AFAS Dinner: the story behind closed doors (part 2)

By Olamilekan Mashika

The Yorubas say, the tongue and the teeth fight and they duly settle it. One thing to take away from it is that they do not announce to the world that they fight. As has been pointed out in the previous part, it is normal for there to be a clash of views in the executive council but bringing it to the light of the public instead of settling it among themselves is where the problem is, and this is the case of the past executives. It was hard for some of them to work together and so in their little circle, they formed caucuses and even sought political alliances elsewhere. This charade then became bigger during the time of the dinner. The alliances came to the fore and there existed, thenceforth, power tussle.

Unsettling student administrators

One thing is surely certain, power intoxicates. Whoever it intoxicated among the past administrators is quite unclear, but it is sure that these people wanted to show power. Having noted the problems that existed among the past executive members, AFAS Press reached out to the past president to ask why his cabinet members are so divided, he replied: “Anywhere there are at least two people, there is politics. Having misunderstanding is inevitable where there are two or more people. The VP and the social director had been having misunderstanding which I have been managing since first semester and this is due to the connection in discharging their constitutional duties. All of my efforts to ensure that all executives unanimously get involved in the planning for the dinner which has been our culture since the beginning of this administration proved abortive because of her ulterior motive. It was obvious since the inception of the plans for the dinner that she has an agenda, because she didn’t just withhold the plans from the social director, she withheld the plans from me too. I did all I could to let her see reasons why we need to all work together in doing the dinner but still, she didn’t succumb to my plea neither did she listen to my instructions because she has the back up of higher authorities. In one of my conversations with the vice president to ask her why she is withholding her plans from majority of the excos and especially I being the president, she told me she is a psychopath and that she will only tell me what she feels like telling me. The vice president told the social director in one of our executive meetings that she will involve him when she needs him. Even though the constitution had stated that annual dinner is to be planned in conjunction with the social director. The social director having seen that she intends to plan the dinner all alone and after all my approaches to let the V.P. see reasons for a team work failed, told me he needs to write a letter to clear his name off anything connected to the dinner. The ulterior motive of the vice president and the back up of some authority that she had in doing what is against the etiquette of the University led to all of these that we are seeing now.

This certainly meant a lot coming from the leader of that cabinet. It shows the level of division amongst them. These are people who are supposed to steer the affairs of AFAS in the right directions but all they ever seem to do is disagree and even form caucus among themselves. The past Fin. Sec. seemed to be on the side of the past V.P. and such could be said about the past Gen Sec as he was the only one present at the dinner, or perhaps he is just very neutral. The President and the Social Director, from all indications, are together. The President repeatedly claimed he tried to make them see the point of team work, however, he will still carry blames as all of these happened during his administration. Indeed, Team Evolution was in his name not another’s. The division was there for us to see all along.

When AFAS Press reached out to the Sub Dean, he noted that the problem was just that they were too divided. He said that he is a reformer and he hopes to set things right in AFAS but that doesn’t mean he wants to kill the social lives of AFAS. He said this dinner could easily have been done without any issues. He then stated that the dinner later held at the quadrangle and he has a letter that proves that, any other contrary opinion is not valid.

This meant that the student administrators could indeed have taken this route. Get an approval letter for the dinner, hold it at the quadrangle ‘for show’ and still do the ‘after party’ outside. By the way, it is only what we tell people that they know. But that wasn’t the main issue, anyway. The money was the issue. The association, from all indications, was not financially buoyant enough to spare #962,250 for a dinner that was paid for by only slightly over one hundred Afasites. This was the main issue. Now this gets us to the juncture of reiterating that the FLC should not have treated a budget they know the association’s account is not capable of funding.

AFAS Press reached out to the outgoing Social Director and the new President on how to curb what is happening in the current administration, he said: “I will call them, recite their constitutional duties and enjoin them to work together for the sake of AFAS growth and peace.”

