THE PIORITY OF FLC IS THEIR OWN PERSONAL INTEREST, NOT TO THE NUMBER OF AFASITES WE ARE MEANT TO SERVE —Peter Alawode, AFAS GEN SEC.

By- Afolasade Ola

In what appears to be a tug of war for the domination of the faculty general office between the executives and the Faculty Legislative Council (FLC), the faculty general secretary, Peter Alawode, has made mention of the aforementioned headline.

This he said in an interview session with AFAS press over the course of the previous week.

According to him, FLC had long approved the budget for the freshers welcome but instead of receiving a letter stating their approval to withdraw the approved amount for the event, he had received a letter on Monday, 8th of July that they (the executive) should evacuate their main office to the other domain.

He said: “FLC had approved freshers budget but on Monday morning, the letter that got to my table was that we should vacate the office to the other room but as now Tuesday, 9th of July 9:19om , the FLC has not sent a letter to withdraw N313,500 for freshers welcome. So you can understand what is of utmost important to the FLC, the office and chair for the speaker to sit on, which is their priority and not the number of AFASITES that we are to serve. Their priority is their own personal interest and their office only”.

The General Secretary adds that the only reason attached to swap in office was because AFASITES accessed the office in an intolerable manner. He had however emphasized the importance of the office to the executives and how in all functionality and rights the office is theirs.

“That cannot happen. We cannot leave our office; they are the ones who are privilege to keep their items in the reception of the office. The executive has thought it over time that the FLC should take their properties with them to their hostels; bring it back to the campus. But what if there was theft or fire outbreak, how do they justify the decision they had made?”

The executive then decided to act on the pejorative to allow FLC keep their properties in the AFAS office and had constructed a shelf for them for that purpose.

The FLC therefore do not have a secretariat. Any association that you go to in the world, it is the executive that has the secretariat. Go to the student building constructed in Adepeju, the speaker does not have an office there. If you don’t believe me, you can go to the union and check. Go to anywhere and on the issue that you are saying that AFASITES cannot come into the office, who are we working for? And I told them that if we (the executives) are outside and they are inside, nobody will have any reason to come into the office. Every Item in that office is at the expense of every basic due that are paid by these members so how can you say a member of the association cannot come into the secretariat?”

Alawode stated that they had taken to action to send a letter back to the house (FLC) dismissing them from holding any further meetings in the office as a whole.

“The executive sent them a letter to which we told them in point blank English that the other room in the AFAS office belongs to the executive council and that henceforth, any meeting of the FLC members either formal or informal can no longer hold in the other room with immediate effect.

I had to use the power vested upon me as the Gens Sec to evacuate the speaker, deputy speaker, the clerk and Honourable Femi of History. The executive has stood on the final ground—the FLC members do not have an office, they cannot hold a meeting there, they cannot come and discuss anything in that portion of the office”.

Attempts were however made to reach out to the FLC speaker, Hon. Peter Olanguju, who explicitly informed the press that the motion to have the executives move to the other chamber of the office was in a sheer bid to maintain sanity and orderliness as there were strong complaints emerging from the faculty management.

The speaker had also admitted that the house delayed in sending a letter to the executives for the withdrawal of funds for freshers welcome and the involvement of a total mix up of what letter should have been sent to the executives. He was at the verge of making amends when he and the rest of the FLC members in the office were walked out.