OAU TRANSPORTATION CRISIS: WHERE MANAGEMENT FAILS, STUDENTS SUFFER!

COMMERCIAL BUSES AND BIKES CAN OPERATE ALONGSIDE THE NEW 80 CNG VEHICLES!

UNIVERSITY MANAGEMENT SHOULD BUILD MORE HOSTELS ON CAMPUS AND REVAMP THE EXISTING ONES

Students at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, currently are at the receiving end of a transportation crisis, enduring the painful stress of long queues in an unfortunate development that was clearly avoidable. For us in the Education Rights Campaign (ERC), the blame for this must be dropped at the doorstep of the university management. We support the decision of the Students’ Union to embark on a 72-hour lecture boycott starting from Tuesday, 14th April 2026, to force the management to resolve the crisis

The immediate cause of this crisis is the change in the transportation system, from the old system of commercial ‘town Igboro’ buses to the newly introduced CNG tricycles and buses donated by the Wife of the President, Oluremi Tinubu. The new system  relies on 50 buses and 30 tricycles. This approach betrays rational thinking and basic logic. How does the University management expect over 30,000 students to seamlessly commute with just 80 vehicles? This becomes more disconcerting when we consider that over 70% of students reside off the university campus; this is aside from many workers who attend work on campus daily.

The new transportation system, purported to be a modernisation of the transportation system, has at present proved to be a step towards chaos and backwardness. Notably, the Education Rights Campaign is not opposed to modernising the transportation system or the university infrastructure, which are now eyesores, but we believe that such an initiative must be done democratically by involving students and transport  operators who will be at the receiving end of any shortfall from the policy. If this basic democratic approach had been followed, it would have been exposed to the management that such an initiative is a recipe for chaos and hardship.

Aside from the uncomfortable stress the University Management has caused students, the financial burden is like adding insult to injury. Thousands of students who reside in areas like Mayfair, AP, Lagere, etc are now left with the extra burden of paying more to enter the university. Unlike before, when students could directly use the commercial buses that have served students for decades, students now have to first alight at the campus gate and join the long queue for the new CNG buses. This ‘renewed hope’ vehicle donation has become renewed hardship.

For us in the Education Rights Campaign (ERC), there is no reason why the commercial buses and motorcycles cannot exist with the newly introduced 80 vehicles. However, it appears the university management also banned commercial bus operators on campus, in order to turn the institution into a campaign ground for the Tinubu-led government through the donated buses that bear the inscription of ‘renewed hope agenda’, a campaign slogan of the failed Tinubu government.

The Education Rights Campaign (ERC) commends the leadership of the Students’ Union for retracing their steps and thereby desisted from aiding the University management to inflict hardship on students and other members of the university community. We believe that the union has the responsibility to protect the interests of students and ensure their welfare, safety and dignity. So, we call on the union leadership to genuinely work for the success of the lecture boycott which is a right step in the struggle to resolve the transportation crisis. We call on the leadership of the union and students to demand commercial buses and motorcycles are allowed to operate on the campus alongside the new CNG-powered vehicles. We also call on students to insist that Congress is called every day throughout the boycott and no decision is taken by the union without having first deliberated and democratically agreed up at the Congress.   Also importantly, the transportation crisis also underscores the need for the union to initiate and lead a campaign to demand the building of more hostels for students and to revamp the existing hostels.

OGUNJIMI ISAAC,

DEPUTY NATIONAL CORDINATOR.

ADARAMOYE MICHAEL LENIN,

NATIONAL MOBILIZATION OFFICER

(08137051249, 08059399178)

E-mail: [email protected]

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The Education Rights Campaign (ERC) is a platform formed by activists and socialists to fight against attacks on students’ rights, and welfare, and the introduction of anti-student policies. We fight for adequate funding and democratic management of public education. Join us in the struggle to save public education from collapse.