WHY STUDENTS’ UNIONISM MATTERS: A CALL TO ACTION.

As our Students’ Union goes to poll in the coming days, it’s important to remind ourselves that the Students’ Union as a pressure group serves as a platform where students who are also the next generation of leaders come together to protect their interests against internal and external factors.

The Union enables students to join their voices together and speak as one. As an entity, students can institutionalize the changes they wish to see within and outside their academic community. It provides leverage for students to advocate for the changes they wish to see in their academic journey, enabling environment, and facilities that enhance their academic growth. In other words, student unionism is about the welfare of students and not a political tussle among the students, though the political aspect also forms an integral part.

Essentially, the scope of students’ unionism goes beyond only electing union leaders. It demands active participation and contribution to the activities that pertain to the academic and social well-being of the students. It also includes the demand for transparency and accountability from leaders through appropriate checks and balances and active participation in the programs and activities of all arms and committees of the Union.

This is a wake-up call to our dear colleagues across all the colleges and on all the campuses to embrace our dear Union, Osun State University Students’ Union (OSUSU), a pressure group that is committed to the welfare of students and lifting the institution to greater heights as a major stakeholder. The Union without her comrades can barely stand, and I pray the enemy doesn’t prevail over us.Also, a cordial relationship ought to exist between the Union leaders and the students. The officials are meant to be close to the students; this promotes the credibility and trust of the students in the Union as capable and worthy representatives of students’ interests within and outside our campuses. Such trust in the Union fosters active participation in the activities of the Union, thereby eliminating apathy. It is a government of the students, by the students, and for the students. The elected students must be good representatives, not taking the demands of the students lightly and actively attending to them.

They are not greater than their colleagues. They are mere ‘first among equals’. Hence, we must begin to discourage the new culture of appointment of multiple aides by student leaders across the country. Students’ Union leaders are elected by their colleagues to serve and not to be served.The demands of the students are conveyed to the school authority through our collective voice, which is the student’s union. Should we keep this voice silent and suffer unnecessarily in cowardice? The school authority respects the union and its members. The students should make use of this opportunity and refrain from tarnishing the image of the school.We must always strive to improve and protect the dignity of the school. All these being said can not be achieved until all hands are on deck and ready to work together for the progress of our dear Union and institution. The student union must always be seen as a tool for the protection of the interest of students in the most diplomatic manner and not of violence or chaos.

Dear UNIOSUN students, the Union is your heritage. Be proud of her and always try to be a good ambassador for her. Active participation is the only way to sustain our dear Union. We must always remember that a house that stands against itself can not stand.

By Victor Oyewole

Aluta continua, victoria ascerta!

Nothing shall discourage us!