AFAS 2017/2018 EXCOS REVIEW

It is that time of the year when a review of the stewardship of members of the AFAS executive council shall be done. This is long overdue. But because the session itself was truncated by some unforeseen circumstances such as the strike by Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), it couldn’t come last year when the session ought to have ended. However, such a review as this is never too late to measure how far the members of the executive council had taken us and, also, to evaluate how well they had served in the course of the just concluded session. The review is not intended to malign anybody, but rather to examine the tenure of each member of the previous executive council in relation to the constitutional provisions and some other indices.

It is clear to us all that the tenure under review was particularly eventful. Many criticisms greeted the performance of all members of the executive council, as the faculty was literally dead throughout the major parts of the session. The general secretary, Selim Tijani, was suspended for four weeks; the president, Isaac Lijadu, was impeached for misappropriating 182,050 naira and was later discovered to have misappropriated about 80,000 naira under different circumstances; and then lastly came the suspension of both the treasurer, Kiibati Elebute, and the assistant general secretary, Aderemi Moses.

It should be added that there was no excursion during the just concluded session due to the strike by ASUU that hindered the Students Affairs Division from giving assent to the trip. The good thing is that Isaac Lijadu was unable to explore his kleptomaniac skill on the excursion funds. Perhaps, the association would have been unable to refund the money that Afasites paid for the excursion.

Nonetheless, the truth is that whatever we say now cannot undo the events that characterized the last session. Neither would reviewing the performance of members of the previous executive council change anything about their administration. It has ended already. But, for the sake of the new set of executive members, let’s proceed to the review, shall we?

THE ACTING PRESIDENT – Abimbola Olajide
Madam Acting President started her tenure as the vice-president as one of the invisible members of the executive. Many Afasites that voted for her didn’t know her. Some even probably don’t know her till date even though she was the acting president. She contested unopposed and didn’t have to convince many people before being elected, as unopposed candidates oftentimes win without qualms. She, however, became more visible as the session progressed and her popularity among Afasites increased.

Around here, the duties of a vice-president is more social than administrative. Thus, the success or failure of anyone tagged the vice-president is measured by two major variables – the success of the freshers orientation week and the association’s annual dinner. She did well to see the two variables to a good end, although she supervised the annual dinner as acting president. In partnership with the director of social and welfare services, Honourable Femi Oyekanmi, she did well to make the social events in the faculty, especially the cultural day and the annual dinner, a success.

Since she assumed the office of the acting president, she fared well. After all, she was not caught steeped in the cookie jar of financial corruption as was Isaac Lijadu, the impeached president. She had a decent outing as an AFAS executive member, wasn’t suspended at anytime and got 130, 000 naira for the association from an external organisation. Rating : 7/10

THE GENERAL SECRETARY – Selim Tijani a.k.a. Password
‘To whom much is given, much is expected’ is what they say. But for Selim Tijani, much was not given in the same way much was not expected from him. Although it could be said that his election to the position was due to the paucity of Afasites that were aware of his inefficiencies especially with the use of English, his technocratic opponent, Honourable Ibrahim Akanbi, wouldn’t have been any better. After all, the latter was co-opted into the FLC by the executive council but he failed to register his significance in all fronts.

Selim Tijani had a turbulent first semester as AFAS’s general secretary. He was summoned by the FLC up to two times for acts bothering on the use and misuse of the secretariat. At the height of his ordeal was his four weeks suspension late in June of last year for the same case of inability to manage the secretariat well and more so because he couldn’t write a letter, an act that the honourable members considered abominable. His obvious inability to master the English language, both in written and spoken form, stood in stark contrast to his claim of being a member of Faculty of Arts’ Literary and Debating Society.

After his suspension and reinstatement, he sailed well of course. He never landed himself in troubled waters after that. However, he was still advised to master the use of English language for he clearly didn’t have the password to writing and speaking good English. Rating: 5/10

THE FINANCIAL SECRETARY – Anthonia Ojo a.k.a. Madam Piggy Bank

She was the first to fulfill her campaign promises. Whilst she was campaigning for the position, she promised to make a piggy bank for the association. This she did early in her tenure. However, the wooden box was not been put to use since it was brought to the secretariat. Why it was so, only Anthonia could tell. But it is still unclear why she would spend her money on a wooden box and not use it as proposed.

She had the constitutional duty of publishing the association’s account through the director of Information and publicity at the beginning and the end of each semester. This, she failed to do throughout the session. Though the association’s staff adviser is not always around, it is not enough reason not to publish the account at least once, during the session. Knowing the status of the association’s account is not the sole privilege of members of the FLC.

At many times in the first semester, she wasn’t always available to attend to Afasites that wanted to pay their dues. She truly was a student like the rest of us, but it doesn’t satisfactorily justify her continued absence from the secretariat, especially when she was needed to perform her duties.

