“I Won’t Use Confrontation In Addressing Students Problems” – NSUK SUG President
Solomon Attah
The newly elected President of the Student Union Government, Nasarawa State University Keffi, Victor Affiku Tsaku has said that he would not use confrontational approach in his quest to addressing the academic and social challenges of the students within and outside the campus.
The SUG President who stated this in an interview after his inauguration at the main campus of the University in Keffi said that his leadership would not pay undue respect and loyalty to anyone, irrespective of his position that would be detrimental to the students of the institution.
“My responsibility and duty is to respect everybody, to accord honour to those in leadership position and to service the students in synergy with the management of the institution.
“But that respect will never be at the detriment of our students; we will respect you but whatever that is supposed to be done that will favour our students, you must do it.
“And if you don’t do it, we wouldn’t allow you to sleep. We are going to renew student voice and I want to reiterate on my promise that we will never use any confrontational approach in achieving this,
“But rather we will use appealing and diplomatic method to ensure that the demands and needs of the students are addressed accordingly.”
He stressed that, as the voice and representative of the students, “I will not be afraid of anybody, I wouldn’t be intimidated by anybody, I wouldn’t hide any truth, and I will be sincere in my leadership to all.”
Tsaku who lamented situation where students fail examination woefully and are confronted with other several academic challenges, saying, as a practicing teacher, it is academically impossible for students to write exam and fail, with no assessment at the end of the semester.
“Such cases are very common in the university with GSTs, where somebody will be having the same problem from 100 level to 400 level.
“In as much as mistakes are inevitable with students’ assessments or as result of technical challenges, that should not be a problem that will hinder the students from graduating.
He charged Faculties and Departmental Examination Officers to take their work seriously and be meticulous in computing students’ results.
“Where ever you made a mistake, you should be responsible for that, not the student”.
He likened the relationship between the lecturers and the students of the university as that of the stone and egg relationship, where the student suffers the consequences they know nothing about
“When the lecturer is at fault the student suffers the consequences, even when the student is at fault, he or she suffers the consequences.
“We are not saying that the lecturer should be penalized, No! We realise mistakes can come, but when an exam officer will send the student to the ICT, even to the course lecturer in some cases, and they will still send the student back to the examination officer is our concern.
“And at the end of the day, the student will be so confused, stranded and not knowing what to do, which course to register for, whither it is a carryover or missing script.
“These are areas we hope to address and we will ensure that if there are such problems, they shouldn’t exceed two to three weeks before a student should know his/her faith”.
Tsaku said that, top most among issues in the list of priorities of his leadership would include students’ welfare, unity of students, campaign against cultism, drug abuse and others social vices and that he will organize programmes that will promote and enhance academic performance of students of the university.
“My priority is to introduce a system that would promote cultural and religion harmony among the students of the university.”
