WHEN SILENCE IS NO LONGER GOLDEN
“Tell no lies, claim no easy victory; just say it the way it is… (Amilcar Cabral)”
“We must speak the truth even if our voice shakes… (Olori)”
The receipt of the recent gift of bus from Senator Iyiola Omisore, by
the leadership of the union, has generated a number of deserved
criticisms on the social media – especially Great Ife facebook page
platforms. Several have accused the leadership of the union of shameful
conducts and condemned the gift as a Greek gift. I wish to state clearly
and officially that the reception of the bus was not discussed in any
leadership meeting of the Union known to me, especially the CEC meeting.
Hence, no responsibility can be apportioned to me as part of the
elected leaders of Great Ife Students’ Union who received the
controversial gift.
On principle and personal opinion, the
collection of this bus is condemnable and brings to mud the values of
Great Ife students’ union. In fact, sober lessons from our struggle
against current fee regime instruct that such a bus should have been
rejected on ground of commonsense-judgment, at least not during this
electioneering period. Besides, a receipt of such gift requires SRC
ratification and patronizing inscription should not be seen on the body
of such gift.
Before now, I have held the view that it will do
lesser good to express some of my dissatisfactions and agony on the
social media because of my direct constitutional responsibility to the
Congress of students. But it is clear that with the continual closure of
school, things will only be drifting from worse to worst if students
are left in the dark.
I stand with Great Ife students on the
reproach of the gift and its receipt. Leadership is only meant to
succeed on discipline and focus. The “Union Bus saga” to me speaks more
of the state of our current struggle than the bus itself. The same
method which has grounded our struggle for a while now precipitated the
receipt of the bus too. New methods that have been announced by the
union leadership are only pronounced at meetings, without room for
debate because they are inviolable. In fact I get stunned coming across
most of these decisions and methods on the social media. This particular
practice has hindered critical debates and intellection over strange
positions of the union “leadership”. At times, my confrontation with
other executive council members of the union over new methods were
greeted with the most ridiculous accusation that “I wanted to be
President or that I am used by the Ideologues”. My new nickname in CEC
meeting is Judas or Students’ informant (But I wonder who to inform, if
not Great Ife students themselves).
At this point, I believe
students should mount calls – more resonant than the bus cries – that
the leadership of the union should re-open the struggle against fee-hike
and for reopening of the university, instead of selling us cheaply to
everybody who has cash at hand. The closure of the school as I believe
is a tactic to frustrate our spirit at home and create confusion over
the correctness of our battle. Great Ife, we are correct that poor
parents should not bear the brunt of a failed government. We are also
correct that we will not service the pouch of our second “parents” whose
offices are in the Senate building. We are correct that the tradition
of Great Ife Students’ Union for the defense of the future and upholding
of societal ideals must be reiterated again this time.
But to
achieve this, we must look beyond the ‘maradonic’ updates that confuse
the state of the struggle. As a union officer, I have been asking these
questions from my colleagues in the CEC: “Why are our plans for
externalized actions struck out? Why do we have to shelve an Ibadan
planned action for a grandiose protest in Abuja (which has remained as a
mere imagination)? Why must ‘leadership’ distant itself from the NANS
ultimatum to OAU management, when we all attended the Zone-D congress in
Ibadan and were quite aware of the debates and resolutions of the
Congress among other questions?” The frequent answer I get is: “we will
rather beg, crawl, lobby, to achieve negotiation, reduction or
re-opening of the school.” While I am not against negotiation and
reopening, I believe management is not stupid to severe their
self-satisfying interest only because of our wails. Only our tenacious
action – the type which threw the university echelon into confusion
during our protest in June – can force these elements to meet our
demands, or even respect us on the negotiation table.
In
conclusion, I do not believe this is the end of the road for the values
of our union. We are only being tested and we will come out victorious
as usual. However, my current disagreement with some of my colleagues in
the leadership is not a ploy of division; rather it is a clear stance
of principle which will be judged by posterity and future history.
“My time will pass, your time will pass, but the history we make as a
generation will remain long after we are gone… (Great Ife paradigm)”
ALUTA CONTINUA… VICTORIA ASCERTA
Oladejo Olori Funmi
Vice-President, Great Ife Students’ Union
