Why do we often come to this? What has happened to the deluge of fantastic and seemingly good ideas often vended by political office seekers during electioneering campaigns? Why are we here and for how long are we to continue in this disheartening state of affairs? Could this have been our bargain? These are but a few questions out of the many that would be churned out if I am allowed to go on.

One cannot in sincerity claim sole authorship of these soul-wrecking but needlessly inevitable questions. To get the trajectory of this discourse right, picture this: available informal reports have it that the school has a student population of around 30,000; at present- again according to unconfirmed sources, there hardly is no class that can’t assuredly boast of having a surfeit of first class students who probably may break long established records; committed and absolutely dedicated Christians who have at various times shown unquestionable display of their uncompromising belief in the tenets of the Christian faith; not to by any means forget those that have made firm statements about their absolute understanding of their stated mission in life be it in business, entertainment, career choices, vocations and other guises of human pursuits. In sum, every class can without vacillating one bit present forth students that can pair with some of the brightest from the world’s best universities- not minding the various self-imposed difficulties that are peculiar to us and unheard of anywhere on earth. To stay clear of fruitless deviation, one must ask; why in the midst of these sparkling talents are we often saddled with individuals who represent the very worst as union leaders and officials? For the newer ones, a quick trip down memory lane would help to dispel any cloud of doubt. In 2005, sometime in late December that year, a certain section of the house of representatives then led by Hon. Ken Agbo (the other faction was led by a certain Ekene Nwabueze and both camps were understandably at each others throat) released circulations serving notice of their intention to send the then union president Mr. Mama Collins out of office, their first line of action was to clamp a suspension order on him and barred him from putting to further use any of the paraphernalia of office he had hitherto monopolized including the union bus. Among the plethora of allegations leveled against him was the diversion of funds meant for the burial of a former union leader and great social crusader- comrade Chima Ubani. He also was alleged to have been less than tidy in his handling of the union’s fund. The rest are: high handedness in running the affairs of the body; adopting a peculiarly Nigerian leadership strategy- divide and rule; placing himself beyond the reach of the people he was expected to lead as typified in the inscription “presidency” on the union vehicle; bringing intense ridicule to the entire Nigerian students in the said Chima Ubani burial; inability to rise to the challenge of leadership as was demonstrated in the happy-go-lucky attitude he puts up in matters affecting the general interest of Nigerian students and other sundry allegations. Going into a detailed study of the disputes, reactions and counter reactions that the said action sired may not be in our best interest here but suffice it to say that the action achieved in my own reckoning one dominant motive- weakening an already enfeebled union and as far as my recollection permits, no effort was put in place to make the  man pay back the fund he was alleged to have pilfered- at least not to the knowledge of many; the inscription on the bus that by any objective measure portrayed the emptiness of the promoter was never erased. My interactions with active players of union politics that era did reveal to me that if anything tangible could be credited to that dispensation, that would be doing incalculable harm to the sanctity of students’ unionism and permanently tarnishing the ideals of nurturing strong minds for active leadership role that in proper sense should be a core responsibility of the union. They spent valuable time and energy fighting imaginary enemies and negatively politicking. The era passed unremarkably and we prayed eagerly for that uneventful era to ease off. On more than a few occasions, active players in the wrangle were involved in sinful fisticuffs and hot exchanges. Truly speaking, the SUG officials that ruled between 2005 and 2006 from available accounts desecrated the wholesomeness of unionism and thus earned a prominent place in the gallery of infamy.

