12th March, 2015
Sulaimon Adeyemi Wasiu Onikoro, a 400-level student of Islamic Law is the newly-elected President of the Lagos State University Students Union, LASUSU. In this interview with P.M.NEWS Campus Square, the 25th president of the institution’s Students’ Union explains how his team intend to effect changes in the institution and why NANS at the national level shouldn’t have endorsed President Goodluck Jonathan. He spoke with DAMILARE OKUNOLA
How does it feel emerging as the SUG president of LASU?
I feel great because it was actually a neck to neck contest based on the fact that other presidential aspirants are fit, proper and cable to lead the union. They are best in their respective capacities so emerging as the president turned my status automatically to being the best among the best. I feel great and at the same time I salute the courage, doggedness and intellectual capacity of my committee members who worked day and night to make sure I finally emerge as the 25th president of Lagos State University Students’ Union.
Did you think you were going to win?
To a very large extent, I knew that I was going to win because either campus election or not, most of the time election is won before the day of election itself. Your preparation, the capacity of your committee, your popularity in school as well as your achievement prior to your aspirations will determine whether or not you have the capacity to emerge as the winner. I knew I was going to win based on the support I got from the students.
Are you saying that your popularity won you the election?
Of course, I just answered that. My popularity, the solid preparation, the intellectual capacity of my committee, my achievement and above all the grace of Almighty Allah won the election for me.
What new things are you planning to bring to the institution?
My administration will focus more on human and youth empowerment. It has become obvious that Nigerian universities do not train students to become their own bosses after school, rather the universities train the students and throw them into a saturated labour market after going through years of rigorous academic study. Therefore, there is the need for a paradigm shift from the debacle of paid jobs. It is on this basis I will appeal to individuals and corporate bodies to sponsor or partner with the union to make this become reality for the benefit of students.
Students have also been used for political thuggery in the past. How do you hope to work against this?
Yes, we cannot deny the fact that students have been used for political thuggery in the past but I can tell you categorically and authoritatively that students of LASU have never been involved in this act. We are responsible, reasonable and militant as well. Now to your question, we are going to work against this by thoroughly sensitizing our students about political thuggery and its consequences.
What is your take on the endorsement of President Jonathan by NANS?
It is unfortunate that students movement has been polarised, otherwise, NANS has no prerogative to endorse any candidate from any political party. What I think they ought to have done is to call for a debate between all the presidential aspirants, juxtapose their manifestoes, check their developmental agenda for education and be neutral like an unbiased umpire. NANS is meant to be a pressure group fighting for and defending the rights of her members irrespective of the party in power. But what we find today is very unfortunate.
LASU is also notorious for its riots, what assurance do you have that it will not happen during your tenure?
You see… riots happen as a result of our failure to manage issues properly. While I was campaigning, I said I would ensure swift resolution of conflicts between warring parties, be it LASUSU and the management or any other union body. If we want a stable academic calendar, we should be able to resolve crisis on the round table instead of going on the streets. The image of LASU is paramount to us and we really want to re-brand and recreate that image
What do you think your predecessors did not do well that you are going to work on?
I must commend my predecessors especially the last administration, they came in at a time when the university environment was in turmoil as a result of the fee hike and as such, they spent most of their time fighting for the reversal which we eventually got. But the bad side of the fee hike issue was that the union as of then, really did not have much time for developmental programmes. And after that, we had elections in January. It took really long for the executive members to be inaugurated and the session was so short, really there was no time but they achieved a feat that we want to sustain.