Student Executives: Of Blame Games and Disunity

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Inda-John Elizabeth

Mahatma Gandhi was the one who said that “Unity to be real must stand the severest strain without breaking.” Any home that does not have one voice is a home that is fallen. Unity is as strong as the people who understand and who value it. Hold this thought in mind as we move on to leadership.


Most parenting books would show that any parent who desires for their child to be awesome, to be a model child in society, to be great in life, to fulfill purpose in destiny, would teach the child and consistently teach the child by doing exactly what they believe should be done. This means that if a parent desires their ward to be great at sports, they must show the child by doing sports.


Now to the student leaders, leadership is a term that describes the art of leading people by doing. So many great leaders have emphasized the need for anyone, who holds a post of influence, to lead not by speaking or even strategizing how people should move but by doing. John C. Maxwell, who is famous for creating and building leaders, has this to say about leadership, “A leader knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” Note that goes the way, comes before showing the way.


It’s hardly shocking where all these are headed towards. The past few weeks have been out of sorts, for the Press, the Student Government, and also the students. For students of the Faculty of Arts, it has been double. Out of sorts is an interesting word because it depicts something strange. Students’ opinions have been disregarded, pressmen insulted, honourables called out, and Executives brought to the book. Out of sorts is a word that suits perfectly.


At the SUG level, there is OMA with the UI TV scandal, at the AFAS level, the saga of Prime v. the rest of the Executives; and a saga of hidden suspension. Then there is the case of the call off party, to which both the President and the General Secretary received summons from the management. At all these, the press has delivered accurate information concerning each issue. If you missed out on anything, you can read up to follow the story.
Something however stands out in both issues; an apparent and glaring lack of unity in the arm. For some reason, it seems like the executives have forgotten that blight on one is blight for all. The general student body saw both Executive arms engage in a blame game.


Mascot told UCJUI on the issue, “I’ll message him and he will tell me the TV is his own. And he said he’ll be remitting N5000 every month to the Union….” This statement however somehow shows they share some part of the blame because they could have taken more stringent actions to discipline him within the laws stipulated by the constitution. The blame game also showed an apparent lack of unity between the rest of the executives and OMA.


Next in this case of a disunited leadership is the story of how Alawiye Israel (Prime), the sports director of AFAS was (un)suspended by the executives. The summarized version of this story is that Prime was absent in three virtual and physical meetings so they had to suspend him ‘allegedly’ according to the constitution. This story features the rest of the cabinet ostracizing one member. Akoem claimed Prime’s suspension by them (the executive arm of the body) was the reason Super 4, a competition handled by the Sports Director, was not supported and promoted by the other executives.


From both situations, one can see that the executives have not entirely understood what role they play to the student body, and how important it is for them to be united even though their offices are somewhat independent of each other. Recall the definition of leadership by John C. Maxwell, “…goes the way…shows the way”. It was not pleasing to see the disunity of both Executive arms.


The executives, to some extent, are not seen as individuals but as a team so the blame game is not necessary. If there is a fault, it is likely to be seen as the fault of all the members of the Executive. The Executives are not individuals but a team and must learn to take responsibility as one. If there is an issue with one, there is automatically an issue with all. This is how it should be especially in a student-centric government.


Note that this piece is not written to encourage executive members to protect and hide their errors or try to cover any misconduct from any member of the cabinet, rather it should be seen as a piece that seeks to inform the members of the executive across board that when they are united, then they can be quick to point out an impending error if one of the executive members wants to undertake anything that might put him or her in bad light.

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