The fear of having the Students Union Government (S.U.G) totally scraped looms as the election primarily slated for 1st September, 2022 did not hold. Many questions have been left unanswered as to who is to be blamed for the delay; the SUECO, DSS, SUG President, Speaker, Aspirants or the Media?
In an impromptu meeting hosted by an Alumni; Comr. Oluwasegun (Jossie Snow) and co-hosted by Emmanuel Afolabi on twitter space (OGITECH SUG ELECTION/ WHY THE DELAY?) there seem to be an edge way hearing from the president of the union and other notable persons in the space.
In the space, we see the like of Hon. Morakinyo attacking the SUG president for sending a communique from Abuja (in a meeting with NANS) that the election should be put on hold due to the fact that some aspirants were disqualified and not present on campus to witness the electioneering process of the union. fingers of blame were also pointed to the speaker who supported the motion through another communique and the SUECO chairman who have succumbed to details of the communique. Usman was however given a medium to say his part of the story but left the meeting. It was later discovered that his action wasn’t intentional but due to the fact that he couldn’t get the settings of the twitter space meeting right.
After all said and done, the president eventually got his connection right and unleashed the untold part of the story. Summarily In his words;
“Good afternoon sir and ma, I am very sorry for not accepting the mic to speak, I have an issue with my setting and I just told someone to set it for me. The issue of postponing the election; I heard what Hon. Morakinyo said; he said I did not inform the management and the house that I’m going for a primary assignment” Morakinyo interrupted that he did not inform the Student Parliamentary Council and Central Executives. Usman then continued; “Actually Mr. MKO sir, I sent a letter to your speaker and the management is aware, you can’t tell me you are not aware because even the second day, you told asked me how the election would be – I want you to remember that, I don’t have issues with that aspect.”
“Secondly Sir, the reason why I released a communique is that; when the aspirants and SUECO commitee came back from the screening at the DSS office, they released a communique around mid night. I think around 2am. So when i went through it, I received so many calls that they disqualified students and i called the SUECO chairman for explanations. I can remember during Comr. Sobuur when he was vying for the president, he got disqualified but knew the reason. So all we asked was to know the reason for the disqualification. Also according to NANS constitution, it says if NANS is yet to hod her election, every other election should not hold – the people that will be around for this election are currently in Abuja”
Mr. Arogunjo further affirmed that truly, the management is aware of the presidents absence for an assignment and asked the president if he truly called the appropriate channels after getting the disqualification news. The President answered by saying; “Actually, I called the SUECO chairman but he didn’t pick my call, and some other persons even went to ask him but he told them that; If they want to know the reasons for the disqualification, they should got to the DSS office at Ota. Even in his write up, it was stated that anyone that want to know the reasons should go to the DSS office. Then I put a call to the Dean od Students Affairs; Mr. Aminu, I explained everything to him and he said he will get back to me by 1:00am. So exactly 3:00 the candidate snapped a suspension letter to me that this is the outcome of the letter so I was like stupid that is it because I released a communique that we should know the reasons for disqualification, that is why they suspend them? And I overhead someone saying the Students protested and that; I petitioned them – I did not petition any student, If I petition them, i wouldn’t have come out to tell the SUECO to tell us why they were disqualified. I’m not in support of any candidate, I just want SUECO to be on one page with the students by telling them why they were disqualified and now the students have been given a semester suspension… though I have pleaded on their behalf for the suspension to be lifted because this suspension is as a result of a protest in March and they never faced a panel nor was there any letter given to them through their departments. They just got a message that they should come for a meeting and they said they should face a panel. Even the Students Representative and Security representatives were not invited. But we have pleaded on their behalf and they have been told to write an apology letter which will be submitted through me.”
Comr. Arogunjo however exclaimed his concern as an alumni emphasizing that they should not allow the Students Union Government activities scrapped as it was done in 2015 and re-instated years later.
The president then concluded by saying; “The election will hold, but when I’m back, by insha Allah, insha Jesus, insha everything we will be back on Friday by this time on friday we will be back so the election is going to hold. We are going to resolve everything”
The host Emmanuel Afolabi (EOA) then re-emphasized that the situation at hand is liken to that of 2015, and he asked the president if this will not repeat itself. The president affirmed that It will not happen. “In fact I’m with the SA to the governor and I’ve informed him, he assured me that everything will be settled when we get back to Ogun state, I’ve even spoken with the acting rector”
There was a lot of network disruptions and efforts to have the SUECO PRE speak proved abortive, Morakinyo then clamour for a free and fair election and not an election where external bodies will start influencing. The space was however re-scheduled to 8pm tonight.
Listen to recordings of the space here
