Imisioluwa Bamidele, Ayobami Atanda

I fear that the current UISU, most of them in the past 4 years, I think they have been doing it for portfolio sake. They want a robust CV after school.” She rhetorically asked, “What population or percentage of the students do you want to feed? It is not feasible and reasonable. 

There is no UISU, they are children; they are kids as opposed to when there used to be a strong union in times of old.

The University of Ibadan Student Union (UISU) led by Aweda Bolaji announced Project Stomach Infrastructure, an initiative meant to produce free meals for 1,200 UI students on June 30, 2024. In the letter of announcement, it was made known that a restaurant named SBJ Food and Drinks would be bearing the cost of the feeding. Nonetheless, the hunger-alleviating scheme kick-started on July 1, with 300 students, 60 for each day, ready to receive food from July 2 to July 6. 

The University of Ibadan (UI) comprises regular students, Distant Learning Center (DLC) students, and postgraduate students. The population of regular students goes beyond 8,000. The UISU, in the letter, did not specify the category of students for whom the food initiative was meant for. Hence, it is wrong to assume it is for the regular students alone since the people under all study categories are students. Nevertheless, the regular students, at present, face the challenges of school fee increments. Upon the commencement of the 2023/2024 academic session, the UI management increased school fees by over 100 percent. In some faculties, it is over 200 percent. The Aweda-led administration told the students when the session began to hold-on on paying any fees, promising that his administration would fight for the interest of the students. Three weeks gone, nothing was done, the congress, which was supposed to be held in the fee-must-fall outcry from the students, was cancelled by the UISU executives, but they provided a comic relief for the indigent students, the stomach infrastructure. 

As it stands, 1,200 students among the full-time students, DLC students, and postgraduate students will receive a free meal once a month, while over 8,000 full-time students are confused about the pro-student struggle against the fee increment in a time when some of them battle for daily survival. Some students told UCJUI and NASELS Press about their financial challenges of which a lot of them have lost trust in the present UISU executive council. With this, it has shown that the action of the UISU and its reaction to the students’ struggle amidst the danger of academic forfeiture is anti-student. Since its inauguration till present, there is no record that the present UISU leaders have fought for any betterment of all UItes. 

Over the years, the University of Ibadan Student Union (UISU) has been known as the ‘Father of Intellectual Unionism’. The UISU once had a precedent for its unflinching struggles for students’ welfarism against any form of repression. UI students are not only known for their academic prowess but also for their solidarity, communal struggles, a conscious mind, as well as demonstrations against oppression and suppression. It first took effect 54 years ago when students protested against welfarism deprivation, mismanagement of funds, and sub-quality catering services, according to the publication of FIJ in 2021. The protest led to the death of the first student martyr in Nigeria, Kunle Adepeju. The impact of Kayode Bello, a Law graduate, in the sustenance of UI students’ unionism, caused him to have challenges in his academics in the school. On April 10, 2019, Ojo Aderemi, the former UISU President, was rusticated for four semesters by UI management as a result of conducting a protest, which the management considered illegal. One indisputable fact is that these struggles, over time, have led to effect positive changes, maintain sanity in the union, keep the focus on what unionism entails, and serve as a watchdog against any form of oppression from the school management. 

However, in the wake of the fee-must-fall resolution of the students concerning the hike in school fees, the UISU resorted to organising free meals for 1,200 students monthly, an initiative that will feed each of them once a month, showing indifference to the plights of others. 

Giving a stance on the attitude of the Students’ Union towards the hike, Olakunle (not real name), a Postgraduate student, who craved anonymity said, “What is going on is sad but the fact remains that when we have people that are not competent at the helms, this is what you get. It starts from the leadership of the country down to the university. In short, the university is a microcosm of what we have up there”. He added, “There is no UISU, they are children; they are kids as opposed to when there used to be a strong union in times of old.”

On the path of Asiwaju, an SRC member, expressed more concern about the sustainability of the food-sharing scheme. He opined, “I think I read that the feeding was shouldered by the cafeterias they partnered with, but for how long will those cafeterias be willing to shoulder such responsibilities? When they get tired, who takes it up?”. He added, “It will be better to feed 12 students for 100 days but feeding 1200 students, I wonder how many days within a month”

Reacting to the contrary opinion of many, that the initiative was staged to divert public attention from the school fees issue, Asiwaju said that “the initiative is not a substitute for the fight against fee hike. That also goes for the bursary campaign that was recently set into motion. They are not substitutes for an actual fight for the members of the union who cannot afford the current school fees”.

Commenting on the Stomach infrastructure, Asiwaju said, “Stomach infrastructure is a term coined for what politicians do to their electorates every election cycle, where they give them rice and beans – and other fleeting gifts- in exchange for their votes. However, I raised it with the President and I believed that informed the move to change the name”. Reaffirming his stance on the food initiative, “I have stated that the food initiative is not a substitute for the fees-must-fall fight”, he further stated.

An indigent student, who craved anonymity said she was overwhelmed by fright when she saw the new fees. She said, “To pay the old fees was a war but now I was expecting it to go low but now I was seeing twice the money. I was surprised”. Reacting to the student loan,  she disclosed that “I applied for the loan, they said it’d take like 30 days, and I think I applied around June 18.”

Commenting on the stomach infrastructure, the indigent student said: “I am not going to lie; since they are called the Students’ Union SU, they are like the face of the students. They are meant to help us”. In furtherance, she added, “We all come to school knowing that we are going to have food, school fees are the issue, not the food, food will finish but education remains.”

In the case of Ade (name withheld), an indigent student, she revealed, “My heart skipped a bit. It took me a while to get here and one of the reasons why I deliberately took time was because I wanted to pay my fees by myself. I have an aged mother, I don’t want to stress her. I have a sister but she is a family woman. I chose a federal university because it would be easier and because it wouldn’t be challenging”, she said.

Taking a stance on the student loan, she said, “The student loan, to me, is like a trap. From what we know about those people who have been operating before now, many of these students may spend years of their lives paying back this loan. It’s a loan; it means that there is going to be an interest. There is no employment – now you imagine you are taking a loan. Are you going to take a loan for 4 years?”. She therefore concluded that the scheme was not feasible and unrealistic.

Reacting to the stomach infrastructure, Ade was careful to speak, she said “I fear that the current UISU, most of them in the past 4 years, I think they have been doing it for portfolio sake. They want a robust CV after school.” She rhetorically asked, “What population or percentage of the students do you want to feed? It is not feasible and reasonable.”

The first-semester academic calendar ran into the fourth week starting from Monday, June 8. However, there has been no ray of hope concerning the reversal of the fee hike to its former state. If one thing is clear, it is how the UI’SU (the formation of the student populace) has no intention to pull a fight against the backdrop of some UItes’ imminent forfeiture of studentship or entering into unnecessary debts by obtaining the student loans due to the fee increase. In no time, the last time UI students challenged the studentship-maligning status quo was in 2019. As of now, the fight for unionism in the face of oppression is gone; stomach infrastructure is now the new bride in town in the UI’SU. The insight obtained through the NASELS Press interviews with some students shows that their problem is bigger than what they would eat; it is how they will not be kicked out of school. Giving 1200 students, a very minimal part of the student populace, is not, in any way, the antidote to the current imbroglio. From their perspectives, the problem bedevilling the student community is the dearth of student unionism, not what to eat.