INTERVIEW: One major problem about Congress is that people do not really turn up, Emmanuel Olawoye, UISU AGS Aspirant

As part of concerted efforts to provide credible reports and reviews on the candidates and the electoral process of the UI’SU, UCJ UI under its Election Watchroom Initiative reached out to UI’ SU Assistant General Secretary (AGS) aspirant, Emmanuel Olawoye. In this exclusive chat with UCJ correspondents, Emmanuel explains his plans and motivations for his candidacy while giving his two cents on the various issues of pressing concern to the student community.

UCJ: Good day, everyone. Welcome to the first aspirant interview for the upcoming SU Election. Today, we have with us the candidate for the position of Assistant General Secretary, Mr. Emmanuel Olawoye.

Emmanuel: Good day, everyone. My name is Olawoye Taiwo Emmanuel. I am a 200-level student of the Department of Law, and I am a resident of the Great Kenneth Mellanby Hall of Residence. I am an aspirant for the position for the office of Student Union Assistant General Secretary.

UCJ: Very good. Mr. Emmanuel, can you please tell us briefly about the office you are running for, the constitutional responsibilities, and the expectations of that office?

Emmanuel: Alright. Talking mainly about the constitutional duties of the office of the Assistant General Secretary, they are as follows: the AGS shall be the one to take charge of the freshers week, and it might also include the welfarism of freshers. Also, the AGS is to assist the General Secretary in the discharge of his duties, and also the AGS is meant to take over the office of the General Secretary in case the office of the General Secretary is declared vacant, and the AGS is also to work hand in hand with the Student Union Vice President during the period of the Student Union week.

UCJ: Thank you very much, Mr. Emmanuel. So, what makes you think you are the appropriate candidate for the position of the UI’SU AGS?

Emmanuel: Talking about my intention to run for this office, it’s actually as a result of my intention to serve. Serving currently as the Assistant General Secretary of Kenneth Mellanby Hall, it has opened my eyes to see some of the duties of the AGS and how best one can use this office to promote the welfare of the people around. For example, serving as the AGS of Kenneth Mellanby Hall  has [also] made it my point of duty to be very close to the freshers, the organization of the Kenneth Mellanby Hall Freshers Week and also part of the innovations I have done as the AGS of Kenneth Mellanby hall is the organizing of freshers academic tutorials and then aside that, being a member of the current AGS help desk committee, I’ve been able to contribute my own quota such as during the SU Freshers Week. Also, I see that the welfarism of freshers is a very cogent and important thing. Kudos to the AGS, he has been trying his best in this office, and I wish to do the same and improve on it if elected as the AGS of the student union. 

UCJ: You mentioned that you are on the current AGS’s committee, so can you list some of the achievements of that committee?

Emmanuel: Okay. Talking about the achievements of the committee, one of them is the SBJ food initiative, the freshers free transportation scheme to DLC, and we also have the freshers academic drive, which consists of various past-questions(PQs), academic materials in their various courses, and it’s also a help desk committee for the timely checkup and welfare of freshers.

UCJ: Thank you very much, Mr. Emmanuel. So can you tell us about your own plans, your visions for the UI’SU, if you are elected as the AGS?

Emmanuel: So the question about my plans is actually a very deep one, and they are actually very much. So the first plan I have is improvement on the freshers week. When we look at freshers week that was coordinated in this current regime, it was actually a great one, and I intend to improve on it with additional activities like the freshers’ tour. The freshers’ tour will be coordinated during the first week of resumption. It’s a tour to take freshers around their faculties’ and departments’ lecture theatres.Also, I intend to include the freshers picnic at the end of each semester to ease the pressure of academics on freshers and to make the freshers work a combination of social and academic excellence. Aside from that, another program I intend to do is the freshers database. I’ll be conducting a very comprehensive database for freshers, which will include all their details so as to ensure a more convenient, timely checkup for help desk members to check on freshers. Then aside from that, I intend to continue with the free transportation scheme that the current AGS is doing and increase the number of students that would enjoy this program. I intend to organize a freshers award ceremony so as to serve as a motivation for freshers to do well in their courses especially courses that actually have a record of poor results. I intend to bring in awards for students that perform exceptionally well. I feel if I am able to do this, it will motivate the freshers to kind of prepare well for their courses and also to perform more brilliantly.

These are some of the plans I intend to execute if elected.

UCJ: Okay, so how do you intend to get funding for the freshers’ picnic and the transportation to DLC?

Emmanuel: The question of funding is actually a very big question. I think currently as a member of the help desk committee it has opened my eyes to the problem of funding that SU executives pass through and not just that serving currently as the AGS of Kenneth Mellanby Hall. It’s a very big task getting funds but our plans are also adept. Aside from the money to be allocated to these events by the SU legislative council, I think a very big task that I’ll be doing immediately after being elected is making means to source for funds. I intend to start work on that immediately. While also trying to source for funds, it’s necessary to have backup plans in case if that does not work, then we might kind of need to monetize some of our tickets.

For example, during this SU week, the Variety Night [specifically], there were ticket sales, so we kind of charged a small amount for these tickets to help the little funds that are available to run these programs.

