A comparative illustration; suppose rain washes a leopard’s spots away, then, perhaps, the ‘big cat’ could be mistaken for another. Maybe one could assume the washed leopard is a cat or a rat (anything is possible, you know). With the absent coated spots, a pet mom could decide to adopt it and treat it like a domestic cat. But a leopard will always be a leopard. Can the same be said of our union?
A union is an ideological association. Ideology is the defining feature of a union. It is essentially because of the benefits attached to the ideology that members of the union come together. It is on ideology that union members premise their actions. It is ideology that decides what the objectives of the union would clearly be.
A union is like a common pot, belonging to everyone. Someone, or some people prepare the food, and serve every other person. However, the food prepared was never theirs, so even the distribution of same would be done in accordance with generally accepted standards. In the same vein, the union is owned and controlled by its members, not the caterers engaged to prepare the common pot. In other words, the representatives are, in the real sense, servers.
A students’ union is meant to be a front for all students, owned and controlled by students. It is radically different from other associations. It is not a religious association, or social club. It is a UNION of aggregate interests. And a union should prioritize doing what a union does, not what a religious group or social club does.
For a students’ union, the defining ideology is one that puts its members first; that prioritizes its members’ intellectual needs, and is in the pursuit of social justice, not glitz and glamour. It is to social clubs to chase glamour. Social clubs compete on who can organize the most expensive soiree, whose Ojúde would stir social media, whose events would be most thrilling. It is for religious groups to make plans on how to endear their members to Friday Jimohs or Sunday Thanksgiving Services, in a bid to cater for the religious needs of their members.
However, the union’s track should lead to social justice. Its methods should be, always, conscientization and sensitisation. And its objective to revolve around bringing its members to the same page. The same way a Christian religious group envisages a future where each and every member could be trusted to explain and act on core religious values, and every Muslim group to bring every member to par with the Islamic beliefs, the vision of the union should bring every member to a common understanding of the students’ body core values. Whatever action or inaction by recruited union representatives, they tell the public how much of regard or disregard they have for the traditions and values of the union.
In the University of Ibadan, ‘Union Week’ has consistently developed a stir over the last three years. Budgets in millions in pretence to cater for the needs of thousands of UI students get rolled out on the floor of the Students’ Representative Council. The business of approving these budgets are then often so hastily conducted, because the Vice Presidents often submit the budgets less than two weeks to the commencement of the proposed Union Week events, and so, about a week to the deadline, the legislative cum executive arms scramble to come to an agreement. The agreed budget, millions of naira, then comes to the knowledge of students a week before the Union Week – with little or no scrutiny.
Many might argue that a budget of 36 million (for a series of Union events) is not too much of a sum, afterall, there is inflation and whatnots. This argument has subsisted for years, weaponized by each administration to push its idea of what a superb Union Week should look like. Since each administration strives to outdo the other and in glamour only.
It is necessary to consider the topic of a Union Week from both an economic lens and an ideological lens. This is because a union is first ideological before anything else. Although the ideology by which the union operates may differ from time to time, with the quality of persons in leadership positions as a major factor, a Students’ Union should be student-centered, not centered on the social tendencies of its leadership.
What is the aim of a Union Week? Who exactly is it for? This writer would borrow from the words of the current Vice President of the University of Ibadan Students’ Union, Glory Salawu. In her budget, it was mentioned that the Union week, aimed at social bonding and unity, has a target audience of more than 45,000 students, which is presumably the total population of students in the university at the moment. It is a good thing that the Union leadership’s plan factors all students as participants in the proposed events.
However, does the Vice President know these 45,000 students? Can she say authoritatively, for instance, that 50 per cent of these students are very interested in the list of activities proposed for the week? Can she also insinuate that the core values of the Students’ Union are being promoted by the proposed events?
Students pay one thousand naira as union dues. This amount is meant to fund every union activity. Would students be elated to spare their dues for the Jimoh and Thanksgiving ceremonies (which they could have gotten for free at their various places of worship)? Isn’t it pointless sponsoring the wedding ceremony of a fake couple? Why introduce an innovative way to waste already scarce resources made available by poor students and their poor parents?
Suppose students are pretty excited to spare the hefty amount needed to fund the frivolous events, the assumption of popular participation should be interrogated. Can 45,000 participate in the week? Let us suppose 45,000 is a huge number. Would 10,000 participate? Would even a thousand students participate? Needless to say, even the Vice President does not believe the Union week is capable of interesting such a number of students, little wonder plans on the budget are made for an average of 800 students. Is Union week then a Union week for all? Yet it is funded by the union dues of all students.
Students are part of a union, not primarily for the social functions it can offer, but for representation and ideological unity. The unity the union is capable of brokering amongst students is not the kind of unity an association brokers, it is unity in ideological ideas. The union’s objective, an end to which all means are deployed, is to bring every student to a place of unity in ideas, through which they stand together, fight together and win together. That is no frivolous business. It must be the priority.
Unfortunately, the message that the Union Week depicts through its events says more about what the true objectives of the present union leadership are. The administration’s chase for glamour and social relevance is not in tandem with current economic and political realities. First, it shows that the union leadership prioritizes the wrong things. Second, it shows that the union leadership is not sensitive to the needs of the union and by extension, broader society. Third, it shows a lack of direction on the part of the union leadership, compromise and ideological bankruptcy.
The current Union Week would commence on September 12, 2026 even as elections have yet to be unbanned. Over 36 million naira is budgeted, an amount many students and their parents cannot raise independently, talk more of spend on parties and frivolities. While students languish in multidimensional poverty, subjected to loans and often clamouring for early disbursement of a meagre 20k upkeep amount, the Vice presidency budgets 36 million naira for events that have no bearing on what should be the aim of the union.
The Adeboye-led Executive Committee, loud in its praise for the management, have not made efforts to ensure the convening of a Congress. Neither did the administration utilize enough Union resources in catering for welfarism during the last protests that broke out on campus. The millions not spent in sensitizing students, convening Congresses and catering for the welfare of students during protests are now in a budget for a fictional wedding of a fake couple.
For every disillusioned executive, there is a complicit legislature. The 13th Assembly is like a dirty pot with a black bottom. As 36 million-funded Union Week looms, the 13th Assembly, instead of manning its post as a check on executive excesses, prepares a grand Legislative Summit in honour of a politician from the Allied Peoples Movement (APM). At a 50 million rate, the John Oludele-led Students’ Representative Council sold its soul to compromise. Not only did the Council openly induct a politician, it also prepared a summit in his honour. It is no surprise what level of anomalies would occur under the SRC’s noses. The Council has lost its moral authority to bring the executive to order.
In the light of all these issues, the onus rests on the student populace to save the union from being traded off to ideological death. Students need to develop interest in the union’s affairs. The active membership of the union is populated by individuals with personal and anti-union interests. The shrinking state of our union and the love for million wads of naira by the opportunistic union leaders today was made possible because of the absence of selfless students, representatives and conscious student journalists.
ABOUT AUTHOR
Nice Linus is a student of the University of Ibadan, an advocate for human rights, hopeful for positive change in the Nigerian system and for the Nigerian people.
