Examining Consistency and Sustainability: An Introspection into AFAS AGS’ Manifesto

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Oluwatayo Ogundare

Amidst four candidates who had the agenda to be the Assistant General Secretary(AGS) of the Association of Faculty of Arts Students (AFAS) this session, Akinsumbo Gbadamosi, presumed to be an unpopular candidate, contested, and won against the likes of the assumed popular candidates. Maybe it was his manifesto that people keyed into or he’s more good at politicking than the others, who knows? The bottom line is that he emerged, though still serving, and he’s here to answer for his plans in his manifesto.

Akinsumbo Gbadamosi’s GAME- CHANGING SUPPORT plan is geared toward “outstanding service, support and making impacts in the lives of people.” Aside from his constitutional duties, he divided his manifesto into four plans that covered skill boot camps, easy access to executives, online library and other academic support for AFASites.

This is the second semester, we’re already beyond the 11-week academic calendar, so it is expected of each candidate to have completed or close to completing their manifesto. Failure to be in either of these categories aforementioned is tantamount to an undeserving tenure in office.

AFAS UPSKILLING BOOTCAMPS

This initiative, according to his manifesto, is to help “student-preneur grow their businesses far beyond our community and to also help optimize the full potential of their skillset in their respective niches.” This initiative was to be done online, specially on telegram, and to be held once in each semester (first and second) and participants were to be trained by “three or more experienced and result-oriented speakers.”

The evidence provided by him, including a graphic design for the bootcamp and the group with over 170 participants, revealed that this was done in the first semester, though on Whatsapp as against Telegram, and it featured two speakers as against the three or more stated in his manifesto. When quizzed, he noted that the third speaker was not available because he requested for a pay before he could be featured whereas there was no provision for that. Looking all through the second semester and weeks to come, it’s evident that no UPSKILLING BOOTCAMP has been held and there’s nothing to show that it’ll be held soon. When asked for the underlying cause of this, he stated that “there was no provision for the boot camp this semester, and that an entrepreneurship conference has been done by the Youth Outstanding Undergraduates (YOU) Charity Foundation in collaboration with AFAS, but not an initiative from the office of the AGS.”

BRING THE FACULTY CLOSER TO AFASITES

As inferred from his manifesto, the aim of this innovation is to help AFASites with reporting issues that demand attention to the appropriate body and also to “strengthen the bond between executives and the students in the community.”

This is to be done through AFAS CORRESPONDENCE, an online and physical forum for “taking complaints, request for assistance, and also suggestions concerning the administration. This was to be done weekly in collaboration with “every class reps in the faculty to share the link on their class groups.”

From various observations, the link was active in the first semester, but unfortunately, its existence is untraceable this semester. When quizzed, he acknowledged that the link was only active for the first two weeks after lectures started, but he couldn’t get any responses from students. This made him halt sending the link out; however, he promised to resume the correspondence during the interview.

“We sent out the link for two consecutive weeks and there was no single response, I sent it to all AFAS groups and we could not get publicity because the PRO was not around. I trended the links myself and I also requested the assistance of some course representatives to share it,” he explained.

Perhaps if the AGS had received a “single response” from a student within the first two weeks, would the link have remained active all through the semester? However, considering that it has been indicated that it would be sent out weekly, this should have prompted him to carry this out as planned. Who knows—maybe a student with a complaint would have registered their issue the third week.

Among the problems he highlighted that truncated the activeness of the correspondence include the lack of response from the student community; the inactiveness of the publicity committee due to the unavailability of the PRO; and the uncooperative attitude of course representatives especially among 200-level reps.

He also explained further that most of the issues reported like the state of the Nescafe garden, the large lecture theater, the new faculty building and the academic calendar were beyond what he and the administration can look into, but issue related to student portals, add and delete form, were among what he resolved for students.

RESTORE THE GLORY OF THE ASSOCIATION’S ACADEMIC BANK

In another plan, Akinsumbo Gbadamosi promised to create/resuscitate the AFAS E-library and that it would be be made available in conjunction with the office of the PRO “every academic week.”

This E-library, which comprises the AFAS constitution, course materials, list of courses in the faculty, GES courses, literary texts, and past questions, was created by the AGS and made available to the students, though not every academic week as stated in the manifesto. Creating this E-library is a clever step from the AGS, but there’s always room for improvement if time permits. A look at the past questions in this drive revealed that a lot of departments are yet to have their past questions incorporated into the e-library. Departments like English Language, Communication and Language Arts,Music, Philosophy, among others, have scanty past questions and this might project the administration in a negative light when students come looking for them.

He also stated in his manifesto that he would always take a walke around the faculty to inform students of the availability of the AFAS E-library. This, he did not do!

OTHER ACADEMIC SUPPORT

The last plan on the manifesto of his manifesto termed academic support was divided into two parts. The first was to “organise mock exams for General Studies courses and courses with numerous participants like LIN 141, PHI 102, CLC 102, etc.” This he didn’t do, citing the lack of financial support.

What he did instead was an online compilation of practice questions for students which is similar to the second part of this plan, “making available compiled past questions and answers to General Studies Courses and other departmental courses, twice a semester,” which he did upon verification

WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?

It is essential to understand that evaluating candidates and their manifestos during press nights is a fundamental responsibility of the press. If elected, the press must also conduct a review on the sustainability of the manifestos initially presented to the students. It’s important to note that the purpose of manifesto reviews is not to cast any candidate in a negative light, but to assess them based on leadership, accountability, transparency, sustainability, consistency, and other relevant criteria.

.We believe it is time for candidates to approach the writing of their manifestos with greater intentionality. Candidates must consider the factors of feasibility, sustainability, and consistency. Simply writing a four-page manifesto and thinking that’s the end of it is insufficient. Candidates must follow through with their manifestos and ensure that their plans are implemented.

Edsel Murphy’s Law: “ Anything that can go wrong will go wrong,” and at the worst possible time, is a precautionary statement to candidates to always prepare for the worst case scenarios when formulating their plans. Imagine, the AGS already had an alternative plan to the issue of the unresponsive of the 200 level course reps and the unavailability of the Public Relations Officers, it would have been an entirely different narrative. “Nobody knows tomorrow” is why one should adequately prepare for tomorrow.

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