STUDENTS' UNION GOVERNMENT: EXPECTATIONS, CHALLENGES AND WAY FORWARD - BY CHUKWUEMERIE UDUCHUKWU

Government is widely believed to be an instrument through which the
society is organised in order to ensure the sustainance of law and
order as well as advancing the necessary amenities insuch a community.
Populary refered to as SUG, The Students Union Government was
established in various institutions of higher learning to promote
unity, orderliness and smooth relationship between the students,
school authorities and the state or Federal Government.
It is unfortunate that most SUGs in Nigerian Universities do not know
the key objectives of the establishment of the Students Union. This is
while most of these institutions see the union as an avenue to cause
mayhem and anarchy in the institutions. It is true that some factors
may catalyse such violence actions but it remain unnecessary to
mobilise students for violent protests because history had shown that
violent protests achieved little of its expectation. Instead such will
only result to disruption in Academic calender and unnecessary
taxation of the students either through increment in school fees or
through an order to pay for the damages caused by such protests.
However, instead of calling for violent protests, it is wiser to
embark on peaceful protests but it is necessary for various SUGs to
approach the school authority first and table their pains before
embarking on protests. This is because due to information gap, the
students might not know that problems they experienced were not caused
due to the weakness of the school authority but were caused by some
forces outside the school.
Moreover, if the peaceful protests failed to achieve their aim,
the
SUGs can reverse to online campaign to establish their wants or needs
instead of embarking on violence protests.
It is unfortunate that various lives of students have been lost as a
result of violence protests and this is a big blow to the families of
the culprits. The sad experience at the University of Uyo should have
been avoided if the above steps were taken. It is true that the
Federal Government has disclosed her willingness to pay fully the cost
of funeral rites of the dead victims and to settle the hospital bills
of the surviving executive members of the National Association of
Nigerian Students, NANS, enough caution should be exercised by both
the students and government in order to avoid the future occurance of
such.
Also, it is necessary to reserve the position of SUG President and
leadership of the Students Representative Council, SRC of the various
SUGs for the students in the Faculties of Social and Management
Sciences to ensure proffessionalism in the management of students
affairs. This is because undergraduates of Social and Management
Sciences are more technically and mentally equipped to carry out the
governance of the students affairs. The position of the SUG Judiciary
should be reserved for the Faculty of Law because Law students are
meant to be umpires and have no business with leadership. The position
of environmental officer should be created and reserved for Faculties
of Medicine, Sciences and Engineering as they are more equipped in the
field.
Allowing a student that has no or little skill in governance to
oversee the affairs of students can easily result to disorderliness
and unorganised government which may result to the use of violent
means to achieve a goal that can easily be achieved through dialogue,
petitions or through a writeup online.
Furthermore, the various SUGs in our tertiary institutions should know
that they were elected to serve the students as well as representing
the students interest inorder to promote discipline, orderliness and
unity among the students and their school authority. SUG should not be
seen as an avenue to generate wealth but should be seen as an avenue
to serve.
Also, the use of posters and sharing of gifts by contestants during
the SUG elections campaigns should be totally prohibited. The avenue
for campaigns shall only be public debate organised by the school
authority which shall be programmed to give all contestants equal
opportunities to air their pledge. These will go a long way in
discouraging the seeing of campaign and elective positions as a
business for enhancing wealth because office holders will try to even
gain more than they spent during campaigns. Also it will encourage
students who do not have the financial capacity to distribute gifts
and posters to contest.
Finally the anti-corruption agencies like the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission, EFCC and the Independent Corrupt Practices and
Other Related Offences Commision, ICPC sholud mandate the various SUGs
to submit the Financial Reports of their Unions after their government
for public information and probe if necessary.
The writer Chukwuemerie Uduchukwu is a political science student of
unizik and a news and opinion articles contributor to PREMIUM TIMES.