Here is Tunji Epketi Micheal, a 500L student of the department of Petroleum Engineering, Faculty of Technology and a resident of Independence Hall, who was recently rusticated from University of Ibadan.
UCJ: Can you tell us what really transpired and why a disciplinary action was taken against you?
MOTE: Basically, it boiled down to the protest over light and water that occurred on the 18th of November last year, that is, 2015. For a truth, the protest was peaceful in every way; there was no vandalisation of any property in the school, harassment of anybody. So what it boiled down to for them then at the committee. They (the SDC people) asked why I joined the protest since I didn’t have a room legally in Independence Hall. But Independence hall shows on my ID card, it’s the hall I was from 100 Level. Just that in 400 Level I didn’t have a room. So they asked why exactly I joined the protest over light and water. Then I now made it clear to them that it wasn’t that I set out to join because I was even on my I.T in Port Harcourt, then I just got back for some particular reasons. So it wasn’t like I set out to do it. The day the protest thing happened, I was on my way to my hall and all. I saw them and I got down knowing fully well that I knew these people so I joined. So that was the reason.
UCJ: Okay. You have clarified that you were a part of the protest.
MOTE: Yes
UCJ: So was it true that you led the protest. That you were the ringleader, the master minder?
MOTE: No, that was not true.
UCJ: You said you came to school for a particular reason(s) because you were in Port Harcourt on your I.T. so, what really brought you to school that day?
MOTE: Okay, the most pressing any way .., because there were different sets of reasons. But the most pressing was the scholarship I got; P.T.D.F; Petroleum Development Trust Fund. And the scholarship comes with some amount of money and a laptop back in October. My I.T started in September. In October I was around to pick the laptop. We were notified that the laptop had got to the department that was in October. Then in November, the time I came back and the protest thing happened, we were sent emails to bring our school receipts so they (PTDF) could process our payments. I didn’t have my receipt with me in Port Harcourt and we were sent the mails like two weeks earlier prior to the time I came back and there was a deadline. So that was like the most pressing. Although, I purposely tried to delay it so that when I will be back to get the receipt and submit it to the department it will coincide with the time we were having our hall week. Because back then, I had the intention of running for the post of the Administrator General in Indy hall and I did not want to miss the hall week. And you know how it is doing I.T you don’t have a lot of free days. I knew I had a week so I wanted to just use the week wisely. I had spoken to my supervisor at work to give me a week that would fall into the hall week so I would get the receipts and take part in the hall week.
UCJ: It is a belief among many students on campus that this disciplinary action was a sort of political victimization. Can you clarify that in relation to the fact that you had the mind to contest for the position of the Administrator General of your hall?
MOTE: Well, I don’t know. You know the way it is in politics, a whole lot is said in the heat of the moment and a whole lot is unsubstantiated. But, well……at that time a whole lot of stuffs was flying everywhere that the school has an interest in the elections. We even heard our hall warden saying that this guy will never be the AG in this hall. A lot of people heard him when he said it, a good number of times. So, that made people looks inwardly. It was obvious that there was a lot of interest in this particular election. I can’t substantiate a lot. But all I can substantiate was a particular petition written against me by one of my opponents to the Dean of Students. That’s like the only physical proof. The bad blood got to that point that a student was petitioning another student. Knowing fully well that even at that point I had a case already, because a query had already been sent to my department.
UCJ: You said that there was a lot of interest in the elections. But why do you think the school authorities will be so interested in the electioneering process?
MOTE: Well…..everyone knows that when it comes to student activism and the University of Ibadan, two male halls come to mind; Zik Hall and Independence Hall. And like it was said, after that protest, it was said that Independence Hall alone in that particular year, had like four protests. Nobody is a mad person. So, they made it seem as if there was an allowable limit and we had exceeded that. Activism was at its peak in the hall and all its common knowledge that the school management is not one that will totally encourage student activism. I guess……. To be honest, immediately I was sent a query, I just knew within me that I wasn’t going to contest anymore. There were a lot of people in the protest, at least over two hundred, but why me in particular. So, it was obvious that the school was trying to be proactive in a sense.
UCJ: During the protest, there might have been a lot of people there; not only you but a lot of popular people.
MOTE: Yea a lot
UCJ: So do you think that a set of persons within the school authorities is against you as a person? Or have you had any issues with them, perhaps something has transpired between you and them to warrant your being singled out?
MOTE: None whatsoever, in fact the truth is, I remember the day after the protest to tell you how funny the whole thing was to me; a group of Kantangites went to see our hall warden over electoral issues. Because then the electoral committees was set up and a lot of thing were not right as regards the modality of the election and infrastructure; getting ballot boxes and all that and sorting out who the electoral chairman would be. So I went with a group of Katangites, myself, I remember Koran, that’s the former General Secretary, Toheeb, the NANS chairman and two other guys. We went to his office the day after the protest. They were speaking to him about the whole electoral committee issues we were having in Independence Hall and then he veered off at some point and started talking about the protest. He said “and about the protest that happened yesterday, those involved, don’t worry we will soon know who is right and who is wrong and then…. that Mote”. I was there, I was seated there, he said “that Mote, I saw him on the protest ground and I told him that Katangites should return and he was insisting that until when we have proved that things are sorted, we are not going back to the hall… all this…this.. this…he just kept on insisting and insisting. So that Mote, don’t worry we will soon know who is right in a little while”. And I was there. It was very funny because the other guys in his office just looked at me and they told me not to say anything. So I just kept quiet and I was looking at him. It was obvious (from what he said that) there was no point in time whereby myself and the Hall Warden personally had any rapport. In fact I wasn’t the mouth piece; I wasn’t the person that spoke to the members of the school management when they came to the protest ground. So, immediately we left his office, under the advice of the other guys that we went to his office together, they said I should return and tell him that I am Mote. So I returned to his office and told him “sir, I am the Mote you were talking about. You and I have never seen each other face to face like this. Yesterday, we did not have any interaction at any time so I’m surprised” and he didn’t say anything. It was all so funny to me really.
