Ever since the Samson Omoniyi Led Students Union Government in 2018/2019 academic session, students of the ‘Great Citadel of Learning’, Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, have had yet another ‘close-to–democratic’ Students Union election in the spate of the 2020/2021 academic session in a 23-man delegate election which saw Babatunde Adeola, also known as ‘Babs’, piloted to the seat of the Students Union President.
On another socio-political front, Speaker of the Students Representative Council (SRC), which serves as the legislative arm for the students of the school, Hon. Yusuf Olatunji Mogaji, while vehemently felicitating with the newly inaugurated Students Union Executive pledged to carry out his constitutional obligations and promised to work closely with the executive arm in the utmost interest of the students to ensure maximum operation and productivity of the administration.
It is no gainsaying that both the executive and legislative arm are in an administrative marriage from which socio-political prosperity should be birthed. Therefore, the presence of these two arms on campus give the students a ray of hope towards enjoying a mutually beneficial academic session through effective and equal representation.
The Students Union is expected to promote and defend the welfare needs of the students’ community on campus. Therefore, union leaders are expected to engage government through dialogue on certain policies and expected to engage authorities of institutionsto provide certain minimum services that will promote an enabling environment for academic productivity. This includes teaching, learning, social and research activities.
However, the MAPOLY Students Union’s corridor, from history, is always rife with notable and frequent scolding of the Students Union and her parliament. The student populace had in time past bequeathed so many unpalatable quotes about the Union previous administrations inspite of her goodwill to represent and serve the interest of the students. Both the executive and the legislative arms are open to scrutiny and scolding by not only the school management but also all students and sub-divisions of student bodies on campus.
A remark that has always marked the SUG as an administrative ‘fall-guy’ is the SUG due which most students perceive as a form of extortion. The due is acclaimed to qualify the students for representation at the SU, being the voice of the students, but many students believe this due is driven by personal and economic gains and not service to the student populace. Financial misappropriation and gross embezzlement are often the offshoots of this due.
Another boiling point is the chant on the lips of many students that the Students Union is sponsored by certain interest groups within and outside the institution leading to imposition, selection and coronation of favoured candidates. Management and government interference in sponsoring some candidates into the office often allegedly lead to election rigging and of the administration to fulfil its manifesto.
Hence, the need to instill discipline and shun corrupt practices. Evident in our national political scene are the cankerworms of marginalization based on interest groups and personal gains, ethnicity and religion, not to forgetfavouritism impoverishing visionary leadership.
In a working academic cum political system, the integration of the SUG and the SRC should see to an even representation of the interests of all their members at all levels: effective student policy formulation, fighting for and protecting students’ rights, implementation and execution of academic developmental projects, meeting and dialogue with management on matters of students’ concern, orientation and dissemination of information, positioning the students’ welfarism in the heart of the school management, pushing for conducive learning environment, organizing scholarship programmes, engaging in economic activities, notable infrastructural development, community development among others.
It is key to note that lawmakers need to do more than just making laws and passing bills. This has been observed to fail as a yardstick for measuring the competence of a lawmaking body. In MAPOLY of course, Mapaites would want to see developmental delivery as a joint effort of the SRC and the SUG. We don’t want to see the number of bills passed into law but the number of student beneficiaries of these laws. We don’t want to see press releases every now and then, rather the implementation and execution of projects in different departments. We want to see a legislative arm that works hand-in-glove with the executive arm to ensure credibility.
Against the backdrop of the foregoing, it is tantamount to ensure that a functional relationship is built between the SRC and the SUG for the purpose ofa cross-sectional fertilization of ideas. This will further strengthen the Students Union in representing the students on all platforms. The Union will become more astute, more courageous and more efficient in demanding for the rights of the students in the most civil manner.
They must also encourage students-to-students interaction by calling congresses, forming committees to assign and execute tasks, investigating reports and exhaustively yet productively discussing issues before presentation to the right authorities. There should be joint-interactive meetings between students, union leaders, management and security personnel for confidence building to avoid escalation of demonstration and the use of brute force – should it arise. This helps to build a favourable image for the union and make the union come alive to their constitutional responsibilities.
