Arinola Becomes First Mass Communication Student to Emerge UNILAG Students’ Union President

By Akemini Udoh and Adeola Fatoki

Samuel Arinola, a 300-level student of the Faculty of Communication and Media Studies, Department of Mass Communication, emerged president-elect of the University of Lagos Students’ Union (ULSU) for the 2026/2027 academic session.

He will become the first Mass Communication student in recent history to emerge as ULSU president.

Arinola, who was elected president of the Communication and Media Studies Students’ Association (COMSSA), qualified for the ULSU presidential race as a member of the Council of Faculty Presidents-Elect.

He contested against Solomon Daniel, president-elect of the Faculty of Computing and Informatics.

With only members of the council eligible to vote, Arinola secured 12 votes to emerge ahead of Daniel, who received two votes.

The election was conducted physically at the Rahmon Adisa Bello Auditorium through a secret ballot system, allowing eligible voters to cast their ballots privately before placing them in the ballot box.

Reacting to Arinola’s emergence, the outgoing President of COMSSA, Ayomide Adegboro, expressed his excitement over the development, noting that Mass Communication had never produced a ULSU president before the Students’ Union was proscribed in 2016.

“This being on record stands as an achievement. It makes it very remarkable, standing on the fact that this is the second administration since we became a faculty,” Adegboro said.

He added that Arinola’s emergence showed that COMSSA was “not here to play” and was ready to “stand in the midst of greatness and in the midst of leaders”.

While only Faculty Presidents-Elect were eligible to vote for the ULSU president, members of the ULSU Parliament joined the faculty presidents in voting for the other positions contested during the exercise.

Okpalanedu Chiugo, a Law Student, emerged gender and inclusion secretary with 24 votes.

In the ULSU Parliament, Adesina Abolaji, an Engineering student, emerged speaker with 29 votes, while Udeme Sampson, from the Faculty of Social Sciences, emerged deputy speaker with 32 votes.

Other parliamentary positions were also decided during the exercise, with some positions contested unopposed.