Obafemi Awolowo University authority has directed students to go on a mid-semester break following protests over poor hostel facilities.
The school’s Public Relations Officer, Olanrewaju Abiodun, said on telephone on Tuesday that the management decided to declare a mid-semester break.
He, however, did not give reasons:
“The senate has met and has decided that all students should go home for a mid-semester break,” he said.
“All students are expected to vacate their hostels with immediate effect; parents are advised to order their students home.”
But the school’s students union government has directed the students not to obey the directive of the management.
It held that the mid-semester break was a ploy by management to achieve “something mischievous.”
“We will not go home, we will remain on campus and watch things happen, we are ready for showdown,” a spokesperson of the union said.
The students had repeatedly complained of poor sanitary conditions at the hostels, but the management of the school ignored the complaints.
The students resorted to protest which shut down academic activities since Friday.
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible makes violent revolution inevitable …JF Kennedy,” a statement by the SUG President, Omotayo Akande, read.
“History will be made again as we prepare our intellectual arsenal and Aluta weaponry and proceed to the barricades.
“The congress of Great Ife Students on Friday 27th November, 2015 unanimously expressed their animosity to the obnoxious state of our welfare, dilapidated hostel and among other administrative misdemeanor.
“The union has exhausted the tool of diplomacy without getting reasonable concession on how our welfare condition will be improved. The management in their Machiavellian tactic immediately restore the light after the congress.
“Why wasn’t it restored when our students were subjected to perpetual darkness for days? We are not carried away with the euphoria of the temporary supply of light and water.
“Our demands are more than just light and water as the horrendous living condition of our hostels require rapt attention.”
He said a room in Moremi Hall caught fire and the ladies could not get a fire extinguisher to put off the fire.
The students also accused the management of the institution of embarking on the construction of a senate building when the hostels are in a sorry state.
Abiodun in his reaction explained that the federal government should be blamed for the dilapidated hostels.
“They are saying we are building new senate, it is being sponsored by federal government. My fear is that we may be forced to elongate the calendar if this protest continues, it is inevitable”.
He also said the students sometimes misuse hostel facilities. “In a situations where students misuse hostel facilities, it is beyond our control,” he said.
-PTimes
