The Students Union is the zenith body of students in a higher institution of learning, created for the purpose of promoting and guarding the interest of its members. Nationally, we have the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) serving as the umbrella body of all students’ organizations in Nigeria and even outside the shores with the objectives of standing for justice, good governance and the rule of law.
For the records, Unionism began in 1925 with the establishment of West African Students Union (WASU) courtesy some Nigerian Students in London. The Students Union objectives as popular range from giving students a voice in the student community, aggregation of inputs of students and availability of platform to students to partner with the institution in problem-solving rather than problem-identification among others.
Bringing it home to Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, there have been successive unions over the past years bossing the helms of affairs of being an intermediary between the students and the school authority. This, although checkered, some developments in the school can be traced to this union.
Lately, the school is denuded of one which has been telling in some aspects of studentship on campus.
The last we heard from the school was that the election will soon hold, but “soon” has been the hit track playing in our ears for quite a long time now.
Although there exists the presence of other student leadership bodies that have been trying to stand in the gap of the Students Union, but if it is not an Iroko tree, even thousands of a mango tree cannot match up.
Students across the institution, as a result of the dearth of this fulcrum-like body, have been limited in advocacy of their rights. They have been limited in having leaders that will see to their interests and be a bridge to getting their studentship achieving maximal effectiveness.
It is more than 2 months into the semester, it calls for worry that students are without a central leadership devoid of bias and proclivity. It calls for worry that students do not have a student-institutionalized portal to pour out their grievances with happenings they encounter on campus. It calls for worry that students can’t transpose as a unit their praises to the school viz-a-viz benefits they get. It is, more or less, considered out there among the students that the school does not want to listen to them, don’t care about their pulses and don’t care about dialogue that will see it move up to heights.
One advantage that comes with having a Students Union is having students bringing their own ideas to the table from the perspective of studentship which thereafter goes a long way to oil developments that will be welcoming to all and sundry. But the moment there is a cut of the studentship, it becomes a one-sided outlook with odds of a win-win result few and far between.
Willy-nilly, the narrative won’t change until a change happens. While other student leadership bodies alongside Press Club MAPOLY keep doing their best to bridge the gap, the equation, truth be told, is not complete without a running Students Union.