UCJ: Thank you very much. We believe you are close to the current UISU AGS, so you have an eagle-eye perspective. You are able to see everything, all the successes and its failures. So can you briefly critique his accomplishments and its failures in the office using the SWOT analysis — strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats — tell us the parts you are seeking to improve, and you can just briefly elaborate on that?

Emmanuel: Answering that question, I would start by praising the current AGS. If I’m to analyze his achievements so far in office, I must greatly and assuredly say that he has done well. Part of the innovations he has brought on board is the SBJ food initiative program, the help desk committee, the free transportation scheme to DLC for freshers, and the freshers week. So I intend to improve on these activities in this sense.

UCJ: Strength, you have stated all the strengths; move on to weaknesses, opportunities, and then threats.

Emmanuel: All right. So talking about the weaknesses, I think the major obstacle we had during the freshers week was that there was a kind of low turnout of freshers for the program. I intend to improve on this by involving all faculties and hall of residence PROs to make a very large publicity for the freshers week, which will enable the majority of freshers to be inclined to attending this program. And also another problem I noticed is that during the transportation scheme there were issues of shortage of funds.

I think if this issue is kind of a recurrence, if elected, we might have to find a way to get more money. For example, if it involves freshers paying a little amount to kind of help fund this transportation scheme, we might do that. Then aside from this, I can’t really see any weakness in the current administration because he his actually doing well.

UCJ: Okay. You mentioned a freshers tour in the first week of resumption. How feasible is that knowing fully well that there are Jaja registrations, faculty registrations, and all other kinds of registrations?

Emmanuel: Talking about that, currently there is a group for admitted Utes already. And there’s a committee on that too by the current AGS in which I’m a member.

We already are putting freshers through on how to get their registrations done and so on. So even before resumption, if elected, I will work more on these freshers completing the majority of their online registration even before resumption. And now, the idea of fresher tour would actually be a welcomed idea by these freshers.

Every fresher would actually be happy to have a picture of what their faculty and department look like even before classes start. I think the idea of the fresher tour would definitely be a welcomed idea by the incoming freshers.

UCJ: We are saying that there are registrations, physical registrations, not just online registrations. We understand this can be tedious. So with Jaja registrations having a deadline, faculty registrations having a deadline, and timetables being out for physical classes and all by then. How do you plan on having the students come for the fresher tour?

Emmanuel: Yeah. The freshers’ tour would actually be in batches. It’s not to be done at once. So I feel if some set of freshers actually miss a batch, they should be available for another batch, but all will be done during the first week of resumption before classes start.

UCJ: After the election, there’s a problem of the UI’SU AGS being unavailable and being unreachable. How do you intend to solve this problem? Not the UI’SU AGS alone but AGS in our student associations in general. When they are elected, they just disappear, and they take a back seat in the affairs of the union and the administration of the office. So what do you have to say about that? How do you intend to improve on that?

Emmanuel: Okay, so actually, there might be a history of what you just said, but I am making a promise that if elected, I promise to be up and doing and to be available at every point in time to address the needs related to my office.

UCJ: Thank you very much. Stakeholder meetings and congresses, which one do you think is the most efficient decision-making tool?

Emmanuel: So, all right, the two are actually very cogent, meaning to make decision-making. I think when we talk about Congress, it is necessary for Congress to take place, but one major problem about Congress is that people do not really turn up. So I think it’s as a result of the low turnout of people who are stakeholders that the means of making decisions has become an option to actually adopt.

The two are actually needed and useful. Talking about picking one, I am kind of indifferent towards this because the two are actually very needful and necessary. People that make decisions as regards this take the decision of picking one that is beneficial, which is necessary at that point in time.

UCJ: You currently serve on the freshers desk, right? There have been complaints about the inactivity of the freshers help desk in the second semester. What are your thoughts with regards to this?

Emmanuel: All right. The major thing is that people on the help desk that are in charge of this are also students, and we know how tedious it is for us all as students to combine activities of welfarism of freshers, but nevertheless, the people on the current help desk are actually trying to put in our best into serving, but nevertheless, the major point I would want everyone to know is that no matter how well we try, there will still be opinions of people that will be like, you are not doing well.

So our duty and our function to these accusations is actually to try as much as possible to improve on these allegations that people make and to actually make a better administration.

UCJ: If you are elected into office, what is your promise to Uites after your first 100 days of office? What do you think you can accomplish in the first 100 days? and at the end of your tenure, what do you think you would have accomplished? What do you think Uites should look forward to at the end of your tenure?

Emmanuel: I think that question actually revolves around my agendas if elected. Then talking about what to achieve in the first 100 days in office, I think that’s like within a space of three months thats basically the first semester.

So we would have achieved the freshers tour, the freshers week, the academic plans and the freshers picnic, that would be all within the first 100 days and at the end of the administration, I promise to have actually fulfilled all the plans I have stated earlier to if elected. 

UCJ: Thank you very much, Mr Emmanuel. It’s a pleasure having you here.

• This interview is part of a special series on the dynamics of the 2025 Students’ Union Election by the Union of Campus Journalists under its Election Watch Room Initiative.