THE 34TH LASUSU – A REPORT CARD (PART 1)

Disclaimer: This piece is written by the editorial board of LASU Conscience. This is to remind LASUSU and the general student populace that there are independent media bodies that will always serve as a platform for effective governance, personality growth and also be an aggressive watchdog.

It’s no news that people are often dissatisfied with their representatives in power, and the equalizer is that the level of capacity you’re operating on doesn’t matter. You could be the acting president of your club, LASUSU President, or even the Nigerian president. You would still catch these hands.
The topic for the day, however, is our own LASUSU representatives, and luckily, finding personalities to analyse isn’t very hard. After all, this is LASU; someone’s always aggressive about something.
This would greatly dispel the misconception or well-grounded conception about the unavailability of our leaders.

Manifesto or just spoken words?

How many of you can remember the manifestos of the present executives? Even the owners might have forgotten what they promised. On Manifesto Day, promises were flying carelessly that you would have gotten home rich if there was an exchange rate. A couple of months down the lane, they disappeared into oblivion. This is as a result of it being fulfilled or forgotten remains a mystery. Were the promises empty lies, or is the entire purpose of Manifesto Day only to see who can gyrate the best?

The 34th – The shaft and the wheat.

The Tobun-led administration was a wonderful ride, with so many unforgettable events packed within the few months of its existence. This piece would try to give constructive criticisms in hopes that the incoming 35th can learn and also get ready to give accounts.

Disclaimer: If any executive position is missed in the subsequent analysis, they probably didn’t make it up to our book.

What is the exact role of the LASUSU President? He is the “number 1 student”. But is that all? Constitutionally, he coordinates the activities of the executive council, who formulate policies to further the objectives of the Union. What does this all mean? It says there ought to be a clear, penned-down plan from this office, which would be a guide the administration would follow. A good example would be the THEMES agenda of the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-olu. This serves as a roadmap through which every action of the government revolves around. The lack of this has been the bane of successive administrations. Everyone has just been winging it as it comes. While we have administrations who winged it into success, others unfortunately winged it into mediocrity.

To President Tobun, it is safe to say there was no specific program directly from his office. It could be the state of the economy. Let’s believe it that way. You’d think that having an academically inclined president this past session would translate into some serious effort to improve our academic experience. However, aside from the Fresher’s Debate/Academic Symposium from the Vice President, there was little seen on the academic front, which is surprising considering his whole cabinet is dominated by ‘academics’.

The LASUSU Inter-varsity debate was conspicuously absent. Despite this aimless drifting, fate smiled on Mr. President. What he lacked in programs, he made it up with ALUTA. He successfully led peaceful protests. This can be traced to the issues of the CBT fee and Course Registration Portal. We don’t think people will forget Tobun anytime soon because this was a huge relief to the whole student populace.
Is that the only reason we are not forgetting him? When last did you see the LASUSU-SPC suspending a sitting president?

We only get that kind of drama from NULASS. Comrade Haroun Tobun was suspended by the SPC on allegations of financial misappropriation, lack of accountability, and flagrant disregard for the provisions of the Constitution. If you had been following the story, you would remember the 001 wanted to fight back at some point, claiming the purported suspension was void. But he eventually accepted his fate, and the matter died down. Of course, we were not fully informed how and why the hatchet seems to be flexibly buried. But like most things in politics, we would never know. One point we can agree on is that his name isn’t leaving our lips soon, whatever the reason you choose to remember him.
This piece uses this medium to advise the 35th President to get a structure on the ground. Let us leave the era of flowing in the direction of whatever wind blows by. A good captain is never far from his map and compass. Get your ship, map, compass, and helm ready. Ahoy joldie.

The next is the Boss Lady; the Vice President – Comrade Oladiran Mercy. If you have been following the political scene, you know there was a clash between this persona and her principal as regards tutorials or not. The SPC flexed their muscles in this regard and suspended the PRO. What would we say about this office? Customarily, the Vice President hosts the usual Academic Symposium and Fresher’s Orientation/debate. Mercy did all these, and we can say the symposium was a success but we can’t say the same for the Fresher’s debate, the debate left out some faculties. Faculties like the Faculty of Communication and Media Studies. Some freshers said the debate wasn’t well organized.

This piece opines that the office of the Vice President shouldn’t be relegated to a secondary position. There is so much more to be achieved than the annual/usual Symposium-Orientation duo. All she needed to do was to think.

Contrary to the established norm, Comrade Mercy also organized a food outreach that catered for over 150 students. This was tagged #FreeFoodLASU. She also hosted an empowerment program in partnership with a brand to support small business owners with much-needed capital to operate the business. According to the report from our correspondence, the vice president observed that her biggest obstacle in the administration was being ostracized by the men in the executive council. She notes that they did everything possible to stop her from being in the limelight. As such, most of her programs were out of pocket. She acknowledged financial restraints, which stopped her from doing more.

This next persona is the golden boy of the 34th administration. We must say Tobun’s stars were in alignment to have gotten such a wonderful Commissioner for Information. This is no other person than Comrade Ibiade Benjamin, the PRO. Many of you might know him by his popular mantra, “PR is not BC”. It is important to state that the publicity of any organization is very important and sacrosanct to its growth. And Ibiade came, ate, and left no crumbs. He didn’t raise any bar because there was none to begin with. He built the whole thing from scratch. Anywhere Tobun went, Ibiade followed with his camera on standby. He served us and kept serving. With all the courtesy visits, there was a sharp camera. He had a structure and a good team.

