The Students' Union is the highest students body in tertiary institutions. The major purpose of students' union is to represent fellow students in some fashion and the Union is also saddled with the responsibility of providing students' social, welfare and academic services. It is meant to be a Union of activists and defenders of Students' rights. It is a body that is expected to represent and voice the interests and opinions of the students' community.
Historically, Students' unionism in Nigeria could be traced to as far back as 1925, after the emergence of the West African Students' Union (WASU), which was partly pioneered by some Nigerian Students in London. Notably Ladipo Solanke, Nnamdi Azikiwe and Obafemi Awolowo. The ideology of WASU was to fight for the rights and freedom of African Students from the Whites. Many of these founders of WASU later went on to be political giants of their various countries. They include Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya, Ceci Rhodes of Rhodesia, Nnamdi Azikiwe of Nigeria, to mention but a few.
It was this ideology of fighting against oppression that the National Union of Nigerian Students, now National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) inherited from WASU. Today, unionism has thrived on campuses and it has extended to departments, faculties, social clubs and associations.
The participation in students' Union activities is known as Unionism mostly referred to as student politics. Research has shown that a large number of students on Nigerian campuses, participate in student politics. It is quite interesting to know that the modus operandi and system of running the affairs of the students' union in Nigerian tertiary institutions, is fashioned out of the System of Government being practiced in Nigeria, whereby the Students Union Government is structured into three arms; Legislature, Executive and Judiciary. Most of these Unions have organised and structured political parties which participation is encouraged, recognised and even approved by the authorities of most schools. LAUTECH Students' union is a very good example of this kind of formation.
As Student politics grow and becomes interesting, and the players become actively involved in finding solutions to the problems facing students, stakeholders all over have started to see students' unionism as one major factor that affects student's academic performance negatively. In some schools, student politicians are taken to have little or no regard for their academic pursuit, partly because they give little or no attention to their studies. Many other student politicians that focus more on their studies derisively refer to those that take academic with levity and their caucus, as Non-Academic Students or Non-Academic Students Union. (NASU)
In some instances, many Students' Union leaders have been unable to graduate at the regulation time and in some cases, they forfeit their education mid-way, while some that decide to complete their programs spend many years in school before their eventual graduation. In some programs which require four or five years, some spend an average of nine years and at a point, fellow students refer to them as professional students. However, some students Union leaders overstay on campus not because of poor academic performance, but their delay is connected to victimization. This occurs when a student leader is perceived as a stumbling block to the interest of the school authority and some lecturers.
Failure in academic pursuit of some student union leaders is connected to their demanding positions. Because of this, they no longer attend lectures and you only see them around when it's time for examinations. Just like several other students, by nature, many student politicians are weak academically. Many have low assimilation and comprehension rate and they fail in fine-tuning how to cope with academics and politics. Influence of political association also tells on students union leaders academic performances.
However, solutions to these problems are not far-fetched. Student politicians must learn how to set priority on Union tasks and duties; this would be made possible through effective and proper planning, organising, controlling and directing of political duties and assignments.
Another factor that could militate against this issue of academic failure is understanding the ideology and philosophy of political associations before becoming a member. One needs to understand their antecedents, their core values, and sample public opinipns and perception of such organization.
In the same vein, the university authority should help in guiding the students to set up a students' union government that need leadership opportunity and growth opportunity to the students. This is because students' union leaders do definitely need that kind of opportunity to show how they can influence their peers. Through that influence, students' union leaders can make decisive choices in terms of where the students body should be looking towards in students issues and larger society.
Without an iota of doubt, students unionism has helped students from various background and its participation should be more encouraged. Many people have been elevated to higher political positions through students unionism.
Truth be told, making good grades is dependent on individuals because, there are countless examples of students' union leaders that made first class and other wonderful grades despite the tedious nature of their responsibilities.
Unionism apart, whoever will not do well in academics will still not do well because the commitment might not be there. It is not therefore the extra responsibility that connotes failure. Students' Union is a training ground and capacity building avenue of future leaders. It is therefore important to discourage and militate against those who are turning this golden privilege into a money making venture.
Youths, especially those from poor background have grown politically through students bodies. For example, Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, who had served as speaker and Governor of Rivers state on different occasions was an active student leader during his undergraduate days. He was the National President of Rivers state students. On the professional side, Prof. Pat Utomi, the proprietor of Lagos Business school was a students' Union leader at the University of Nigeria Nsukka. These men and many others have been lifted and developed through students' unionism.
The bottom line is, students' unionism on academic performance depends on the person involved.
For an effective students' Unionism and as student politicians, what we need to do for the students is to broaden the opportunity, make sure we get real students who are serious minded, who can learn leadership art through unionism rather than thugs who turn to political hooligans for sustenance and noise making. If done with all sense of carefulness, there is no doubt that adequate participation in unionism will boost capacity to work with people, self confidence and efficient learning system.