Fast-forward to 2006- sometime around March, the prelude did begin in the last quarter of 2005, electoral events were at their peak and the key actors spared no effort in their bid to outshine other opponents. Their central message: righting the wrongs of the past and reclaiming the glory of the union. All the aspirants for the offices boasted of their lofty dreams and vision for the students and each had a sizable fan base. The election came and went but not without allegations of poorly disguised manipulations and a certain dose of violence including irregularity in the official release of results- results came in few minutes before mid-night on that Friday. The winners did celebrate while the losers cried foul. They (the losers) alerted us of the danger of entrusting our affairs to those we had rejected at the polls. The winners did not keep mute; they pointed us to their efforts and wide reach during the campaigns and ascribed their victory to what one of them boasted to me was careful strategizing. The stir caused by the less than credible election that brought them to office did contribute to the delay in having them sworn into the offices they were said to have won- some kind of tribunal even came on board and the dissidents were directed by the authorities to politely channel whatever misgivings they have to the body and be hopeful of a fruitful outcome- (No one can certainly say how that tribunal fared in that task). When they finally took the oath of office, not much expectation was placed on them in view of the severe image problem they confronted. Eventually they swung into action, it wasn’t long before their greed and ill-attitude unmasked them for what they truly were- a horde whose sole drive is inordinate self-interest. First came the accusation that the president Mr. Fortress Nwoye had withdrawn a certain amount of money- four hundred thousand Naira to be precise from the union account after he willfully by-passed due process and went on to expend the said sum in what neither he nor his alleged accomplice Amaka Emordi-the Financial secretary then could hardly offer any tangible explanation for. That marked the beginning of trouble for that era and before one could articulate oneself; we were told Fortress had jetted off for the U.S without the knowledge of other union officials or those of the students he was assumed to be leading. The trip his traducers alleged was sponsored from the union purse and he never taught it wise to include at least another union official in that jamboree of American trip. When words of it got to the already disenchanted house officials, they took the familiar step, forward a suspension letter to him while still cozying up in the states. The house by that act served notice that Mr. Fortress’s reign as the helmsman of a crumbling house was gradually inching to a close. They accused him of a litany of offences and as was the case during the era of Mama Collins restricted him from ever setting his buttocks on the union vehicle. They gave him a certain number of days to reply to those allegations or be permanently impeached. I think the venue of the announcement this time was in front of SUB building and the arrow head was the speaker then Mr. Ugwu of the faculty of Agriculture. Many house members stood beside him and that again the union steeped into greater distress. Mr. Fortress Nwoye did not just fold his arms to watch; he hastened back to the school from U. S. (he summarily ignored the union vehicle and from credible accounts bought himself a red Honda car) to face his vilifiers. He accused them of ingratitude and gave us a run down of how he has assisted them in the past and then made it known that the house members are working in consort with some amorphous enemies of progress who are seething at their exclusion for the U. S trip. The bottomline: their regime lost whatever semblance of purpose it earlier had and that marked the absolute collapse of that disgraceful era.

Meanwhile the aspirants for the session’s elections were gearing up and as usual directing their arsenal for what they had envisaged would be a tough battle. Money was spent on elaborate fliers and handbills and a far larger sum was spent in “sharking up” the self-styled stakeholders in any available beer joint. They showed true readiness to slug it out in the battlefield- (we see elections in Nigeria as do-or die affair; no thanks to the disastrous self-anointed father of modern Nigeria- Olusegun Obasanjo and the atrocious brand of politics he patented). Following the crises that rocked the union however, all talks of election were shelved and the school administration weighed in by inaugurating what they called a caretaker committee headed by students that were largely unpopular and whose criteria for selection were unknown to all of us. Their charge: to just occupy spaces as union officials no more; no less. If they were any modicum of credibility for the SUG of the University of Nigeria Nsukka, the misadventure of caretaker committee quickly razed it down and they gleefully marched on her ruins.

