From the temporal span of the session, in the University, the second semester is the busier of the two semesters from almost every consideration… and the nosier! Already, earsplitting events and their boisterous organizers have begun to spring up at every availably choicest place where they could reach out to hordes – one of such places is the Students’ Union car park. Gradually, but surely the park has started calling unsuspecting and suspecting students away from classes; welcome to the dangerously interesting semester…
Of the many interest-arresting things that will take place the second semester politics takes a noticeable position. Second semester is usually replete with the gaming and scheming that characterize politics in the departments, at the faculties and of course in the halls of residence. Many regulars and newbies in the sometimes raucous game of politics in the departments, faculties and the halls have begun the planning; the reaching out; the maneuvering; the alignment; and definitely the all important greeting in order to outscore their assumed political foes. To admit to not seeing some fellow students’ sudden metamorphoses into respectable and cautiously courteous curtsey-givers is to be a poor and an unnecessary liar.
Meanwhile, it will be a lost shot to preach indifference to the political circus that will soon be installed. Aristotle’s political animal statement maintains its veracity; and in fact, to be docile when one can contribute a thing or two to steps that will ultimately redound to ones blessing or woe is to be a miserable fool. Simply, it is not right to sit back when one can join in the electioneering processes that will begin in couple of weeks in any political unit one finds oneself on campus.
However, politics, like every other inherently time-consuming endeavour, has a way of trapping students especially, in its distracting lair. Students soon forget that their primary business is study; politics becomes a life or a death pursuit that kicks aside every other pursuit that demands attention. Students will become even more adept at the shenanigans of politics than the professionals in the field, dusky political meetings at ungodly hours will be joy that send even the life-sustaining food away for some frenzied folks… and one begins to wonder at what cost? Politics has been a worthwhile foray for some students in the past and it is being a worthwhile foray for some presently. Fact. Yet, it is a fact that politics has dragged some lost students into academic quagmire from which they have not been able to get out. Some students’ academic stay has been prolonged beyond the normal time due largely to their directionless sojourn into politics. These, pathetic fellows, deserving sometimes pity and scorn, are often the authors and the finishers of their academic struggles. Do they deserve pity when secondary activities on campus eat away their academic time? Do we scorn them for their woes?
It is therefore important to draw the ears of willing fellow students to the enchanting trap that is the second semester’s politics. While one can definitely steer the middle course, it is usually tempting to tilt to the ‘interesting’ side, and that side has often been politics. All books without some fun is to make a UIte a bore? Much fun, less books, however, puts a UIte at the risk of becoming a former non-graduated student!
Furthermore, it is equally of importance to admonish here that in pitching our supports, we must not be carried away by flimsy and spurious promises and pleas that student’s politicians will start unleashing on us. It will not be fair to ourselves if we oblige a specious prophet that promises change that is discovered a ruse to get our ballots in hindsight. It is often better to anticipate a problem, and therefore prevent it than wait for its occurrence before finding measures to cure it. So to get lost to maudlin sentiments while deciding on those that will be student’s leaders is to get set for the often miserably wistful pining of ‘what could have been’. Therefore the merits of every seeker of votes must be weighed comparatively before we cast out irretrievably ballots.
So before the stage is set for the semester’s politicking, before student’s politicians start besieging our ears with bloated promises, it is wise to learn how not to be unwise to their wiles and guiles; it is wise to know how not to be unwise to the CGPA-milking excitement that politics gives. It is wise to know that student’s politics is part of the numerous extracurricular activities that have their long time benefits if utilized judiciously alongside academic activity even after the end of the academic sojourn on campus.
To avoid being cajoled and courted completely by the blare that has been and will be unleashed on every student on campus at the detrimental of academic studies, it is wise to be forewarned.
Before the Blare…
