By: Press Council
Press: Please, can we get to know you?
SUG PRESIDENT: I’m Comrade Oladipupo Olamide Daniel, the Students’ Union President of The Polytechnic, Ibadan.
PRESS: Why are you at the protest ground?
SUG PRESIDENT: Some days ago last week, His Excellency, Governor Seyi Makinde, at an event announced that the name of our school will change to Victor Omololu Olunloyo Polytechnic, Ibadan.
Now, Sincerely, as a bona fide student of The Polytechnic, Ibadan, we are not here to fight, we are not here to revoke, we are not even here to protest; this is not a protest.
Sincerely, this is a way of us channelling our grievance, since that particular day we heard the news, we have been reaching out to media houses, writing out letters, and we personally came out to submit a letter to the office of the Governor.
All we want is that our school should remain our school and the heritage and history of over 50 years, with different alumni all over the world, you get.
Sincerely, it is not about how easy it is to pronounce “TPI”, it is not about the name, it is the heritage that should stay with the name of our school. This is the first Polytechnic with the article ‘The’.
As it stands now, it is not the only Polytechnic; this is a movement that other people have followed. The origin of heritage.
We want it to stay!
We want it to hold!
And as we are here, we are here to plead with the Governor, we are not here to fight. In all the Placards that we see here, there’s no particular placard that is speaking against the Governor; we are here to plead with the Governor.
We want the governor to attend to us, we want The Polytechnic, Ibadan to remain as The Polytechnic, Ibadan.
Thank you. Any other questions?
PRESS: Was there any reason to retain the name?
SUG PRESIDENT: I just said it now, this is a heritage of over 50 years.
Sincerely, we know that renaming this school is rebranding this school, am I right?
Rebranding this school will cost a lot of money. In our school, we have more land than classes, facilities, and all.
In fact, we don’t even want that, we want our school to remain our school.
Instead of spending all that money to rebrand the school, we just want our school to remain our school.
Sincerely, we are open to discussion.
Other buildings, other auditoriums, classes, and hostels can be renamed after anybody’s name as the governor wants it, but the particular name of the school, TPI, we don’t want it to change.
The Polytechnic, Ibadan should remain The Polytechnic, Ibadan.
Thank you.
PRESS: Your name again
SUG PRESIDENT: My name is Comrade Oladipupo Olamide Daniel, the current and sitting Student Union President of The Polytechnic, Ibadan.
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