LASUSU’s website became functional, and we further had a WhatsApp channel for easy dissemination of information. The point is whether the administration did anything worthy of note or not. He gave it such a good publicity boost. A routine visit to the DSA became front-page headlines.
This piece remembers the previous administration visiting our VC’s church in hopes of meeting her and the caption they gave the photoshoot. We can just guess Ibiade was itching to salvage the damage it gave that particular set.

He has come a long way from being suspended when the investigation was conducted into allegations of “perpetrated financial misappropriation, lack of accountability…” to winning several media awards on Campus.
Now, is that to say it was all sunshine and no clouds? By no means! The Public Relations Officer is also supposed to receive information from the public. Communication is a two-way bridge that he should know, having graduated from the Faculty of Media and Communication Studies. Successive administrations hardly hold press conferences and invite media organizations and student representatives to get feedback in real-time, which is a more effective approach. We do hope the 35th will take note. But that aside, Ibiade was the real deal.

Let the welfare of the people be the supreme law! OGs would remember this quote, which was the mantra of the 32nd Welfare Director, Stakeholder. We’ll talk more about this later. If there’s one thing we are going to remember the 34th welfare for, it’s hosting the biggest trade fair exhibition in recent times. Without prejudice to anyone, the fair was big. It was a huge turnout from entrepreneurs and customers alike. But let’s ask ourselves this question…is that all? Should that be all?
Welfare is far bigger than tradefair and palliatives. Welfare is a really broad concept, and we do pray the 35th branches into different terrains of this term. We need to raise the bar higher. During the session, transport was a major problem for most students, especially outside the Iba gate. The drivers were left unchecked with outrageous prices. This piece accounts for a situation where a driver was almost beaten for calling Ipaye three hundred naira. That is one example where we really should feel the impact of our welfarism. The Union has two BRT buses. There is no reason why we can’t utilize it to drop students off at convenient locations for subsidized prices. This kills two birds; generating income and solving transportation problems.

This piece can go on and on accounting for several examples and situations where the bar can be built. However, it would be good to allow the incoming administration to reflect on past failures and build on them for a better future.

There is one office we didn’t expect to make this list but far exceeded our expectations; the office of the Legal Director. Comrade Salaudeen Tijani proved himself worthy of the air-conditioned office. There was a bar set by the 33rd, and he raised it higher than he met it. Ordinarily, no one would fault him if he didn’t do anything notable. After all, the Constitution only envisages where there is a lawsuit against the Union. However, he did a whole lot more. The legal director organized a ground-breaking legal conference with representatives of Senior Advocates of Nigeria turning up for the program. And to top it off, he shared rice and chicken. In this economy? Let’s give him his flowers. He also partook in officially registering counsels for the first time. You might not get the importance of that, but it was a dream come true for third-year law students.
The office also appointed legal representatives in all the faculties, including external campuses, to solve issues facing students. The amazing thing about this is that the majority of the members are non-law students. This piece has no critique of the legal director but only an appeal to the 35th to raise the bar higher.

Next on the list would interest our socialites; yes, the Social Director. Let’s take a moment to applaud Funkizzy. It’s not an easy deal to be in charge of the social life of thousands of students. It is mentally exhausting, financially draining, and physically demanding. If you think of Social Director, you would remember Mr and Miss LASU/Award Day. Anyone who is into these things knows that it is not simply a bed full of roses. This piece can categorically state that the Buba Marwa Auditorium was filled less than an hour after the start of the program. And this is without the pull of any “major celebrity”.
Funkizzy also managed to organize an event that united the three LASU campuses—OJO, EPE, and LASUCOM—something no previous social director had been able to accomplish. Many of our executives tend to forget that LASU is not only located at Ojo. We thank God for people like Funkizzy and Tee-jay. He raised the bar higher with fewer resources.

Permit this piece to make a few comments. The office of the Social Director should not be limited to pageantry alone. There are several social activities that would even resonate amongst introverts/creatives who constitute a majority of the populace. Furthermore, the Constitution also places cultural activities in his hands.

It is with utmost gladness that we use this medium to say that we see what the next social director is cooking. We implore you to raise the bar higher. Keep the good work going.

Why would we do an account and not talk about our sports life? The 34th Sports Director was one of the people who did what was expected of him and much more. When the average LASUite hears sports, he thinks of football. We’re glad that the Sports Director changed this myopic view and branched into other areas of sports. The first major event was the Fresher’s Cup, which was a huge success and had the added advantage of introducing university life to our new intakes. He also organized the LASUSU Olympics, which featured combat sports such as boxing, thereby departing from the traditional norms of football.
We must commend the Sports Director because he had to face the SPC’s overbearing hand as well as the Sports Centre construction whilst trying to satisfy our sports fanatics. Apart from venturing into other sports, he also introduced e-sports to a majority. Everyone who followed the FASU Games closely would have also seen his impact.

This piece must, however, advise the incoming administration to further look into other sports programmes with the hope of including a majority of the female gender. We see no reason why we can not have a LASU Marathon race around campus. Hopefully, the 35th is bringing more birds out of their pocket.

Special commendation must be given to the 34th General Secretary, Prince Sam Adeyemi. He didn’t just occupy the Arcade with the mindset of receiving and sending letters. He is a champion of social justice. He has the best interest of LASUites at heart and wouldn’t hesitate to make it known where necessary. This piece can testify to one occasion in Maryland where LASUites were being undermined by the organizers of a program; it took the combined efforts of several individuals to be able to subside the burning fervour he showcased in addressing the grievances.

To our beloved LASUSU executives and student populace. This is just the first chapter of our ‘not-so-critical account’. We have chosen to present our current administration with the benefits of doubts. We wish to let it known that we will keep to our ten toes henceforth. LASU Conscience is watching. The media is watching!

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