It is no more news that Uniuyo erupted in violence some days back, and the tuskers used many ways to vent their spleen on the demise of their confederate. For your information, I have witnessed one of such incidents and so my article is going to come from the point of view of someone who has witnessed it. I shall be brief, and shall not mince words. Looking at our university system, we have what we have come to refer to as SUG; the Students Union Government. Sadly, they have outlived their usefulness. You may want to take a ride from the Uthman Dan Fodio University to the University of Lagos, to the University of Uyo: the results will still be the same; the students now have leaders who do not speak for them. It is now common news to hear student union leaders fighting during meetings just because money is about to be shared. It is common to see student leaders hovering around government houses in several guises, planting various lies ultimately for the purpose of collecting money. I know that the nation is bad, and that our fathers are corrupt people. But we will not save our country by being corrupt! Where is that generation we often spoke of, that will take the nation to greater heights in politics, education, science and technology? No matter how much your learning is, if the character is zero, we are undone! I remember reading in my union handbook in first year, that student union leaders were not to be members of political parties, but what do we have today? Union members proudly carrying PDP, ACN and CPC tickets.
Why won’t student union leaders sit for hours at length waiting for an audience with the vice chancellors, and the vice chancellors treat them as rags? This only happens because the VCs themselves have seen that the union leaders are after money and money alone, so treat them anyhow, they’ll still be subservient as far as the money comes. Prof Epoke (Unical VC) bitterly complained of this in the last SUG. The students are not any different. No one really believes these SUG people, “they are only there for their pockets” you’ll hear the students say. I love using my primary constituency for illustrations. The other time, we had the Minister of Education visit the school, the then SUG president was conspicuously absent. When asked why he did not show up, he answered “Wetin she go give me…?”
So since their elected representatives are of no use, obviously because they are very busy chasing politicians instead of looking into the welfare of the students (which they were elected to do), the students bypass them and settle their issues without any means of leadership. And we all know that when everybody is talking, nobody is talking! Therefore when we look at the various riots that have engulfed our universities in recent times, we come to see that it has always been championed by non student union leaders, who stepped in to fill the leadership vacuum, or its root has been that the university had looked down on the union since their love for money has come to the fore; therefore the students felt no need to pass through their representatives, or that the university had become insensitive to the plights of the union because of the present god-figure position that lecturers now keep for themselves.
I believe if the student union leaders were really leaders of the people the way the dictionary (and not the Nigerian sense) provides that people be led, being sacrificial and all, we would not have most of the riots taking place here and there, that is on one hand; and if the lecturers and administrators stepped down from their high temples, to deal with student issues with understanding and good communication, we would see an end to various disruptions in our calendars, and bloodletting on campus. So the question goes, is this the generation that we have been waiting for, or should be expect another?
