Student Leadership: UNILAG can do better

Faith Enang, Ayomide Abina and Chioma Cyprian

Former president and best graduating student of the Department of Mass Communication, Paul Agada, has decried the poor treatment of student leaders in the University of Lagos.

He said although student leaders are originally supposed to receive an endowment of twenty five thousand naira, he did not in his two years of service, receive the remuneration once.

According to Agada, the catch for students who vie for positions is not money but the sacrifices they put in should be appreciated appropriately.

He continued by saying that elected undergraduates across various faculties and departments of the school, sacrifice their time, energy, and resources to attend to the needs of the student body.

In his words, “Student leadership in the University of Lagos is not appreciated. Ideally, UNILAG was supposed to have 25k endowments for student leaders but I haven’t gotten any of them. 

“Why? We don’t know. It’s not as if we’re running for the money but there’s a level you get to if you sacrifice your money and time, there should be a reward commensurate with it.”

When asked how others can maximize their elected positions, Paul said the focus should be on making the position better for those who would do well. 

He further advised leaders to invest in the people they’re elected to serve, as well as fix the errors in the system.

 “If you want to maximize it, I do say that your biggest reward is to ensure that you invest in people. So if you’re coming to be a leader so that you can organize a party, it shows that you have misplaced priorities. But if you’re coming for leadership, come to address some of the cracks of the system.