By Itunuoluwa Oluwatobi
The acquittal and reinstatement of the UI3 on April 15, 2026, should have been a defining moment for the Student Union leadership. It should have been an opportunity for the Student Union to reaffirm its commitment to advocacy, solidarity, and justice. Instead, what the general student body has witnessed is silence. Silence, in this context, is not neutrality but a political statement. It is a position.One would recall that when the UI3, Aduwo Ayodele, Nice Linus and Mide Gbadegeshin, were arrested, their actions were not acts of criminality but expressions of dissent, which is an essential component of any democratic academic environment. Protesting against fee hikes is not a criminal act. It is a demonstration of their rights. And it is in such moments that the Student Union is expected to rise to the occasion, to defend the student body and challenge the school’s administrative overreach.
However, throughout the ordeal, the Student Union leadership maintained a stance that can only be described as passive, at best, and cowardly, at worst. Even after the Federal High Court had acquitted and reinstated these affected students, the silence persisted. There had been no effort by the Student Union leadership to mobilise support and solidarity. There was no transparent engagement with the student body on the matter. It has been also noted that on the day of the Court’s final hearing, none of the Students’ Union executives showed up, for whatever reasons.
Furthermore, on March 25, 2026, the statement of the Student Union President that the court judgement does not stand, further emphasises the fact that the student Union under T.S Adeboye is already forgetting its purpose.
It takes little effort for a keen and active observer of these events, right from the point that these students were arrested on May 13, 2024, to the point when they were suspended in July 2025, up to their eventual acquittal on April 15, 2026, to realize that silence has become a political tradition for the Student Union leadership.
Looking back from the Aweda-led administration in 2024, the administration that was laced with disturbing silence following the arrest of the UI3, given the fact that these students were arrested on the day of the inauguration of the administration, to the Odedele-led administration in 2025 during the suspension of two of the affected students, in which at the time, the Student Union issued an official memo nine days after the disciplinary decision with an undertone that can be described as ‘unconcerned’, to the current Adeboye-led administration, which as of the time of this article, has remained silent on the issue even after the Court’s judgement, one would agree that the policy of silence has been successfully passed down from one administration to the other.
And this raises serious questions about the role and relevance of the Student Union. What does unionism mean if it does not extend to moments of crisis?. What leadership retreats in the face of injustice?. Silence is a response that is not merely neutral, but also symbolic. It signals whether the leadership acknowledges the gravity of what has occurred and whether it stands with the students it was elected to serve. In this case, silence suggests indifference, or worse, complicity through inaction.
It is worthy of note that this is not just about the UI3, it is about the precedent being laid. If students can be arrested for peaceful protest and the students’ leadership remains silent, what does this suggest? It tells the student body that they are on their own. It is a way of telling the authorities that there will be no resistance. And it tells future leaders that silence is an acceptable response to injustice. The Students’ Union executives must know that leadership is not defined by comfort but by courage. Their mandate is not to maintain neutrality but to actively defend the rights and interests of students. Anything short of this reduces the union to a ceremonial body, visible during elections, invisible during crises.
The finger we point at those who neglect must also be extended to the SHSN UI Akinsumbo Gbadamosi-led administration, no words of support or little extension of solidarity to the UI3 or a call to action from them, silence was even experienced in the grassroot, what would would those who are already stiff to action do, when there is no one to jolt them up.
The Adeyefa Ebenezer-led AFAS administration too is not left out of the blame, perhaps we forget that the Society and the Association where Aduwo-Ayodele came from is also an example of a student union movement, the neglect of the welafrism of the UI’3 and especially Aduwo Ayodele in faculty of Arts and Department of History is just a sad story of the loss of our identity.
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends”. Martin Luther King Jr.
