Following the suspension of Kunle Adebajo, an award-winning campus journalist and a Law student of University of Ibadan who’s expected to proceed to law school this year, Campus Journalists across the country under the auspices of “Free Campus Press Movement” have condemned the act.
The group faulted the two-semester suspension of Adebajo, by the University management under the Leadership of Professor Idowu Olayinka.
Full text of the press statement reads: “While we are not contesting the powers of the University to discipline Students, we are very much concerned that the institution management found it very convenient to suspend Kunle Adebajo for his investigative feature titled “UI: The Irony of Fashionable Rooftops and Awful Interiors” published on Guardian newspapers in 2016.”
“Not only do we find this strange in the current dispensation of modern terms and in the post-colonial era, we also find it strange that the University failed to observe that this intellectual work did not in anyway abuse or defame any personality nor institution but rather aimed to improve the standard of the University.
“We are deeply disappointed that a University of prestige and calibre like University of Ibadan will fail to observe that ethics of Journalism requires objectivity, we feel the objectivity of Kunle Adebajo was seen as subjectivity by the University management which is appalling”
While stressing the importance of freedom of the press, the release noted that, “in the current age where Press Freedom is being preached, we find it very disheartening that University of Ibadan decided to be the premier varsity in suspending campus Journalists”.
“We would not fold our arms, we call on all well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on the University management to rescind the suspension of Mr Adebajo,” it added
