Of AFAS Executives and the Invasion of our Privacy
Every faculty in the University of Ibadan has an idiosyncrasy. For the Association of Faculty of Arts Students (AFAS), we are popular for controversies. Each academic session, there is always one issue or the other tearing the executive council apart. For the fresh students and those who do not keep abreast of the happenings in the faculty’s developments, the executive council of the last session had a difficult time working together which resulted in some members getting suspended. In the session before the last, there was also an executive council whose notable controversies were financially questionable actions and the holding of one of the poorly organised dinners for the students at the end of that session.
What this tells us is that successive AFAS executive councils have a culture of poor leadership, thereby affecting their execution of campaign plans in office. It is the case that every week comes with its episodes. We now have a new executive council piloting the affairs of the faculty but while there have not been reports of instances of misconduct from them, we identify another challenge that is already normalised.
Like lots of other student leaders in the University of Ibadan, AFAS executives, especially some key offices like that of the president, general secretary, financial secretary, public relations officers as well as the assistant general secretary have the contacts of the majority of students in the faculty. But more often, we have realised that some executives, instead of feeding students with vital information pertaining to academics, prefer to use this opportunity to advertise their own personal businesses. In some cases, these students are being spammed with broadcast messages promoting their brands.
For context, the immediate past president of the association, Akinyoola Emmanuel, made this scheme very popular. He would consistently promote his brand via broadcast messages sent to these students whom he had added to a broadcast list and this he did throughout his tenure in office. Many students complained about how difficult it was to keep up with those broadcast messages from him—one minute, he greets you, and the next he is sending promotional adverts seeking your reposts and patronage. Even now that he has graduated, he still continues to send these broadcast messages.
Like the president, the vice president also did the same. In her case, she made it a point of duty to even update AFASites about new developments in her clothing business. Now that the baton of power has been passed, some members of the current executive council have started walking this path and it is important that this action be checked and curbed from becoming the norm.
Where the Problems Lie
To understand whether the privacy rights of Afasites are being violated, there are a few important things to note. Access to students’ information like phone numbers is supposed to be handled as private contacts. As little as it might seem, adding students to a broadcast list without getting their consent is a breach of trust. This is not to say that these executives can’t advertise to AFASites but if you must add anyone to a broadcast list to promote your brand or business, it has to be based on consent.
For instance, we have students in the faculty who are not interested in buying and selling. To those students, this action is an infringement on their privacy, already defeating any motive in the first place that the broadcast list was created for. In broader terms, privacy rights are written into constitutions, international human rights conventions, and domestic law, further showing the importance attached to protecting privacy rights.
When leaving office, since these executive members do not hand over the contacts, it becomes more convenient for them to continue using these contacts for their gains (as it is in the case of AKOEM). However, these contacts are supposed to be strictly used to disseminate vital information that concerns AFASite especially as it relates to academics. Any other motive does not represent their interests and it is not fair to students who gave you their vote.
The violation of privacy rights is one of the challenges that we have with our government. That such could potentially become a norm in student leadership is a disappointing pattern.
How to close the gap
Purpose has to be re-established and what this means is that these executives need to understand that access to students’ phone numbers is not an invitation to do personal business with them and if it continues, it would be considered a great violation of our right to privacy as AFASites and this, apparently, is not a good legacy to uphold.
The kind of relationship that is expected to exist between the executive members and the student populace in AFAS should be centred around our academic endeavours and the fulfilment of their (executives) campaign promises. It also has to be strictly about disseminating vital information to AFASites. This purpose is defeated the moment you start seeing all AFASites as your potential customers and you start using your position as an executive member to convert them.
While it is possible that you, as an executive member, get those that are interested in what you sell, spamming AFASites with your advert messages still has to be a matter of choice. Respecting our privacy is far more important than selling your products to us.