Then came the 2007/08 election year, we prayed and hoped that the elections would at least hold and our right to choose who ran our affairs restored. Some however watched with measured caution as the contestants rolled out their weaponry to get our nods for the offices they sought. As the preparations and the official arrangements got to a head, there were rumors of disqualifications and non-clearance for one reason or the other- from the official quarters. Make no mistake- allegations of less than wholesome deeds were never short in supply. The election proper- winners and losers emerged and inauguration took place and they moved with the initial vigor and drive we see among new office holders. It did not take long for all that to quickly fizzle out as their pretenses were promptly demystified. I think Mr. Okechukwu Kingsley’s first action as the SUG president was to latch wicked slaps on the face of Mr. Charles Kennedy- who exists as the Eni Njoku hall governor. The next were reports of his arrogant and unguarded utterances while speaking with his “assumed followers”. He did tell a certain guy in Civil Engineering that he would give him an extra year at Eni Njoku tap and that got us wondering- when did his power extend to that level? He never for once stood by the students during their period of now often recurrent sorrows. He appeared more interested in placing mind-blowing orders at expensive food joints around campus. Let’s not forget that he bought himself or according to some sources was given a Peugeot car to suit his status and discarded the bus his predecessors rode (both are now gathering dust at the security post- further evidence of a deflated union).  He expectedly acquired a plate number that advertised his internal emptiness- I think 001. The students silently protested that the guy that charmed them with artificial humor and attitude of a gentleman has morphed to a big monster. They expressed their disgust by carefully avoiding him and isolated those they felt were in cahoots with him. At the inception of the new session, words got out that one of the fellows he converted to a domestic servant stands serious risk of loosing one of his eyes because of an injury he sustained in Kingsley’s hand. Informed sources said he hit him with a shoe on the said eye; and the doctors who carried out an examination on that spot gave a grim report. Naturally students were incensed and we again wondered why we are often thrust with beastly characters as leaders. The SUG senate was the first to offer a response this time around; in one of their emergency sittings at an undisclosed location outside the school, (there is an existing ban on campus suspending all political and such similar gatherings) Mr. Okechukwu was placed on suspension and directed to foot all medical expenses to be incurred by the man at the receiving end of his brutality- Mr. Adams. The HOR followed suit two days later and passed a similar resolution but now roped in the DOT and the Fin. Sec for various acts of misconduct including allegations of bribery- I think the house leadership should produce more copies of that resolution for the ingestion of interested lions. Before these suspension orders were clamped on the suspended union helmsman, Mr. Obinna Eze; the Sec. Gen. of the union had earlier moved with commendable speed to dissociate the executives of the union from the ignoble acts of Mr. Okechukwu and went on to ask him to seriously consider the option of prompt resignation and I would add- with a sincere apology for the grave impairment his numerous acts of indiscretion has done to the psyche of the average student here. Let me note in passing that while these wrangling and fruitless disputes were going on, such urgent matters that deserve swift and directed response as the dire transport difficulty we face here, the perennial water and power difficulties and other such crucial issues were quietly shelved to the background and you naturally know who felt the pinch the most- you and I definitely. Let’s get something straight here, if the trouble we often encounter with leadership at this level had been restricted to presidents who are at a deep loss with what their undertakings are, the regrets would have been far easier to contain; but no- it’s never unusual to have ineffective welfare officers that have no interest whatsoever in matters affecting those whose welfare they promised to guarantee, transport officers that are just content to answer the name- DOT and a whole executive council obsessed more with how they can place themselves at better advantage- materially than the rest of us oblivious of their assignments. That’s the real calamity Talk of misdirection and you could be talking of the state of our union. The house I learnt has given Kingsley with his co-accused a certain number of days to reply or be booted out permanently. Whatever the decision of the house, may it be known that the actions of the said individuals have greatly blighted the image of a greatly shattered body.

Why have I chosen to go into this lengthy discourse? It is to bring to a clearer perspective the salient issues that have conspired to weigh down the union administration over the years and to enlighten the young inexperienced ones of the peculiar nature of students’ unionism here. May I again ask- why do we almost without fail get ourselves at this dispiriting state of events? My first response will be a blind guess. Over the years, I learnt that some divergent interest have often been at the forefront in determining who superintends the affairs of students leadership here. It’s not always unusual to hear talks of endorsements and counter endorsement by individuals and groups you ordinarily would expect to have no business in students’ politics much less interfere (many are aware of this and some depraved students even boast about such bizarre arrangements). I think in the course of this uncanny turn of things, the concern is always taken away from putting forth the best and the brightest for elective offices. Of course in a typical Nigerian style, demonstrable ability to play ball is often the key factor. Such primordial sentiments as nativity and their likes are hardly discounted. Suffice it to say that we shall enjoy a more virile union once these questionable interests hands off the affairs of the union. Even when one does not encourage violence and destructive tendencies (they in fact should never come in and I would urge anyone with noble intention to resist the temptations of undue destructive aggression, they are counterproductive. I also extend my support to any positive initiative to keep trouble promoters out of our union), I still believe that there’s immense respect that accrues the school when we are led by those who painstakingly earn our reverence. This exactly has been the peril of the union and from observation, this trend is not about to end soon. When we are allowed to voluntarily choose those that have shown themselves worthy of true- not sycophantic followership, then an avenue for great minds to express themselves in leadership might have been opened. Pretending that we have no business with politics while we allow non-starters and usurpers mismanage our collective destiny is a height of hypocrisy.

Let’s be candid, the real tragedy of Nigeria is to hand her affairs to men and women whose ideals are in aberration with the rest of the society. That is been replicated here. We ask again – when shall it end?

Robot  # 1 | 23.10.2009 01:08

...Read the full article.

PAPIG  # 2 | 24.10.2009 10:07

It would only END when we address the question you raised in your other artcle - ARE WE ALL FOOLISH? You are on the right track and please refuse to be distracted by the EBENEZER BABATOPE SYNDROME!