THE REDEMPTION TEAM: A SORRY TALE OF A HUNTING EXPEDITION
A.J Darkholme in his book “Rise of the Morningstar” sorrowfully submitted that “Time doesn’t always heal all wounds.” In the same vein, many times the dreams and hopes we hold so dear to our heart may turn out to be our greatest nightmares. These words in their entirety explain the present leadership status of the Students’ Union, University of Ibadan. These words have given us a perfect figurative mirror through which the administration of the Redemption Team ably led by Huntersola can be properly viewed and despised.
After what seemed like an eternity of political irresponsibility and leadership embarrassment perpetrated by Asiwaju Babatunde Badmus (and his Uniting Uites Team) in the Kunle Adepeju Students’ Union Building, the student populace felt a big relief to see the last days of his administration. The relief was of course not disconnected from the hope and dream of electing another leader who will be ready to protect their interests and also listen to their voices. The relief was entangled with the expectation of having a Students’ Union leader and an executive team who will be more accountable and responsible to the students. And so, the students casted their votes angrily to haul out the then power-drunk Commander-In-Chief of Aluta Forces and to usher in a new era of a new set of compassionate student leaders. Unfortunately, after the votes were cast in the most controversial elections in the history of Students’ Unionism, what the ballot gave us was the Redemption team ably “herded” by Odesola Victor a.k.a Huntersola.
As typical of any controversial election trailed with a lot of electoral malpractices, many students called for the cancellation of the election. They felt a proper and a vibrant Students’ Union should never be built on such a shaky foundation of mistrust, violence and reckless desperation. However, another group of students felt the Redemption Team should be given the chance and opportunity to prove themselves worthy of the political responsibility. Going with this later group, the Redemption Team was inaugurated and the mantle of Students’ Union leadership was passed on to Huntersola.
However, contrary to some students’ expectation, Huntersola started to show his administrative tactlessness within the first few weeks of his administration by barging into one of the sessions of the Students’ Representative Council without being invitedleading one Mr. Radical, an APC politician on a campaign visit to disrupt the proceedings of the house. That singular act revealed to a large extent the person of our president. It was either the President was too confused to wisely decide between right and wrong, or he was too greedy to see any wrongness in his decision as a result of his selfish desire to secure future benefits from the politician.
And while we were trying to digest that ignoble act, we were given another blockbuster narrative from the stable of Huntersola’s leadership, the Ajimobi ₦500,000 saga. The Governor, who was invited by the school management, came on a visit to the department of Fisheries and Aquaculture on the 28th of August, 2014. After meeting with the students and the students’ leaders at the Students’ Union Building, he gave the president ₦500,000 to “share amongst the students present”. Though, it was expressly stated that the money should be shared amongst the students present but if Ajimobi was too corrupt to know the ideal way of “sharing” public money, we expected our dearest Huntersola to know the administrative procedures and consequences attached to following the Governor’s imprudent direction. Consequently, the money was axed down as directed by the Governor and the epilogue of that sharing was a messy stain and tarnish on the integrity and honour of our union. The response we got from the Redemption Team was a pointless Facebook post on the OFFICIAL GROUP OF THE STUDENTS’ UNION, UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN by the PRO of the Union, not a word of apology from Huntersola, not a sentence of explanation.
At the time, it was argued that anyone could have made all those mistakes in the face of tension and extreme pressure. But, then, another issue showcasing the President’s administrative illogicality majestically strolled in. The President, in his regular shows of cluelessness fielded one of his political godfathers, Labzy, for the post of Vice President at the National Association of Nigeria Students (NANS) level during a convention held in Asaba sometime in early November, this year. The President once again, impudently disregarded all existing conventions, rules and regulations binding our Union that state that anyone going for such a post at the NANS level must first be ratified by the Students’ Representative Council. This goes a long way to show that the President is not interested in running a collective administration based on equal chances but prefers governance based on favouritism and for a selected few. However, it would have been a different ball game if he had come as a prodigal son after the convention to seek for forgiveness from the students, but as usual, nothing was said, no letter of apology was ever written for his contemptuous acts towards the Union.
We were still reluctant to make up our minds on the irresponsibility of the Redemption Team’s when they proved it beyond all reasonable doubt with the outrageous proposed budget for the Students’ Union Week. A budget largely described as “sky scrapping” and “extravagant” could not be defended by what we all experienced during the Students’ Union comedy show cum week celebration. Enough has been written on the Students’ Union Week and no doubt, the reactions of the majority clearly show how dissatisfied the students were. We must state categorically that we don’t have any problem with the fact that the budget was cut down from ₦21,000,000 to ₦9,000,000; what we have problems with is the absence of any break down and report on what the ₦9,000,000 was spent on. Up till this moment, the Redemption Team has not deemed it fit to make any explanation or report as regards the revenues and expenditure of the Union, perhaps because the entire executive feel they are not responsible to anyone, not even to the electorates who voted them in. In the same vein, a ‘luxurious’ bus was donated to the Union few weeks ago and yet again, no communiqué was issued to the Press or the generality of the students informing them of the new update.
Dear Redemption Team, Administrative malpractice is one thing and another thing is failing to respect your followers by being responsible and accountable to them. From all indications, it is clear that the present administration is suffering from both disease of administrative malpractices and leadership irresponsibility. There is no doubt that the Redemption Team ably “herded” by HunterSola has decided to turn our Union Administration into a hunting expedition where the students have assumed the new role of the hunted animals and HunterSola as his name implies is now the mighty hunter that owes us no apology as he hunts us down psychologically, financially and emotionally. We hereby wish to implore the Redemption Team to turn a new leaf and stop laying these bad leadership precedents in our Union for the sake of posterity. Finally, we will also like to call on the leadership of the Students’ Representative Council to investigate the HunterSola administration and also mandate the Redemption Team to make a public report of all the activities of the Union since the inception of their administration. This is very essential as communication is vital for the survival of any social relationship, especially, a leadership and followership relationship. This is quite necessaryfor the survival of our Union.
