An Open letter was written by a great ife student, Emman O. Emma (EOE). It’s quite a long read. Enjoy.
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‘‘Power corrupts… they say’’. At this point, I must express my personal dissatisfaction and disappointment at the way you have been handling matters since you assumed the leadership of our Union. I suggest you reflect on what you were and what you are. To put it in simple language, there is a stark departure from the former TY that Great Ife students used to know.
During the electioneering campaign, the Phakoo-team campaigned vigorously against you by terming you a leftist/the school janitor that will one day shut down the school. Notwithstanding the blackmail, Great Ife students, including my humble self voted and supported you on a massive scale. This evidently showed that Great Ife students thought they voted for a leftist; they hoped to have put an end to the deceit, cowardice and betrayal of Ibikunle since leftists are generally believed to be those that advocate change to the oppressive/obnoxious status quo of the society.
Mr. President, you probably will reluctantly agree with me that you rode on the horse of the Left. How, you may ask? You were a member of the SaveOAU team, an organisation headed by Comrade Juwon (a member of the left and Chairman of Pacesetters Movement). This organisation was formed from the defunct Action Committee, an organ of Great Ife Union Congress, with the responsibility to outline practical actions of resistance against the obnoxious fee hike. Ibikunle did not implement almost all the suggestions of this committee, and eventually frustrated the struggle. In fact, it was a left initiative. You will also agree with me that your involvement in these committees was a clear romance with the left. These factors played a major role in your emergence as the President of the Union.
Furthermore, you played a role in the outright condemnation of Ibikunle’s anti-student and pro-management’s style of not calling congress, embezzlement of funds and pursuing white elephant projects instead of prioritizing the welfare of students.
Apart from these condemnations, during the course of your campaign, you made radical speeches in halls of residence and most importantly on the Manifesto night, the immediate result – a massive crowd that trooped out with you from Amphi that night. To be candid, much is expected of you.
Mr. President, remember your radical speeches on solidarity with NASU, solidarity with Osun workers (whose salaries have not been paid for months now), revitalising the Students’ Movement and NANS, requesting for improved welfare and accommodation (new hostels). These are beautiful plans and ideas, but none of them is close to being implemented, if they will be at all. The greatest thing you do is to give ‘ULTIMATUM’, hence, you have earned a new nickname among students– ULTIMATUM TY.
Though we all love your radical speeches, but we want them to be followed with action.
What do I mean by ACTION?
By action, I do not request you to lock the VC’s office; neither do I expect you to disrupt the flow of traffic. Instead, I humbly assert that as a leader of a democratic students’ union, decisions MUST be taken collectively in the favour of mass of students. When students face any challenge, call them together, and let students make decisions on how they actually want to tackle such challenge. After this, you really do not have any alternative than to carry those decisions out or resign. The basic requirement of democracy is not subverting the will and resolution of the people with your own conception of good.
Good that you conveyed a Congress two weeks ago. But congress is not a witch-hunting meeting. To be frank, the last congress was made to appear as a disciplinary meeting against Ibikunle and Ibiyemi.
The motive of witch hunt was more confirmed with the resolutions you issued as official resolutions of the Congress. The resolution that retained Hon. Seun as Secretary General were not only expressly written, but implemented. However, the same way students resolved that 2.5 CGPA should be removed was the same way they resolved that a day warning lecture boycott should be declared over prevailing crisis of erratic electricity and water supply. The irony of the situation is that the resolutions on welfare of students, on intervention in matter of unpaid salary of parent-workers in Osun were removed from the official resolutions of Congress that was pasted by the union. Also, the numerous press conferences you were mandated to hold were ignored. I really do not know when the union President or other members of the CEC started vetoing resolutions of students that they do not like.
Furthermore, your announcements to protest in Amphi during the Matriculation ceremony and yesterday to march down to the dam was spontaneous and typical of Ibikunle. It is like leading students to the slaughter slab to organise an ill-planned action on a day of matriculation when university can easily blackmail students protest or even pitch fresh students and parents against other students. In my opinion, it is laughable that you fail to implement a more organised and tactical resolution, yet you aimed to probably put on a mask of radicalism by engaging in haphazard, undemocratic protest. The question I beg to ask is ‘who made the deision?’ Immanuel Kant? Secre Nene? or you?
Mr. President, be it known unto you that if you insist on doing things your own way and not the students’ way, the popular mandate you have will soon be turned into shreds and your popularity subjected to heavy threat. Also note that students cannot be deceived for long, especially when a so-called leftist, radical union is always dilly-dallying when it should take up pro-student struggle.
Finally, I wish to state that the impact of this letter will be immediately put to test on Wednesday when the reinstatement ultimatum lapses. Also, the welfare condition on this campus continues to baffle ever-conscious Great Ife students. If we have light for 24 hours, laugh not, for the next 48 hours is total darkness. I hope Mr. President will stop giving futile ultimatum, and put the machinery of the union, the strength of Great Ife students, into use in ending this absurdity.
Yours-in-struggle,
Emman O. Emma (EOE).
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OAU CHRISTIANS 