Students of the Federal College of Education (Technical), Akoka, Lagos State have countered the claims by the Provost, Dr Wahab Azeez, they were being instigated by staff members eyeing his position in the ongoing protest rocking the institution.
The students had on Monday and Tuesday stormed roads in Akoka and environs protesting poor conditions and dilapidating infrastructure on their campus.
But Azeez, in an interview with our correspondent on Tuesday, claimed that the protesting students were doing the bidding of his staff members eyeing his position.
“Those students who are protesting are being instigated by those staff members eyeing my position. For the past five years since I was appointed as the Provost, I’ve never had an issue with students because I was a former Student Union leader and I know what the students want,” he said.
The students who continued the protest on Wednesday insisted that they were not happy with the state of the facilities in the college and expressed displeasure over the provost’s comments.
The acting President of the Students’ Union Government, Salami Bolanle, told us on Wednesday that it was important to respond to the statement made by the provost and set the records straight.
Bolanle said, “We are trying to counter (the position of the Provost). Firstly, the state of the college is very bad, the toilets, the pitch, and everything. Everybody is complaining (about the Provost), even the lecturers. We, the students, are saying no. It was not the lecturers who pushed us to protest, the students had wanted to protest for a long time, but we, the union leadership, were pacifying them. The Congress of Students had rendered the SUG useless.
“All these things we are complaining about, we have the evidence,” he said.
Pictures of parts of the hostel obtained by our reporters showed rotting wood structures, dilapidating concrete, rusted tanks and overgrown grasses.
The Speaker of the SUG, Oyefara Enoch, said the students were not questioning the Provost’s tenure, rather, how they were being treated.
He said, “There is no college staff member instigating any protest,” adding, “They are (protesting) because they said all they paid for – the value for the payment – is not seen, the hostels they paid for are in bad shape and sports facilities are poor.”
On his part, the caretaker chairman of the Non-Academic Staff Union in the college, Ogunwale Raphael, said he did not believe staff members were inciting the students.
“We had the Governing Council around in the last two weeks and when they came, the protest of the staff was going on. They were trying to see how they could resolve the issues. So, at some point, when the council chairman was moving around to ascertain our claims as to why we, the staff, didn’t want the Provost, that day, the students also started showing attitudes toward him.
“They (students) said they didn’t want him, right in the presence of the Governing Council chairman. So, it’s not like maybe the workers are the ones inciting the students. The students are the ones in the school; they sleep there and they have their reasons why they are protesting and it is known to both the Provost and Governing Council.”
He added, “He (the chairman) got to the clinic and the students went along with him; in all his movements around the college, the students were with him. So, it’s like when he got to the clinic, the chairman realised there were no drugs and he was even saying that the staff could even manage to take care of themselves but what about the students? What if there’s an emergency or something like that?
“I don’t want to believe that it’s the staff inciting the students. Students are the ones complaining; they are the ones staying within the hostel; they are the ones lacking in facilities so I don’t know. I don’t want to believe that. They’re the ones exercising their rights as they’re the ones affected mostly.”
The General Secretary of the Union, Favour Randal, also debunked the claim the staff members were inciting students.
“The staff have done theirs (protest) early this month and last month. Their own went on for like two months.
“Things that need to be done in the school for us the students to be able to have a very balanced classroom/educational life in the college should be done. First of all, the amenities in the college, from our hostels to our classroom facilities like the board, ensuring proper ventilation, to the medical facilities, going to the field for sporting activities in the college are very poor,” she said.
