A 400-level student of the University of Lagos, Olorunfemi Adeyeye, talks about the Facebook post that led to his rustication withGBENGA ADENIJIWere you part of the University of Lagos Students’ Union executives recently suspended by the school management for their roles in a protest in the university?No, I am neither a member of the University of Lagos Students’ Union nor a member of the Students’
Representatives Council. I am only a concerned student. I also made it known to members of a panel inaugurated by the university management when I was invited that I was not a member of ULSU or SRC but only a concerned student.What department and level are you?I am a 400 level student of the Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Department of Building.Your Facebook post titled, ‘The Senate of UNILAG: A conglomeration of academic ignorami was believed to have earned you rustication for four semesters; approximately two academic sessions. Did you bargain for what happened after the post?I was prepared for it. The whole thing started after the resolution of the Senate of the University of Lagos. Some of us saw this coming. The resolution was anti-student. You do not make a resolution without the consent of the people it will affect.The resolution of the Senate came after the peaceful protests we had on campus on April 6, 7 and 8, 2016. On April 6, it was the union executives who went to the office of the Division of Students’ Affairs to ask that the students should be addressed. But no one came to talk to them. On the second day, it was agreed by the student leaders, the faculty and hall executives that a protestbe staged. The protest was about poor welfare. At the time, there was a fuel scarcity in the country and the union executives were using the union’s bus to convey students from Yaba to Akoka. This happened for weeks. The protest was peaceful. I think the problem was ego. No member of the management came to address the students for two days.On the third day, it was a siren of police carsand an armoured personnel carrier that woke us at 6am. We were also sent text messages to vacate the halls of residence by10am as academic activities had been suspended. The student leaders saw the directive as draconian. We all insisted that we would not leave the campus. A student mounted the armoured personnel carrier playfully and the police officer in it drove head on until it hit the school gate and its roof opened. The student was not injured and after sometime, we decided to go home. We were at home for three weeks. Later, the management asked us to resume for examination and that there would be rationing of electricity from 7am to 7pm. Allstudents were also told to sign an indemnityform with our parents and take an oath before we could be reabsorbed into the university. The union and its constitution were also suspended. This is a union that was just reinstated after 10 years of proscription. I saw all these as failure on thepart of the Senate and an attempt to curb and crush the union. All these made me to pick my pen and write about the Senate of the University of Lagos. I later posted it on my Facebook page.In the post, you specifically mentioned some lecturers and the vice-chancellor of the institution who you accused of certain failings in the discharge of their academic and leadership duties respectively. What was your motivation?I was not pushed by any allure of social media. I did it because I was convinced that there was administrative failure. I am of theopinion that a citadel of learning should provide solutions. It should be a place where policy-makers should run to for ideasand a place of solution for the society. But what we have in the university today is far from that.What happened after the post?We were allowed to sit for examination and after it ended, those targeted were called toappear before a panel one after the other. It was done that way so that it would not appear as ‘scapegoatism.’ I was sent a letter to appear bef
Representatives Council. I am only a concerned student. I also made it known to members of a panel inaugurated by the university management when I was invited that I was not a member of ULSU or SRC but only a concerned student.What department and level are you?I am a 400 level student of the Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Department of Building.Your Facebook post titled, ‘The Senate of UNILAG: A conglomeration of academic ignorami was believed to have earned you rustication for four semesters; approximately two academic sessions. Did you bargain for what happened after the post?I was prepared for it. The whole thing started after the resolution of the Senate of the University of Lagos. Some of us saw this coming. The resolution was anti-student. You do not make a resolution without the consent of the people it will affect.The resolution of the Senate came after the peaceful protests we had on campus on April 6, 7 and 8, 2016. On April 6, it was the union executives who went to the office of the Division of Students’ Affairs to ask that the students should be addressed. But no one came to talk to them. On the second day, it was agreed by the student leaders, the faculty and hall executives that a protestbe staged. The protest was about poor welfare. At the time, there was a fuel scarcity in the country and the union executives were using the union’s bus to convey students from Yaba to Akoka. This happened for weeks. The protest was peaceful. I think the problem was ego. No member of the management came to address the students for two days.On the third day, it was a siren of police carsand an armoured personnel carrier that woke us at 6am. We were also sent text messages to vacate the halls of residence by10am as academic activities had been suspended. The student leaders saw the directive as draconian. We all insisted that we would not leave the campus. A student mounted the armoured personnel carrier playfully and the police officer in it drove head on until it hit the school gate and its roof opened. The student was not injured and after sometime, we decided to go home. We were at home for three weeks. Later, the management asked us to resume for examination and that there would be rationing of electricity from 7am to 7pm. Allstudents were also told to sign an indemnityform with our parents and take an oath before we could be reabsorbed into the university. The union and its constitution were also suspended. This is a union that was just reinstated after 10 years of proscription. I saw all these as failure on thepart of the Senate and an attempt to curb and crush the union. All these made me to pick my pen and write about the Senate of the University of Lagos. I later posted it on my Facebook page.In the post, you specifically mentioned some lecturers and the vice-chancellor of the institution who you accused of certain failings in the discharge of their academic and leadership duties respectively. What was your motivation?I was not pushed by any allure of social media. I did it because I was convinced that there was administrative failure. I am of theopinion that a citadel of learning should provide solutions. It should be a place where policy-makers should run to for ideasand a place of solution for the society. But what we have in the university today is far from that.What happened after the post?We were allowed to sit for examination and after it ended, those targeted were called toappear before a panel one after the other. It was done that way so that it would not appear as ‘scapegoatism.’ I was sent a letter to appear bef
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