PROLOGUE
I have heard the word “Comrade” used with affection, with respect and sometimes with a little suspicion. It is a word that can bring people together. It can also make a simple greeting sound like a political statement. But what does it mean when the meeting is over and the people who called you Comrade are waiting for you to do something?
Picture a student sending a message late at night. The water in the hostel has stopped flowing. Someone has been turned away from the clinic. Another student says a new charge has appeared without any proper explanation. By morning, the union is expected to have an answer. Students do not always see the calls, the questions, the checking and the conversations that happen before that answer is given.
What they usually see is the statement. They see the photograph from a meeting. They see the protest, the press conference or the announcement that an agreement has been reached. Sometimes they see the result. Sometimes they see nothing change and begin to wonder whether anybody really listened.
That gap between what the public sees and what actually happens is where this book begins. Student unionism has a public face, but it also has a private workload. There are conversations before decisions, people who help shape a position without holding office, promises that must be followed up and difficult choices that do not fit neatly into a social media caption.
I am not writing this book to settle scores or to present every student leader as either a hero or a villain. The movement is more complicated than that. Some situations in these pages are composite illustrations drawn to explain familiar leadership dilemmas. They are not allegations against identifiable people or claims that a particular private meeting happened exactly as described.
I also write from within the movement. I served as Public Relations Officer of the Students’ Union Government at Osun State College of Health Technology, Ilesa, during the 2024/2025 session, and I currently serve as Director of Media of NANS Southwest Zone D. That experience shapes the questions I ask, but this book is written in my independent capacity.
One thing I do not want us to forget is that student power should never be underestimated. The chants we inherit are not just noise. They remind us that students are not spectators in decisions that affect their education, welfare and future. But power must be organised, informed and used with a clear sense of responsibility.
We inherited a tradition of struggle. We did not inherit an instruction to confront everything. There are matters that require consultation, matters that need people to come together, moments when communication must be handled carefully and situations where a firm confrontation becomes necessary. Knowing the difference is part of leadership.
This book will ask uncomfortable questions. What does it mean to be a Comrade? Who does the work when there is no camera? Why do some people matter to an election without ever holding office? What does student unionism take from the person who serves? And when the office is finally handed over, what remains?
I do not expect every reader to agree with every page. I only hope that, by the time you reach the end, you will look at student unionism with a little more understanding and a little less assumption. There is much more to the struggle than the crowd sees.