The Students Union leaders of the Osun State University (UNIOSUN0 have insisted that the immediate former VCof the institution Professor Labode Popoola deserved the patron’s title bestowed on him.
The student body affirmed that the title was given owing to his kind gesture to the students of the institution and given the students voice in his tenure.
The students(UNIOSUN) in a statement said Prof. Popoola gave students a voice by inaugurating the first students union body in the school since the establishment of the university.’’
Recall that there have been mixed reactions as a result of Prof. Ppoola’s end of tenure on November 4, 2021, and the governing council appointment of Prof. Adefemi Afeez Bello as Acting VC.
The student union leaders had honoured the former VC as their Pioneer Patron during a farewell ceremony to celebrate him.
However, there was drama in the main campus of UNIOSUN in Osogbo on Friday as some workers of the institution staged’’ a mock funeral ceremony’’ as a farewell to Prof. Popoola who described him as a tyrant administrator.
The workers in their celebration swept the premises of the VC’s office to the school gate and later ate bean cake as a sign of goodbye to Popoola amid dancing and singing.
Some of the staff had alleged the former VC of corruption, tyranny, oppression among others.
But the student’s body in the statement titled Records Set Things Right: Prof. Labode Popoola, Never To Be Forgotten, ‘’. The statement said,’’ Assuming without conceding that Prof. Labo Popoola is undeserving of the Pioneer Patron because he birthed the Pioneer UNIOSUN Students’ Union which was never granted by previous occupants of the seat he occupied. Which an oppressor empowers his
Oppressed by any means to trim down its own strength?
‘’Obviously, we as students Union leaders, are not beclouded by whatever distractions or misunderstanding s the immediate VC must have had with any of the Unions(academic and non-academic), in fact, we do not possess the wherewithal to intrude, but just maintain our focus, which is own constituency-the entire students’ populace.
‘’It is safe to say that, immediately the students Union become full-blown existence, we have had the opportunity to as a matter of urgency embark on what is expected of a bold students Union, which have consulted the management; we have consulted the management, we have consolidated on most of our demands and as the case may be, we have had moments of confrontation.
‘’The most pertinent is, we won a whole lot of time, and it is never at the detriment of our academic calendar, we were never violent as many would always want students leaders to be, ‘’
‘’We channeled our energy in a very diplomatic manner, and we have used the students union to speak with minds of our colleagues at every point in time.’’
‘’Pro. Labo Popoola has shown humility by personally paying the school fees of many vulnerable students of the university whose parents cannot afford to pay their fees; the records are verifiable, the beneficiaries are alive and they are our colleagues’’.
‘’ If this singular act is still what some people term ‘tyrannical, then the whole public by now should realize their motive is to call a dog a bad name to hang it, the statement read.