the proposal to lift the ban, Abiona told the Senate that the UI Students’ Disciplinary Committee, aftermath of the violent protest on the identity card, 140 students were tried in connection, adding that some are still serving their punishment, while others were acquitted.
Abiona stated: “The Students’ Affairs Division will ensure that a purposeful leadership of students emerges by raising the bar of eligibility, organisation of pre-election workshop and post-election leadership retreat for winners.
“Most of the former union leaders fingered in the protest had shown enough remorse and have indicated the desire to uphold the rules and regulations and cooperative with the university administration.”
On May 30, 2017 the students had staged the protest on the grounds that the university’s management was unable to provide identity cards for three semesters, despite payments made by them. They also protested an order by the management against the use electrical kitchen appliances in the halls of residence.
Prof Isaac Adewole, issued the order in 2013 when he was vice chancellor of UI. But the then administration, according to the students, provided cooking appliances in the halls of residence. The students complained then that the appliances were bad then, leaving them with no option but to buy kerosene which was too expensive.
The then SUG President, Ojo Aderemi, was suspended for some semesters barely two years after the protest, when the SDC concluded its sittings on the matter. Then, he was a 300-Level student of the Department of History, Faculty of Arts. He was found guilty of conducting an illegal congress of the union, leading a protest and breaking the glass of an office while a lecturer was inside, though Ojo denied the allegations.
As gathered, Ojo, who was elected President of SUG in UI on April 29, 2017, was sworn in on May 8, and the protest was staged on May 29, while the union was suspended on May 30.