In a democracy, the social contract that gives legitimacy to the government is that the people are sovereign and their leaders are just privileged servants chosen periodically by the majority, to serve in various offices of governance. And it is upon this that the politics of democracy is based, as with the cyclic elections come the politicking and advertising of “human products” best suited to serve whatever interests the public holds dear. After the politicking and the elections, then comes the actual work of governance, and all idle words and promises said are going to be brought into judgment.
Now, like Sirius announcing the rising of the Nile, another season of electioneering is slowly creeping upon the union and the subtle rise in politicking reminds us that the old guards would soon be coming to the end of their shift. As Father Time and we have carefully watched from the towers of the fourth estate all the actions and ‘misactions’ of our “servant leaders”, we would now be taking a review of various offices in the union leadership. Last time, it was the office of the House Secretary, today we will be scrutinizing the office of the Union’s Treasurer occupied by Mr Onyishi Christian.
Manifesto of few words
On looking at Mr Treasurer’s manifesto, the first obvious thing is that it seems to be a manifesto of few words as it only occupies two pages of an A4 paper. Coming from what is commonplace in the politics of UI, where candidates try to make their manifestoes as bulky as possible in a bid to leave an impression, this would look strange. It was a concern raised at the press night if the brevity of words in his manifesto means he is not out to dream big for the office that he is looking to occupy.
Mr. Christian speaking on his manifesto, said that he believes that it is not in making bogus promises but in giving promises that he can live up to and fulfil. It would seem that he was aware of Bernard Baruch’s advice to the political populace to “Vote for the person who promises least, he would be the least disappointing”.
While we also do feel that the manifesto did look quite small for someone contesting an SU position, we consider that it’s better to have a small workable manifesto that is guaranteed to be delivered than one of tens of pages of empty promises and lying.
Promises kept and unkept: Financial literacy
Aside from his constitutional duties as outlined in Article 5 of the University of Ibadan Students’ Union(UI’SU) constitution, Mr Christian promised the electorate to do 3 things for the students union in furtherance of his office as the union’s Treasurer. In his manifesto, this took the form of problem statements and solutions.
Firstly, he identified the issue of poor financial literacy amongst students. In his words, “A significant number of students graduate every year and step into the real world with excellent degrees but lacking in financial literacy”. For this, he proposed that with the help of the financial committee, he would organize a financial seminar in the form of a webinar to be held twice in a session where students would be taught about money.
At the time of writing, indeed to the credit of the Treasurer, this has been done although there was a deviation from the manifesto. What was eventually held was a physical event in collaboration with Realtors Continent at the Science Faculty lecture theatre. When asked why it was held like that and somewhat late into the tenure, he said that it was an issue of funds and getting adequate sponsorship for the program. But then it was only when they got someone willing to cover finances for the whole program before they were able to do it.
Another thing of note was that it is one thing for the program to have held, it is another thing for it to have reached enough to adequately change the trend in the student body. As we know the university has over 30,000+ students enrolled of which about 23,000 are full-time undergraduate and postgraduate students (data obtained from the 2021/22 session). It follows that a program organized and attended by 50 persons or even 100 persons would only be but a drop in the ocean.
When he was asked about this and the impact the summit has had on shifting the consciousness of what is financial illiteracy, he said “We had over 500 people in attendance in the first summit. There was also a sort of two-day follow-up program which was the youth empowerment program held at Trenchard on the 26th and 27th of last month, on each day we had over 1000 persons in attendance, even though this program was not just about financial literacy, it also involved acquiring business skills. And so I would say in total we had over 2000 students who showed interest overall and was impacted.”
I do indeed commend the Treasurer for somewhat fulfilling this particular promise, while I agree with him that having about 2000 students overall is quite significant and there is some level of impact on the question of financial illiteracy in the student body. But then we must concede that how substantial that impact has been can’t truly be known.
Promises kept and unkept: Student’s income challenge.
Here the Treasurer promised to organize a digital skill acquisition program to equip members of the union with money-making skills which would help them in light of the ever-worsening economic condition in the country.
This perennially sweet-sung promise remains yet unfulfilled. The Treasurer acknowledges this and says that preparations are still in full gear for the program to be held before the end of the tenure.
The Treasurer clarified that the youth empowerment program mentioned above was not in fulfilment of this as it was not directly an initiative of the SU but then the role the union and his office played in that was in attracting the said project to be held in the university of Ibadan.
For the digital skills acquisition program, he said “We are still working on it. We have even signed a partnership with OpexAcademy and we hope the program will kickstart by the 14thof this month. Given that the future is tech, we looked at skills which are in Tech and that was why we partnered with a Tech academy”.
When asked how many students the incentive would be looking to cover for and how much it would cost to the students. He said they are looking to cater to over 2000 students as much as would be willing to participate and that it would come at no cost to the students as it is free. When further quizzed on if the union is incurring a financial cost for this and also what is in it for the company which has offered to train over 2000 students for free, he answered that the union is not paying a dime for it and the company is also doing it for her self-visibility. He later concedes on further inquiry that since the program is being organized together with the office of the vice-president, who also promises digital skill acquisition, he would not be able to speak to all the ultra-fine details of the underlying of the program.
Promises kept and unkept: Problem of funding
For this, the Treasurer acknowledged that a key challenge in the union perennially is the lack of funds to carry out the plans of the executive council. He promised to leverage establishing contact with UI alumni, his contact with political figures, and also Igbo businessmen in Ibadan who show a willingness to sponsor student events.
Beyond the humour that his particular singling out of Igbo businessmen as a source of funding for the union brought about on the day of the press night, it was left to be seen what would be made about it. When the Treasurer was asked on what specific union event he had been able to use this channel to secure funding for, he replied that he is still yet to actualize that level of sponsorship. “We have gotten sponsorship to the tune of millions from multiple sources for union’s events including Igbo businessmen…Moreover, we still have some months in office and plan to live up to this expectation before leaving office. Furthermore, he added that beyond financial commitment like in terms of monetary contribution, he said that they have been able to offer certain services to the union and some have given non-event specific financial contributions whose names can’t be divulged for security reasons.
Beyond the promises
The Treasurer being a member of the student union executive was asked about their collective showing as regards the handling of several student issues particularly the school fees hike, outcome of the protest, and students welfare. This was in light of the negative perception towards the student union executive by a significant part of the student population. He answered that the union leaders are always working round the clock and the play of everything was not just on them but on students leaders as a whole as they carried faculty presidents and hall chairpersons, past leaders, and other student body leaders. And despite how it played out, on all issues to the best of their abilities, union leaders always tried to stay on top of the issues.
Additionally, despite it not being listed as a constitutional duty, the Treasurer was quizzed on whether he had any initiative on increasing the internally generated revenues to come towards the union from its ventures, being that the keeper of the coin bag must always think of how to keep it clinking and increasing. He said there are plans in that regard but then there have been the issue of funding and being caught up with various union events. “It is not like we don’t have things to do for the union like capital projects to increase the IGR coming to the union, we are still working on it. And I believe that before the tenure comes to an end, we would have been able to increase the IGR of the union,” he concluded.
