It is a positive development – Tobi Idowu
If the Students’ Union election had not been postponed, we would have gone through the same dull rituals of putting some square pegs in the round holes and, then be expecting the elected conjurers to start wielding their magical wands. Alas, this was not so. A very welcome development in Students unionism it is, in the premier university, since it was unfettered five sessions ago. The postponement of the Students union election was a positive one, and timely for obvious reasons:
First, Students Unionism, as it is currently in the University, is a travesty. The students need to know, and of course be educated, that students’ unionism transcends the rudderless noise and protests, the jarring jingles accompanying election’s periods, and the packages stuck out every year. Student Union is, “the representative of the entire body of students of the university.” The protection of the interests of the students is core reason student leaders are elected every year to lead the union. For the past five sessions, the pattern has always been elected student leaders who knew not their own interests, much more, the interests of their fellow students they were to protect. This trend must be stopped before the election is conducted, and it is now!
Moreover, the Students’ Union must be got back from the school authorities before election is conducted. I wrote earlier that the students’ union was unfettered five sessions ago, yet it has always been kept on a leash. Ultimately, the union will and cannot be effective beyond its leash. From the spurious Students’ Union constitution (how on earth did the students accept that constitution), the counting of votes and collation of results in students’ affairs office, the Chairman of the electoral committee not being a STUDENT are many ways in which the union has been leashed. The postponement of the election should be seen as a boon, and the period before the election is conducted should be judiciously used to get back the students’ union; for it is The STUDENTS’ UNION.
Furthermore, it is a positive development the student union election was postponed because it will afford us students ample time to assess the aspirants. It will be a pity if square pegs are put into round holes this time around. With the little time the postponement affords, and the ills shackling the union being got ridded of, we will not get the kind of ideology-less students union leaders we have been used to. Thank goodness, our union election was postponed.
We are playing to the gallery- Oseni Ibrahim
Many nonsense can never make a sense, even if clad in the beauty of alibi. This is alluding to the needless postponement of the Students’ Union election and the myriad of arguments that have come in its defense.
Dwelling in the words of Achebe that adage is the palm oil with which words are eaten, I will like to bask in one brilliant saying of the witty Yoruba folk which says: Chopping off is not an antidote to a pain-stricken head. In the same vein, postponing the Students’ Union election is not a good way of compelling the management to do our bidding. It is only tantamount to adding salt to a weeping sore, giving the obvious ineptitude of the existing administration.
Apart from the scourge of corruption that has sucked deep into the blood of the Huntershola-led Redemption team, it is to be noted that the ship of our Students’ Union is currently without a sailor: With the anchorman just recuperating and Akpa Chidinma on suspension. Nothing is healthier for our Union at this moment than the injection of the waiting brains into the Union through the election. This will go a long way in resuscitating our already sickly ‘Aluta.’
In fact, to postpone the election any further is to create another avenue for ineffeciency , whereby the eventual winners will always come up with flimsy excuses of not having enough time to discharge their responsibilities because the election failed to hold as and when due. This will no doubt justify their failure. And then, we will have little or no right to chastise.
Meanwhile, the argument that the School management must meet all our demands before the election holds is invalid. After all, two out of the three demands have already been met which is a pass mark in any academic grading system. Why not let us get on with the battles we have warned so far, and let Aluta continue in the subsequent time.
I am an advocate for Students’ welfarism just like the honest few that are advocating for the postponement. But at this moment, its merits surely underweigh its perils. And we should not fiddle any longer while the Union crumbles.
English novelist, George Orwell opined in his essay, Language and Politics, that effect can as well become a cause if not well managed. This may be the fate of our Student’s Union if the election is not conducted soon. For it will undoubtedly have negative effects on the performance of the incoming administration.
Finally, postponing the election and thinking we are holding the School management to ransom, is no less illogical than the recently experienced xenophobic attack in South Africa. They had issue with their economy and vent their angers on the innocent immigrants. In like manner, we postponed our own Union election to spite the management. Where is the cohesion?
NOTE: EITHER END is a new column on board by two scribes of AFAS Press Organisation, who think burning issues within and outside our immediate community can be intellectually argued out taking a look at both sides to fulfil the Yoruba juxtaposition that it’s only a wicked elder who judges from only an angle of argument. Your comments and observations are welcome as we are out to serve your interest. We wish you a happy reading!
