Last Updated on December 16, 2014 by admin
The Dean of Student Affairs, Professor Yemi Akegbejo-Samsons, has been unanimously elected as the Secretary-General of the Committee of Deans of Student Affairs in Nigerian Universities (CODESANU). Professor Akegbejo-Samsons was elected at the 10th Conference of CODESANU, held recently at the University of Abuja. A Professor in the Department of Aquaculture and Fish Management of the University, the new Secretary-General is expected to occupy the position for two years. CODESANU was established in 1998 with the primary aim of promoting students’ welfare and the effective management of students affairs in Nigerian Universities. 
In a communiqué, issued by CODESANU and signed by its National Chairman, Professor Armstrong Adejo, Universities were charged to strengthen the capability and infrastructure of the Student Affairs Division, to be able to carry out its enormous responsibilities, while Deans of Student Affairs should be carried along at all times on matters that relate to the students. It also proposed that Universities should put in place various strategies to ensure adequate security on campus through proper manning of gates, wearing of identity cards by staff and students and the sensitisation of students on security issues. CODESANU advised that there should be no use of the word, ‘government’, to describe the student union body in any Nigerian Universities, while the students’ work-study scheme should be established with the aim of assisting financially-distressed students and that Universities should admit students based on the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) quota, to avoid over-stretching their carrying capacities.
The Committee further appealed to students in all tertiary institutions not to allow themselves to be used by politicians in the race towards the 2015 elections, while Universities should prevent holding of political rallies on their campuses. In order to reduce unnecessary tension with regard to student union leadership, only students with a Cummulative Grade Point Average of 3.0 and above should be allowed to contest in any student union election. Universities were also encouraged to participate in public and private partnership, to provide more hostels, to reduce the accommodation challenges being experienced in most Universities while the data of expelled students should be shared among the Dean of Student Affairs, National Universities Commission and CODESANU. The communiqué added that payment of annual institutional dues to CODESANU should be mandatory, as it charged Vice-Chancellors to assist in remitting such payments, as at when due.
