By: Utibe Emmanuel 

On Saturday, the 7th of October 2023, during the plenary section of the University of Ibadan Student Representative Council (UI’SRC), the President of the University of Ibadan’s Student Union (UI SU) Samson Tobiloba, delivered a state of the union address to the house as regards the activities of the Union so far.

In his address, he spoke firstly on the success of the recently concluded UI’SU Freshers Welcome Week, which saw various activities like the Freshers rally, gyration amongst others.

He then proceeded to speak on the Student Union building, which he said has witnessed massive cleanup and also seen the toilets, reading room and viewing centre reopened. The President noted that they would be reopened with a FIFA/PES challenge.

On the SU ventures, he thanked the UI’SRC for the initial approval to the ventures which has seen them secure a physical space for the ventures and also settle others things.

But he then went on to make a request for the house to deliberate on giving an approval for the Union to try and secure another sum of money to fully kickstart the venture.

On the issue with school fees, Host said the union has been able to achieve a zero increment to the basic fee but then as regards the other additional fees introduced by the school, he said the union means resolute in their bid to make sure all such fees fall and he urged everybody to stand with the union.

The President then proceeded to talk about the issues of the union buses which he revealed would be sold and then the proceeds added to sponsorship from the alumni could be used to buy a new bus or tricycles to generate revenue for the union.

On the issue of general welfare, he said the SU was involved in making sure that the issues of light which plagued several halls of residence and even a case of flooding was duely addressed.

The President also said that the Union has meet iTEMS as regards the issue of providing WIFI for the technology fee we have been paying for the 3 years since they stopped providing that service.

He said that while iTEMs would still provide the regular 10gb the students usually recieve while they are still working on getting it back up. Then on the prices of Food, he said the Union had a meeting with the cafeteria people and told them to put a hold to the move for increments. He said the Union is still working on sending out a union approved list of prices.

Lastly on the call for Congress, he acknowledged the receipt of the letter by over 306 signatories but then, he has been able to only verify only 126 out of the said signatories and the difficulty with verifying the rest signatories was because they did not include their contact details with the letter.

He said on his part what was left is either the UI’SRC moves to pass a resolution for a Congress or effort be made to verify all signatories so as to ensure due process is followed and we avoid having a Congress which would be later termed illegitimate.

The President then concluded with an appreciation for the students and the UI’SRC but then still called for more support to the union.