AFASIEC: THE VOICE OF THEM THAT CRY FROM THE SIDELINE
by The Preacher Man
In line with Article 13, Number 3 and Article 41, Number 1 of the Association of Faculty of Arts Students (AFAS) Constitution, the Council of Presidents and Secretaries (CPS) has inaugurated the electoral committee otherwise known as Association of Faculty of Arts Students Independent Electoral Committee (AFASIEC). By this, it means we are in the official period of electioneering in the faculty. As stipulated in the AFAS Constitution, in Article 34, Section 1, the election shall be held not later than the end of the tenth week of the second semester of every session. Election should therefore be by mid-January 2020.
Now, the duties of the AFASIEC as stated in Article 41, Section 6, Sub-section 1-6, of AFAS Constitution are as follows:
Fix the fee for nomination forms
Process returned nomination forms and clear aspirants
Fix the date for and supervise the presentation of manifestoes from the aspirants to the electorates.
Draft rule and regulations for the conduct of a free and fair election without prejudice to any provision(s) of the Constitution
Fix the date for and supervise elections, count and announce result of votes.
Present the executives elect for swearing in to the Dean or his Representative.
That the CPS inaugurated the committee this early is commendable. It shows that body is keeping up with the tradition of inaugurating the committee in the fifth week of the semester. Although some of us have commended the CPS, some others are crying out from the side line, raining abuses on the leadership of the CPS and the entire members of that body. These people feel their eyes have been gorged and the CPS was unfair in its treatment of them. Although none of them fails the requirement in Article 41, Sections 2 and 5, the CPS disapproved of their membership of AFASIEC. The people that have thus been disapproved of include: Marvellous Gbadegesin p.k.a Bovi Legend (a Classicist and a former Public Relations Officer of the Association), Tijani Selim p.k.a Password(of the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies who was once an honourable and a former General Secretary of the Asoociation), Wasiu Abiodun a.k.a Ibile (an Historian who contested for Lord Tedder’s Hall Vice-Chairmanship position for 2017/2018 session and the AFAS Presidential position for 2018/2019 session) and Mr Olumide Adefisoye, a.k.a Lumi (a Music student who stepped down from the Presidential election that brought the current President to office).
These four people were rejected because of reasons that include being a former officer of the Association and for being aspirants in the election, thereby making them overtly political and therefore unfit for the electoral committee. Marvellous Gbadegesin and Selim Tijani were rejected because of the former while Wasiu Abiodun and Mr Olumide Adefisoye were rejected because of the latter. Some of them have wondered if this was reason enough to stop them as the Constitution only says that “the composition of the committee shall reflect a member who holds no political office from each department/constituency to be nominated by each President,”(Article 41, Section 2)and “all members of the electoral committee shall neither be eligible to contest or vote for any post in the election they are conducting.” (Article 41, Section 5).
Was the CPS right in its judgement? Constitutionally, the CPS is not right for none of the four men currently hold any political office either in their department or in the faculty. Being former officers of the Association or contesting and losing an election in the Association doesn’t equate outright disqualification or make all the concerned parties politicians par excellence by default. Thus, their rejection was a clear violation of the above constitutional provisions and is therefore invalid and should be condemned by all. CPS and its leadership have always preached strict adherence to the Constitution. They are expected to uphold the right of Afasites and not barred them from being members of a committee that they are qualified constitutionally.
Yet, the reasons for rejection need to be examined further. As part from the CPS admitting too quickly that the four men were politician by default because of their link to political offices, it also agreed that their admittance to the committee would make the committee looks too political. This is because if the four men had been admitted to the committee,it means four out of the thirteen members, which constitutes one-third, would be persons who were linked to some political positions in the Association, directly or indirectly, in the past. These reasons sound good on the outside. However, the current composition of AFASIEC shows that it is likely to suffer from inexperience as the Chairperson (Ms Oluwakemi Olaniyi), was the only person that has served as an electoral officer in the faculty. In the committee, is a 100L young man from the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies who has not participated in any election in the facult. It also includes one of the best friends of the President of Association of Theatre Arts Students (ATAS). Some of the “final year brethren” in the committee have no clear public record of participating in anything within the Association either as a committee member or otherwise and their long stay in the school therefore doesn’t count much in relation to political experience.
The experience of some of the rejected persons could have counted for something in the committee. But if the CPS decides to pick one of them, who should it be? The youngest and perhaps the least politically experienced among them, Marvellous Gbadegesin, is not a good choice for he performed abysmally as the Public Relations Officer of the Association during the 2017/2018. He plagiarised a Whatsapp BC from Faculty of Science Students Association Public Relations Officer and this puts a big question mark on his integrity. Mr Olumide Adefisoye could have been the best to pick. However, he has a presidential aspirant coming from his constituency and the CPS thought he could not be trusted to be fair as a member of the committee for he could help his fellow constituent to get to the position he couldn’t. The same thing applies to Wasiu Abiodun who also has a presidential aspirant, Aderemi Moses, from his constituency. For Selim Tijani, he served as an honourable of the Faculty Legislative Council (FLC) representing the Arabic and Islamic Studies constituency during the 2016/2017 session, and was the General Secretary of the Association during the 2017/2018 session, making him the politically exposed of the four. Also, it is rumoured that there’s likely to be an aspirant for the post of the Assistant of the General Secretary from his constituency, and he therefore has the problem as Mr Olumide Adefisoye and Wasiu Abiodun.
The current electoral for me is not fit to conduct the election and I will advise that it be disbanded and re-constituted to consist of at least five members who have experience serving in an electoral committee either in the faculty or their department. Anybody that has not participated in the faculty before, either as a voter, aspirant, or electoral official should not be allowed to serve in the committee. In an election such as AFAS election, experience in the electoral committee would help to forestall many problems and aid the screening the process. When the members clearly understand their duties, it makes for smooth running of the electoral process. As it is now, many members of the AFASIEC are politically inexperienced and that doesn’t augur well for that committee. The infusion of two or three politically experienced Afasites into the committee would serve all of us well.
