UI Suspends Student Over Newspaper Comment

The University of Ibadan has suspended a student, Adekunle Adebajo, over a newspaper article published two years ago.

Adebajo, a student journalist, wrote about poor facilities at the university in an article entitled:
“UI: The irony of fashionable rooftops and awful interiors”, in The Guardian of April 2016.
He drew attention to the deplorable state of the facilities at the Nigerian premier university.
Piqued by the article, the university asked Adebajo to face a disciplinary committee.
In the following months, Adebajo continued to face disciplinary charges which he defended before he was eventually told he had been rusticated for two academic semesters.
But it was on Friday that the rustication of Adebajo became public, with his colleagues within and outside UI accusing the university authorities of being anti-free speech and oppressive.
“It is true, I was rusticated by the University of Ibadan for an article written in 2016,” said Mr Adebajo on Facebook. “The verdict was made three weeks ago.”
Adebajo, now suspended, is a student of the Faculty of Law where he was rounding off his degree as a 500-level student.
When contacted, the university spokesman said he is not permitted to speak on the issue.
However, the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Idowu Olayinka described the suspension as an internal matter.
“It is an internal matter of the university and must be treated so,” he said.