Ojo Aderemi, president of the University of Ibadan Students’ Union, says there will be no examinations in the school until identity cards are provided by the university authorities.
Aderemi, who spoke at a press conference in Lagos, over the weekend, says the school authorities has been unable to provide ID cards for students for three consecutive semesters, despite receiving payment.
He said students have been harassed, some have missed scholarship opportunities for the lack of proper means of identification.
“As regards that (ID cards), the power we rely on is the power of democracy. I can assure you that exams will not be written in that school if they (students) don’t get ID cards,” Aderemi said.
“Basically, for these reasons: There are several students on campus who have been assaulted and embarrassed of campus on these issue of ID cards. Secondly, there are students who are supposed to receive scholarships who couldn’t scan their ID cards and send, even outside Nigeria.
“I have friends, one of them is here, he went to Boston to represent the country, that $8,000 was going to be disbursed from Hultz Business School, but they don’t have ID cards to claim it. Students are really angry.
“It is not our own doing. We inherited this crisis, and we have tried our best.”
He added that himself and the leaders of the students’ union and students’ representative councils are now targets of victimisation by the authorities, but expressed optimism on the return of the suspended union.
“As regards the suspension of the students’ union, by every legitimate means, the union will be brought back,” he said.
“I cannot survive in a university where there is no union. I can’t. It’s not possible. But then as regards that suspension, its one of the easiest things to be done right now.
“The only issue is that we are targets. We haven’t committed any crime, we haven’t done anything but we are targets. So that is one of the future possibilities we are looking at.”
He added that the vice chancellor has shown that he is not ready to accept any form of dissent from the student fold, stating that he expelled a student for abusing him.
“When I eventually met the VC, I told him that students, the kind of view they have of this vice chancellor is that he is just a vice chancellor that doesn’t care; he would kick you out of the University if you raise a dissenting voice, which is what has been happening,” Aderemi added.
“These are academic individuals who blasted Goodluck Jonathan during and before the election. But then a student wrote an article on the students’ union page, on Facebook and the boy has been expelled right now.
“They said he abused the vice chancellor. Oh yes, he abused the vice chancellor but immediately showed remorse. Your father won’t expel you for being rude, he won’t kill you. Quite alright, it is wrong but the boy wrote a letter, involved his parents, prostrated to the vice chancellor.
“On the day of the student disciplinary committee, he was rolling on the ground, and he was expelled just like that.”
Asiwaju Ibrahim, the speaker of the students representative council, who spoke alongside Aderemi, said the students are yet to receive any notification from the school management on the suspension of the union.
He however added that the property of the union has been taken by the agents of the university authorities.
The university has been closed since last week Monday, after a peaceful protest by the students, regarding ID cards and better student welfare.
Copyright 2024 TheCable. All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from TheCable.
Follow us on twitter @Thecablestyle