In the streets of FUTO, heard are whispers and cries, roaming through the corridors of power, leadership, student representation, and the Aluta struggle. Those who hear these whispers perceive them as cries for freedom, but underneath these cries are words of incompetence, masked in loyalty and denial.

It is a system with no hierarchy, where various kings of various kingdoms fight not for impact, but for relevance and power.

These whispers have been heard by all and have changed our collective mindset and perspective, leading us to perceive incompetence as loyalty. Silence has been sold as wisdom, denial seen as optimism, competence painted as a threat to the system, delay rebranded as strategy and corruption has become the modus operandi.

Gone are the days when the SUG lived in the hostel with their students. How can the SUG know the problems of their students when they reside off-campus and stay disconnected from the daily realities of students in the hostels? Gone are the days when the hostel was a place every student wanted to reside in because of its safety, social life, affordability and hygiene. Now we have leaders who seldom visit the hostels despite receiving free hostel allocations from the school and only visit or appear when there is a campaign for events or elections. Students are aware of the existence of the SUG through their pictures displayed on flyers and banners but are unable to identify them when seen as a result of the SUG's failure to visit the hostels and lecture halls regularly, and yet they wonder why their relevance continues to witness a decline in recent times.

Over the years, the SUG has fallen down the pecking order. The biggest student union in the school, meant to have the interest of students at heart while handling major projects, has gone down to organising events where motivational speakers are called to give words of affirmation to students. Our leaders know how the system works, yet they run for elections with little plans and end up blaming their inability to carry out their duties on inadequate funding. Our student leaders lack the creativity to think outside the box and introduce more beneficial programmes, instead, they stick to the same programs that have been organised for many years, with only a few doing things differently.

Our leaders tend to neglect the little things not knowing that it is the little things that matter. What happened to gifting waste bins and other sanitation materials to hostels and gifting white boards to lecture halls? What happened to bringing scholarship opportunities to high performing students and working with reputable brands and companies in providing IT Placement opportunities for students? Our leaders have prioritised organising and spending on programs over handling the basic needs of students.

Gone are the days when the MSRC were respected by the SUG, the judiciary, and other student leadership bodies.

We tend to blame the unknown, yet we have members of the Student Representative Council who operate under the illusion that blind loyalty to the SUG will pave the way for political success, thereby compromising the very mandate they were elected to uphold.

Welcome to FUTO, where the majority of our Student Representatives are potential aspirants for the next SUG election. The moment they are elected into office as Students’ Representatives, they immediately begin a marathon race towards the next election, not with a baton, but with the mace of the House.

Last session, we had a Speaker of the House who fled with the Mace while the house was in session and still faced no consequences, even though this act is widely regarded as a serious offence. We have Student Representatives whose eyes are already fixed on the next SUG election, neglecting their constitutional duties and failing to hold leaders accountable because of their own future political ambitions. Then we wonder why the Aluta spirit continues to die.

The blindfold on Lady Justice’s eyes has fallen off, and the judiciary is now selective in its judgments. The FUTO Bar Association, once known as a reputable body, has ceased to prosecute wrongdoing.

FUTO student barristers never hesitate to attach the “Barr.” title to their names or parade in their legal robes, yet they consistently fail to execute their core constitutional duties. The FUTO Bar Association has yet to hold a well-conducted sitting or judge a meaningful case with large attendance of students in recent times. While their judicial sittings suffer from virtually zero publicity, legal events with little or no impact receive massive promotional pushes.

Students rarely approach the campus judiciary because of its persistent failure to regularly hold sittings on cases. A large number of students are unaware that most issues they face as students can be resolved by the judiciary but they are ignorant of this fact due to the incompetence of the FUTO Bar Association. Yet, instead of addressing this widespread incompetence, they blame it on whispers with no author.

Student leaders often add multiple titles to their names, believing that leadership is measured by the number of titles attached to their names rather than by actual impact. As a result, title collection has become a priority for some, thereby promoting the wrong narrative to young leaders. We now have leaders who have made little or no impact and can only brag about their titles, with a touch of “greatest gbo gbo” here and there.

The watchdogs of our society, the FUTO journalists have become toothless. We have failed to speak truth to power, failed to hold our leaders and fellow students accountable, and have become biased. The FUTO Students Society of Journalists (FSSJ), once known as a famous and fearless association, is now invisible as many students do not even know what the association is all about. We have become biased in our publications and helped disseminate the very rumours the public now hears as whispers. We are meant to be watchdogs of our institution, but we have been caged by fear and have allowed it to stop us from carrying out our duties. We have allowed these whispers to define us and allowed fear to bind us. We have become prisoners of our minds due to the fear of the unknown.

The Independent Student Electoral Committee (ISEC) continues to place exorbitant prices on electoral forms every year. In 2024, the SUG presidential form was priced at ₦15,000. This rose to ₦25,000 in 2025, and further increased to ₦30,000 in 2026, effectively doubling the cost within just two years. This has become a major factor behind political apathy in the institution. Many who see the constant increase in form fees get the message that those without enough money have no place in leadership. The constant increase in election forms has been feared by many with students arguing if the previous ₦30,000 form price in 2026 will double or see a significant increase in the coming years. This norm has passed a narrative to the public as students continue to question the exorbitant prices placed on election forms every year.

We find it easy to criticise political apathy in the country, yet we practice it in our schools. We fail to come out en masse to vote, but tend to point fingers and blame student leaders meanwhile we never came out to vote for the competent ones.

We students hear these whispers in our hostels and lecture halls. We tend to point fingers, yet we are the cause of many of our problems. We blame the school management for not keeping the hostels and lecture halls in good shape, meanwhile we are the ones who make our hostels an eyesore and uninhabitable. We have failed to keep the hostels we live in clean and have turned our hostels and lecture halls into dump sites, yet we blame and expect the SUG and school management to fix the problems we created with our own hands. A few semesters ago, the school management carried out renovations on our hostels, toilets and other facilities. They repaired toilets and reading rooms, but we failed to maintain them. We failed to keep our bedrooms, toilets and kitchens clean. Our hostel and faculty leaders have failed to organise regular sanitation exercises, yet we blame the school management for not upgrading the same facilities we failed to maintain and keep clean.

Students have played a major role in the insecurity plaguing the institution. We all are aware of the insecurity in the country, but we neglect all warnings by the institution and our leaders and go ahead to move around the school late at night, we even go as far as traveling back home at late hours and we end up putting the blames on the institution and security outfits when things go wrong. There's no denying the insecurity challenges in our society but we have always put ourselves in line of danger and end up placing the blame on others, we have kept these whispers alive by passing various narratives without calling ourselves out for our own Indiscipline.

This does not mean that no student leader or student has showcased discipline and made a positive impact. Some students, student leaders, Barristers, Student Representatives and journalists have made significant impact while a few others who go the extra mile to make a change are limited by indiscipline and lack of courage to speak up and challenge the norm. Indiscipline and denial have bound us all with chains. Student leaders have limited themselves from speaking against wrongdoings and carrying out their constitutional responsibilities.

We all are accomplices. We have played a role in these rumours and have kept these whispers alive. The Aluta struggle is dying, and until we silence these whispers and work towards becoming the change we want to see in our society, students may never experience the glory that FUTO was once known for in the past.

The school moves into a new session with new leaders, new goals and a new mindset.

Will these whispers continue to keep us in chains, or are we going to finally break out and make a difference?

Time will tell.

By Your Fav. Journalist