The Dinner funds. Story continues

It was reported, from the President’s press release and FLC’s release, that the Financial Secretary did not inform the President when she wanted to withdraw the #962,250 from the association’s account. This, the Financial Secretary, Miss Peniel claimed to be untrue since the President was present throughout the whole saga as it unfolded. AFAS press then reached out to the Vice President, Miss Modupe and she said:

“When we had the budget sitting as usual, I budgeted for 250 people which cost #1,183,500. And during the sitting, it was reduced to #962,250. Considering the purse of the association, I got sponsors for drinks, videography, and photography and the hall (we got someone who knows an owner of a hall outside school). All of the items handled by the sponsors were not included in the budget. Then the house brought a letter with that amount and on the second paragraph, the amount of the people that have paid for dinner. Note that they brought this letter a day to the event which was not possible for the Fin. Sec. to go to the bank because of the controversies. So I had to shift it to two days after. After which we met with our staff adviser, Dr. Akewula, who asked the speaker to come and Francis was there as well. He asked how much was approved for dinner, the speaker said #962,250 and he asked why he wrote two contradicting figures on the letter. After that, the staff adviser signed the letter and Peniel proceeded to the bank to withdraw #962,250. All along, while the signing and attestation were ongoing, Francis, Speaker, Peniel and the Staff Adviser were in the same office which I was not. Francis left Dr. Akewula’s office and did not sign, after which Dr Akewula and Peniel had already signed. And when the Fin. Sec. called him to sign, he said he was not in school. When I received the money, I disbursed it accordingly as the budget was approved. I do not know why Francis is dragging and soiling my name on what I know nothing about. None of the executive members knew he was taking bucket as package to the House the day he defended the budget. He has been going on and saying this like I collected the package money from him then spent it on myself.”

And there it is, the President preached team work but the Vice President reported that he did not inform any of his cabinet he was taking bucket as package to the house. Items such as this should be deliberated by every member of the council before taking them to the house, but according to the V.P, the President also acted on his own accord. That, sadly, is the trend. Members of the executive seem to act on their own without necessarily confiding in the others.

AFAS Press quizzed the former speaker of the house, Rt. Hon. Salaudeen, if, after meeting with either the Sub Dean or staff adviser, either of them gave the go ahead to withdraw the funds, he said:

“Yesterday morning (the day before the dinner), the staff adviser called me and he wants me to specify the exact amount. Although he did not give me the letter, he gave the letter to the Fin. Sec. because we normally give letters to the Fin. Sec. and the Fin. Sec. will give the letter to the staff adviser. Later on, maybe few minutes later, the Sub Dean called me and I went to his office, and he said I should go ahead and write another letter for the approval of #962,250. I told him I can’t do that. And I told him I can only do that on a condition because I serve Afasites and some people actually voted me to be the speaker. I’m not there on my will. So, I told him I’ll like him to assist me with a letter to specify that it is the faculty management that wants that amount to be approved. The staff adviser did not say I should write a letter of approval for #962,000.”

Scrutinizing the dinner budget

The Vice President claimed that she got sponsor for drinks but on the dinner budget, seven packs of soda was approved at #1,400 each, eight packs of juice at #5,500 each and 30 packs of water at #750 each. This all equals #76,300. In fact, at the dinner, not all tables were served juice, only selected tables were, by virtue of that, it must mean that some people paid for the VIP tickets, then shouldn’t funds go back into the association’s account? Up till now, AFAS Press has not received any information of remittance of funds. On the budget, there were three kinds of foods. Rice, Ofada and swallow. Rice for 100 people at #1,500 each, Ofada for 50 persons at #1,000 each and swallow for 50 persons at #1,200, which meant that, just as the Vice President said, two hundred persons were catered for. However on the day of the dinner/after party and even afterwards, many Afasites complained of the servers telling them there was no food. The items with the highest pecuniary value are: decorations (#100,000), sound/D.J./Hypeman (#150,000), female host (#20,000) and lights (#30,000).

Other items on the budget are:
Appetiser – #100,000
Backdrop – #15,000
Certificate – #8,550
Transport – #5,000
Bouncers – #50,000
Servers – #30,000
Cake – #28,000
Plaques – #76,000

What is the case now?

After the past President’s press release on Sunday, 19 December, 2021 at 9pm, Afasites called for auditing of the association’s account and expressed their displeasure over how their funds have been managed. The past Financial Secretary also made a press release after that of the President’s, relating her own side of the story. Still, this only enraged Afasites more and the clamour for auditing of the association’s account echoed stronger.

Concluding part on the case of mismanagement coming up.