The SUG: A Case Study of A Body That Lacks Defined Purpose

It now seems that I am perpetually drawn against the Students’ Union of the University of Port Harcourt. Even if this is true; it is because the SUG and its leaders have chosen to perpetually show a lack in sound reasoning, thorough analysis of data and, ultimately, wisdom in its activities, policies and goals.

Their most recent public display of gross irrationality is their recent urging of the students to boycott the second semester examinations because of reasons that are as illogical as they are preposterous, which we are going to see soon.

A memo credited to the SUG of the University of Port Harcourt communicates that students should boycott their second semester examinations slated for the 12^th of October, 2015 because the SUG week they have fixed for the 19^th, should come first.

Firstly, they say “Necessities have not been put in place for exams to hold.” The questions: What are these ‘necessities’? Why didn’t the SUG discuss these ‘necessities’ before now, etc., quickly reveal the shallowness of this reason.  This reason, more than ever, gets to show that the SUG itself is even confused on why the exams should not hold. Even more irrational is the second reason.

Secondly, the SUG argues that “our students have been dying and we don’t know what’s happening.’ This is laughable. Maybe the SUG has dispatched a team of enquiry to Calabar, Benin or even India to discover, in typical Nigerian mentality, the person or persons behind the death of students, and needs this team to return before examinations hold. Given, there has been a relative increase in the death of students but moving the exams from 12^th to probably 26^th will not bring back the dead nor proffer any logical and scientific reasons to the cause of the number of deaths that can occur at a particular time, season, or in this case, semester.

Thirdly, the SUG makes another claim that most students haven’t paid their school fees. This point may look strong on the surface, but a look at its underlying structure, triviality is not far-fetched. It is true that some students have not paid their school fees (sincerely, I feel for those), but then it is impossible for there to be a time when every student will pay his or her school fees. Furthermore, two weeks alone cannot achieve this. If the SUG so much feels for these students why not advocate that the examinations be sat next year? They won’t! If they feel for these students, they can also take part of their yearly allocation to pay for some students also and not clamour for an SUG Week that has become synonymous to financial profligacy and extravagancy. Or better still, the members of the SUG executive do not pay school fees, they can at least help some students with theirs, if the students’ interest has become paramount in their agenda.

The more rational line of thought the SUG would have toed is this: tell the school management to allow students who have not paid their school fees to sit the semester’s examination with a promise that they will pay later and if they fail to pay, their results should not be published. Whoever sees this will know they have the students’ interest at heart, and that he’s dealing with scholars!

The shocker is yet to come. This is the most incredible, ludicrous and ridiculous of all the claims made by the SUG, and a crying shame to all members of this body and indeed to all students. They have practically collected all their dirty linens, in a manner of speaking, and decided to wash them at the entrance of Mile 3 market. The SUG says that students have not seen their first semester examination result, and so they can’t sit this semesters examinations because “they do not know courses to re-register.” Someone should please tell these people that one can’t sit a first semester carryover during second semester examinations and wake them from such somnambulism.

In all this, what we have seen is a clear example of a body that is either purposeless and visionless or has forgotten its purpose and vision. At a point when the school is doing all it could to have the school return to a normal academic calendar, it seems the clog in the wheel of the university’s progress has come from the most unexpected quarters—the Students’ union. The rumour making the rounds has it that the students’ union, for some selfish interests of the union leaders, does not want the examinations to hold before the Students’ week. And apparently, the reasons above leave much to be desired. But I won’t go into what I have rightly described as a rumour. This is because it is quite glaring to all right-thinking citizens that the reasons above should not and cannot affect the date of examinations. Furthermore, the SUG’s commitment to always engage itself in a fight of blame is one that’s alarming. The schools’ academic calendar for the semester came out before June 2015, the SUG did not deem it fit to challenge this calendar all this while, why then this sudden reason that the examinations have come suddenly and that the students’ union week must hold before the examinations commence, therefore the examination date should be postponed? Why didn’t the SUG pick a week long ago, as is the norm, from the over 12 weeks that has marked this second semester? I would not here suggest that the SUG should be scrapped, that should be the decision of the students if present realities point to this need.

However, if we must blame the hawk for wickedness, we must also first scold the mother hen for exposing her chicks to danger. The university usually fails to be rigid and consistent with its academic calendar, for if the Students’ Union leaders met a university which religiously follows its calendar, they wouldn’t think of, talk more of dare, challenging the school’s academic calendar. But be that as it may, it seems the university management has seen the need to be consistent and rigid, and the Students’ Union agitation is a good challenge to this new resolution. Whatever happens—if the school yields to the demands of the union or not—will reveal how resolute the school management is under the leadership of the new Vice Chancellor, Prof. S. Lale.