Apart from these shortfalls which she admitted, she had a decent stay. She escaped suspension and was not found guilty of corruption any kind. Rating: 4.5/10

DIRECTOR OF INFORMATION AND PUBLICITY – Marvelous Gbadegesin

His performance and even relevance in the executive council was questioned many times. Information dissemination which was his major duty was poor. The dearth of information during his tenure put a question mark on his preparedness and ability. At many times, it appeared the association didn’t have an officer in charge of disseminating information.

Relevant events such as the freshers orientation week and the Dean’s Games lacked proper publicity. Even more worse, he was found guilty of plagiarism when he copied a WhatsApp broadcast message written by his counterpart in the Faculty of Science Students Association (FASSA). This rubbished his personality as the image maker of the association.

He started the processes involved in the production of this year’s AFAS Review very late in his tenure. Little wonder we don’t have it in our hands yet. But it’s better late than never.
And whichever way we see it, he had a carefree attitude and did hardly carry himself with the respect that comes with being a member of AFAS executive council. This always put him in trouble with the honourable members of the FLC. Why he escaped suspension despite his laxity is still unclear. Rating: 3.5/10

DIRECTOR OF SPORTS – Muzamil Raji

From all available indices, he performed above all else in the executive council.

To his credit, he introduced athletics into the annual Dean’s Cup now called Dean’s Games. This innovation moved the primary focus of the competition away from football and ensuring more Afasites could now participate in the competition. One can only hope that succeeding Directors of Sports would sustain this initiative and make it more grand.

In all the competition in the previous session’s Dean’s Games, there was no case of insufficient medals for winners. The programmes of the event were all organized efficiently.

Much cannot be said about this office because he didn’t promise too much when he was campaigning. And the little he said he would do, he tried within his capability to do them. He maintained his cool, calm and collected nature all through the session. He was unflinching when his loyalty was tested in a match that involved his department (Archaeology and Anthropology) and the Department of Religious Studies. He maintained his unbiased stance whilst ensuring that fairness took its stand. He stood in stark contrast to Feranmi Bamisaye, his immediate past predecessor. Rating: 8/10

DIRECTOR OF SOCIAL AND WELFARE SERVICES – Honourable Femi Oyekanmi

Since his duties revolved mostly around social activities within the association, he could not be said to have performed below par. All the traditional AFAS events such as the cultural day and annual dinner all went well, although shortage of food was recorded in some quarters.

But peeping through his campaign promises, one will realise that he failed woefully. For example, he blatantly described his promise of taking students from the Department of Communication and Language Arts on tour to a radio station as an ordinary campaign promises. This means only one thing: he failed the integrity test whereby people are measured by how true they are to their words. Even more worse, he failed to organise AFAS Got Talent as he promised to do.

To his credit, however, he facilitated the Itel Dance competition that was held at the faculty’s Large Lecture Theatre (LLT) early in the second semester, albeit amidst poor publicity. However, it could be safely said that he organised no event of his own initiative. Itel was actually on a campus tour at the time the brand came to the faculty. He was only successful in taking advantage of the fact that Itel had already planned to be in UI for their campus tour.

Compared to the Director of Information and Publicity, he scored higher in behavioural ranking among members of the executive council. Rating: 5/10

TREASURER – Kiibati Elebute

His major shortfall was in the financial corruption that saw the end of Isaac Lijadu as the association’s president. It’s surprising that before and after the scandal, his name was not mentioned, if not for anything but as a custodian of the association’s money. As the treasurer, he is only to release money in his care on the presentation of a written request approved by the FLC and signed by the president and in accordance with the constitution. If this holds true, he should be aware that Isaac Lijadu withdrew 136,000 naira instead of 56,000 and some extra amounts that FLC approved for the election that was conducted by AFASIEC. This means that Lijadu has on his neck another 80,000 naira plus the 182,050 naira for which he was impeached. Perhaps he wasn’t totally oblivious of Lijadu’s kleptomaniac skills but only decided to look away. After all, he had said before they were both elected that Lijadu was his favourite candidate for the post of the association’s president.

Apart from this, he carried out other functions to the best of his ability. He never said anything exceptional and didn’t do anything exceptional either. He merely kept up with his constitutional duties. Rating: 5.5/10

ASSISTANT GENERAL SECRETARY – Aderemi Moses

The relevance of this post remains being questioned and will continue to be. For all that care, this post is a figurehead one anywhere, especially when the General Secretary is active.

It can’t be measured exactly what Aderemi Moses’s contributions were to the outgone executive council in particular and the association at large. He was merely parading himself as the AGS and was striding about as a member of the executive council. Unlike his predecessor, Aderemi failed to make his impact felt within and outside the secretariat. Whereas the last person that was called AFAS AGS ranked as the best member of the executive council during the 2016/2017 session, Aderemi could not be said to even be among the better members of the outgoing executive council, not to talk of being among the best or even emerging as the best. Perhaps it is high time we scrapped this office so that the money going into the office could be put into better use for members of the association. Rating: 3.5/10

This review is done in good faith. Anybody that feels s/he has been judged wrongly could write a rejoinder to this piece.
Shalom!