fataiiyo: BEYOND POOR POWER SUPPLY PROTEST IN UI
BY Sunday Saanu
For three days, some students of University of Ibadan (UI) recently, successfully capitalized on the poor electricity situation on the campus, when they embarked on a protest, thereby disrupting academic, social and economic activities within and around the campus. The climax of the protest now, is that, the university has been shut down for two weeks in order to douse tension, as well as enable the Prof. Isaac Folorunso Adewole led management team to fast track its on-going power restoration and stability efforts.
It is an open secret in this country that electricity is a national embarrassment to which Nigeria is yet to find a lasting solution. From Aso-Rock villa to all the 36 government houses, people suffer and smile under the yoke of power outage. All our national institutions including airports, seaports, stadia, hotels are either run on private power generators or in total darkness as Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) has failed constantly to provide light, despite whooping sum of money that has been expended in the sector.
To this end, it could be argued that the UI students were somewhat justified in their protest, more so when they confessed openly that lack of electricity disallowed them to cook beans – their common food. According to the students, following power outage on campus, there was no water to cater for their needs and more importantly, they could not read for the coming examination. Consequently, they embarked on a peaceful protest which entailed locking the main gate to the institution, chasing away any group of students perceived to be holding lectures..
Despite the management’s efforts to pacify the students, a few of them insisted that the school must be shut down for two weeks. They became boisterous in their demand, almost to the point of violence. The management held a meeting with the student union leadership with representative of PHCN in attendance, as well as Director of works, explaining every effort to ameliorate the situation, yet the weeping child remained inconsolable! The only condition for peace was that the school must be closed.
However, it must be placed on record that there was more to the students’ protest than meet the eyes. The protest against poor power supply was just a smokescreen. The real cause of pains, fear and anguish of the students was the forth-coming examination. Many of them have not been reading, rather they have been “pinging” with their blackberry sets.
In truth, the power situation on campus was bad in recent times due to some renovation work and technical hitches, but not as worst as the students portrayed it. Indeed, the situation was not beyond bearing. Most of the workers in UI stay on campus, their children as well as my own daughter stay in the same hostels that some of these protesting students described as “hell”.
Upon his assumption of office as the Vice-Chancellor in December 2010, Prof. Adewole had identified poor power supply as one of the major problems his administration would tackle. He has since not left a stone unturned in his search for a lasting solution. In fact, his administration which has just purchased two brand new generators from abroad at the cost of N249million has spent over a billion naira just to fix the energy problem. The power situation in UI is compounded by the old facilities. The underground cables are over 60 years. Adewole has just changed some critical phases with the sum of N61million. He has also procured what is called Fault Locator, costing N53million. Contract has been awarded installation of inverters to all Halls of residence to the tune of N100million.
At a press briefing on his administration’s effort, Prof. Adewole disclosed that the present little discomfort occasioned by power outages would “certainly peter into insignificance when the on-going installation of the generators is perfected in the next few weeks”.Corroborating the examination fear induced protest; the VC stated that various measures were put in place to ensure comfort of the students before and during the examination, including 24- hour library services. Prof. Adewole asserted that UI remains the only university in Nigeria that provides 24- hour library service. Besides, mobile generators were to be deplored for illuminating large lecture theatres of five faculties for all-night reading.
The question now is what else did the students want to prepare for their examination? Clearly, what the students held in their imagination was quite different from the reality on ground. If truth must be told, some of our students, these days, are not ready for serious academic work. From what one sees on campus, some of these students are more lubricious than studious, and that is the paradox they personify. We all know their contrivances except we decide not to talk. A majority of those who went to school in the olden days read either with candle or lamp, yet they succeeded. I have read stories of those who studied under the illumination of street light. Today, many of them are successful movers and shakers in the society.
But in this “microwave” generation which cannot endure a rigorous process of thorough baking, every facility must be in place before they can study! In the tough process of knowledge acquisition, there is a big space for stoicism and perseverance. Our children are not given to hard work, but to learn a little, dance so much, drink alcohol like fish and engage in immorality till the kingdom come. Shamefully, this is a generation that has been over-indulged and over pampered.
The poor power situation in UI to which rascality of a minuscule minority feasted on, was not a kind of helplessness that could not be endured by a serious minded set. Unfortunately, some illegal students who had been expelled, but refused to go home infiltrated and hijacked the protest. A few frustrated ones were pulling the strings, and, like unthinking puppets, some of the lazy ones who were home-sick, were dancing. At last, the school was shut down.
Interestingly, when the management asked them to vacate the hostels, they began to beg. They did not want to go home. Some said the VC should give them transport fare! No illustration of academic laziness can be more vivid than this!.
Away from the red herring, at this point, one is compelled to call on parents to monitor their children on campus. Some students, on account of poor parental supervision, are on the wrong road, it is advisable for parents to know how their sons and daughters fare on campus. There is no doubt that youth is a malady of which one becomes cure a little every day, the expectation that adolescence will, over time, fade into adulthood should not be taken for granted.
On a flipside, is there no way of protesting without locking the gate, thereby punishing innocent souls? I think when next these students have a cause to protest, they can simply sing and dance round without necessarily disrupting the system. I was among their victims on Sunday night when they began the protest. I did not get back to my house until 10.55pm as a result of their “aluta continua”. Why should innocent people suffer hardship simply because of a baseless protest hinged on youthful exuberance? Well, what a youth condemns, an adult condones.
There must be a creative way of protesting without punishing innocent people. Good enough, the VC is a unionist, who is sensitive to people’s agitation. By singing around, Prof. Adewole will get the message and respond. Anyway, one hopes there will not be any other protest after this, as Adewole is good enough to be respected with dialogue.

SundaySaanu (08059436919)
sundaysaanu@yahoo.com
University of Ibadan
08059436919