UCJ: We heard that your scholarship(s) has been affected by the SDC decision. How true is that?
MOTE: No, none of my scholarships were affected. Actually, none that I know of.
UCJ: Do you feel it’s an act of injustice that you were singled out and a case was raised against you? Or you think that the school authorities were trying to make a scape-goat out of you to surpress further protest activities in the future? Or stifle the voices of active students on campus?
MOTE: Either way. Either, the first one, the former or the latter, I feel I don’t deserve the jugdement I was given. Because for one, I think it’s unprecedented in the university community. Because I took the liberty of getting certain SDC resolutions; previous ones and I have never seen at any time where an issue over a protest; peaceful one where anybody; even SU protests that shut down the school, I have never heard. I took my time to go over at least three or four past SDC resolutions. For all I know from the time I joined that protest till we got back to the hall, nothing in terms of vandalization or harassment of any individual took place. In that sense, I feel bad because this is my final year and giving me a semester extra has some implications obviously. But what has been consoling me, what I have been telling myself is…. What has happened, I can beat my chest anywhere and say the school did what they did but I didn’t steal anything; I didn’t do anything criminal, I am very sure of that. All that has happened, I want to thank God that it is not a case of theft, squatting or a case of malpractice or whatever corrupt practice. I know it is an undeserving judgement.
UCJ: What are your next steps? What actions are you taking? Are you appealing against the decision or keeping quiet with your heads raised high and walk around UI and do your thing?
MOTE: Well for me, in fact, for now I just want to leave this school. I am telling you. I have seen the really ugly side of this school that there is no justice. The way the SDC is set up, you have how many school representatives there and you have just two representatives from the student body. It’s intimidating. And in the real sense, what they are supposed to do as students, you can’t blame them when they are not efficient in defending the rights of the students. Because you have like sixty people or there about versus two people. So In that sense, you can’t blame them if they can’t do much. I can bear the cross of this because I have done a lot of soul searching to ask myself if anything was particularly wrong that I did and don’t know…..I don’t know. I guess a lot of student groups are not really very happy with this and I stop to think what perspectives they could be seeing this from. They see this as the school trying to make precedence for future occurrences. So I guess if they are fighting, that is what they are fighting for. Me, I am fine. I will just make sure, of course that what is paramount is my studies. I’ll make sure that when I’m back in second semesters, because I don’t know…. I have not received the letter officially but the verdict was pronounced. Most of the things said, as they were saying them is that it is this academic semester it will take effect from; so I’m not going to have an academic record for this semester, I’ll have my second semester and then come back next session to round off. For me, I am good.
UCJ: It is a general notice that the Katangites held a protest against the judgement of the SDC. Did that protest avail much? Did it change anything?
MOTE: I really don’t know. To be honest I distanced myself from all that. I really don’t know much about it. Kantangites are pained, the few ones I spoke to. Their pain was that there were a lot of Katangites on that panel – SDC list- and a lot of the cases they see as feeble. Things that would have been sorted out in the Hall. Some of the cases, from what I was told, had to do with people not clearing from the hall on time, people not paying on time but eventually paying. Things like that, but I am not so sure. The numbers that turned out, from what I heard about the protest, was up to four hundred. And I feel when such numbers turn out, it means it is a general dissatisfaction.
UCJ: Do you think that the ‘disunity’ is the cause why the Katangites wash their dirty linen in public instead of sorting it out as a family? Do you think it is as a result of disunity or there is a bad blood in the Hall or something?
MOTE: I don’t know. I feel to some people it was easy to blame the hall warden; I don’t have anything personally against him, because he is an elderly person in the university community and I respect him. For some people, It was very easy to blame the hall executive members but some people are quick to forget that we didn’t particularly have a very good relationship towards the tail end of the last administration. There were a lot of things that put Independence Hall in a bad light of course him in a bad light. Administrative lapses. In the last administration, Katangites were complaining even up to Student Affairs about the handling of their affairs by the executives then. I heard, about twenty something or there about petitions were written by students of the hall to the Student Affairs about the activities of the last administration. We all know how hierarchy works; they will definitely get across to him from there and definitely they won’t be satisfied with what is going on in the hall. It was easy to blame the warden but it all boils down to what happened in the administration last session. The lesson from all that has happened to Independence Hall is that the relationship between the students and the management is not a cohesive one that it should be.
UCJ: Any final words?
MOTE: My final word is to just thank the UCJ. It shows you people are responsive, responsible and very sensitive to all that goes on in the University community. My mum is a journalist by the way; she retired in tribune. Journalism boils down to the sensitivity of prevalent issues. So I want to say thank you.
UCJ: Thanks for coming, for honouring our invitation
MOTE: You are welcome. It’s my pleasure.
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