Prime’s suspension: Flaws, scenarios, happenings, and implications

Oluwapelumi King

Exactly two weeks, in the last sitting of the house, just before the Super 4 was scheduled to start, it was announced to Afasites that the then sports director, Alawiye Israel was temporarily suspended on the behest of the executive council for “missing 3 virtual and 3 physical executive meetings without prior notice.” The House decided to temporarily suspend him and set up a committee to launch an investigation into the matter. They gave the ad hoc committee one week to complete the investigations.

Happenings

According to the speaker of the faculty legislative council, Akindejoye Olasoji, the investigative committee has concluded its investigations, but would only present its findings to the house. Thus, Prime remains temporarily suspended. A plenary session was scheduled to be held last week Saturday but was moved to Saturday, this week.

Flaws

Under normal circumstances, the conclusion of the ad hoc committee should have been known by now, since they only had 7 days to investigate, but the house has not had a sitting for the past three weeks and the committee can only present its conclusions to the House. A such, Prime’s future as Sports director is in limbo and the office of the Sports director is still left blank. This means the chances of holding the Super 4 and other likely faculty sporting events this semester is unclear.

Taking it back now to “under normal circumstances’, the committee of deans and provost met to propose a new academic calendar shortly after the strike was called off. This proposed academic calendar was provided to students even before the approval of the Senate. While it is not an “investigative matter”, the House can still draw inferences from this in this case. As such, the general populace of Afasites would know about the conclusion and proposed measures with or without the House sitting. Now, most Afasites are still left in the dark despite the completion of investigations because the House has not had any sitting.

It is important to analyse the possible scenarios that might arise after the investigative committee presents its reports to the house:

Another Investigation

In a short interview with the Speaker, he said that the committee might ask for another investigation, as they might not be satisfied with their findings. If this scenario occurs, it means the office of the sports director will be left vacant for at least another week which will make the issue more complicated than it already is.

Strong Warning

This is the best possible outcome. The investigative committee can propose to the house to give him a strong warning if they find him guilty. A strong warning indicates that if he should commit another offence, he might be permanently suspended if found guilty.

This is the worst possible scenario. The committee might recommend a permanent suspension for Prime. In this scenario, Prime would vacate the office permanently and no longer be the sports director. However, there are no clear provisions on how to come about a potential replacement in the constitution if this occurs. The speaker is however of the assurance that there will be a new Sports director if Prime is suspended.

Permanent suspension

Two possible implications might arise from this:

A new sport director

If Prime is permanently suspended, a new Sports director will surely emerge. This can cause a complete restructuring of sports in the Faculty of Arts which may negatively impact sports in the faculty.

The cancellation or postponement of Super 4

Super 4 was billed to start the week after Prime was told to vacate office. His suspension has left the future of Super 4 in serious doubts about holding this semester. In the worst possible scenario, it may even be cancelled.

Whatever the possible outcome is, it will be known soon. Till then, Alawiye Israel aka Prime is still temporarily suspended and the office of the sports director is still left vacant. However, there remains a need for the issue(s) to be sorted as quickly and cleanly as possible.