AFAS Politics: The ‘Beautiful’ President and The Absentee Officers

Olamilekan Mashika
The most recurring theme of the last Faculty Legislative Council on Friday, 30 April was absence. First was the Clerk of the house, Honourable Shukurat Yusuf, whose absence was in fact unknown to her own deputy. This absence was on the very day the clerk was meant to present a budget pertaining to her office. You thought that was actually the fun part? Oh dear, that’s just the starting point. The deputy clerk, Honourable Arilewo, looked very clueless on matters concerning the office of the clerk. He obviously doesn’t even know if or if not the clerk had prepared the budget, the clerk’s absence was unbeknownst to him, and to top it all he had such good countenance such that he was at first smiling when the matter was first put forward to him if he and the clerk had spoken prior to the meeting. And his answer was another crashing joy rider. A capital ‘NO’. Then it makes one wonder, how effective the house would be, if the clerk and the deputy clerk barely converse. The deputy speaker’s cluelessness was alarmingly obvious as his face kept showing the readings of a man who kept pleading with his world with regular chants of the sentence “wetindeyoccurate?” Well, perhaps the newness of the deputy clerk could allow us spare his blushes, but how do we react and what do we say about the clerk, who was in fact a principal officer in the house, during the previous session. Should we say, she is not well drilled enough about her office? Or well, since this semester is meant to be a virtual one, she needn’t carry her deputy along on the state of affairs that concerns her office, or perhaps she just wants a virtual plenary session. They should quickly decide and let us, Afasites know.
Moreover, the house needs to do more in training her new members on the dos and don’ts of a parliamentary session. The deputy clerk just needs more training to acclimatize himself with his office and other honourables who will deem it fit to use words such as “you guys” would not have to be corrected in the plenary session by the speaker himself.
Amazingly, this session of cruise is not over. The Financial Secretary, miss Peniel, chose to use the day to grace us with her absence, sending a letter and the financial report document she was meant to present, through the president, without having anyone to stand in for her and defend these documents. Only God knows what she wants anyone to do with the document. This document is in fact, most suitable to use for the very hardworking women who sell roasted corn and plantain at Agbowo junction than it was at the FLC sitting. We all have things to do. Even the speaker of the house has things to do, the honourables are equally students, and even pressmen are busy people, but once one is in the position of authority, one must act responsibly. Yes, perhaps the financial secretary circumstance was so pressing that she had to be absent but the most responsible thing is to at least prep your president or someone in the executive council such that the person appears before the house to stand in for you. Although this would be futility at its best as the FLC would still not listen to anyone other than the financial secretary because no one would know about her office more than she does, but at least it is a show of responsibility. But producing papers to be distributed to the house and gowing God-knows-where is not a way to show responsibility. This surely makes us poke our very eyes and curious existence on whether the vacant post of the treasure shouldn’t be vacant after all.
This article is saddled with understanding the concept of low key cruise catching and it is not over yet. Well, until it is over. It would be painful if it just ended like that. When one plays poker, he enjoys the game, but he plays it with a straight face. The president of the association had a cool countenance with him. A very ‘beautiful’ man, with equally beautiful manner of speaking, appeared before the FLC saying he was the president and failed to prepare any document on a report on the subsidised data plan, he was meant to defend. One then questions the intentions of this beautiful individual who hath, so impersonated our president, such that he looked so much like him. We all know that the president of the faculty of arts is a responsible one, but the individual that appeared before the FLC seems far from that. That is why this reporter has kindly referred to him as a very beautiful man.
It would seem that no matter how tolling and demanding this semester could be, our dearest student leaders has taken it upon themselves to catch cruise, lest the semester frustrates them. I mean, who does not even want to catch cruise? This i-can’t-kill-myself attitude looks very prevalent and it becomes a very sad tale when one realises that the president also subscribes to this very ‘brilliant ideology’.