Drama As University Of Ibadan Suspends Student…You Won't Believe Why

The management of University of Ibadan has suspended one of its student, Ojo Aderemi, for leading a protest in 2017 over the school’s inability to provide identity cards for students.

Mr Aderemi, who spoke with PREMIUM TIMES on Thursday, told our correspondent that the institution has handed him a four-semester suspension.

This means the 300 level student will lose two academic years.

In May 2017, after becoming the students’ union president, Mr Aderemi presided over a congress that resolved protested the failure of the university to provide them identity cards.

The students also demanded for the use of electric-powered cooking appliance in their hostels. The peaceful protests forced the university to be shut for weeks.

The university also suspended students’ union activities in the school.

Mr Aderemi, on Thursday, told our correspondent that the university suspended him on Wednesday for his role in the 2017 protest.

“I was informed about the panel’s decision yesterday,” he said. “I have been suspended for four semesters,” he told our correspondent.

University Keeps Mum

The University’s Vice Chancellor, Idowu Olayinka, did not respond to PREMIUM TIMES’ calls and text messages.

The University’s spokesperson, Tunji Oladejo, said he had no knowledge of the suspension.

He said he was “yet to avail myself with the procedures of what happened there,” although, he promised to get back to PREMIUM TIMES after getting details of the development.

A trend?

It is fast becoming a norm in Nigeria for university authorities to suspend students over critical articles and protest.

In 2018, the University of Ibadan suspended a student, Adekunle Adebajo, over a critical newspaper article published two years earlier.

Mr Adebajo, a student journalist, wrote an article titled “UI: The irony of fashionable rooftops and awful interiors” in The Guardian of April 2016 about poor facilities at the university.

The article drew attention to the deplorable state of the facilities at the Nigerian premier university.

In 2016, a student of University of Lagos, Adeyeye Olorunfemi of the Faculty of Environmental Sciences, department of Building, was rusticated for four semesters for criticising the management of the institution.

Mr Olorunfemi was suspended for criticising the leadership of the institution on their inability to manage situations as “democrats”. This was highlighted in an article tilted, ‘The Senate of the University of Lagos; a Conglomeration of Academic Ignorami,’ which was published on Facebook.

A student of the Redeemer’s University, Debo Adedayo, was expelled by the school’s management a few weeks to his graduation for criticising the school in a post on social media in 2017.

PREMIUM TIMES also reported how OAU suspended Omole Ibukun and Oluwalade Babatunde after their involvement in the power outage protest in October 2018.

The school also blocked the online E-portal of other four students; Kazeem Olalekan Isreal, Oyedeji Samson, Gbenga Oloniniran, and Afolabi Samuel.

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