UISU Election: On the Just Concluded Manifesto Night
Good evening, Greatest UITES! Good evening, Ever-Intelligent UITES!
I’m ADEJUMO RICHARD O. I’m writing as a concerned UITE about the manifesto night held today.
With all due respect, what we witnessed tonight was not a manifesto night, but a display night. A manifesto without questions from UITES is manipulation, not democracy. How do we assess competence by just reading papers? Every UITE deserves to ask questions and get answers. That is our right.
Two things that actually pissed me off the most.
On the AGS Candidate, I noticed something strange, How does someone vying for Assistant General Secretary, whose primary job is documentation, present a manifesto with no justification, no line spacing, and tiny unreadable fonts? If you cannot format your own manifesto properly, how will you format and present our official documents to the University management? Will the VC treat a poorly formatted letter as urgent? This is probably why our requests are delayed.
On the Presidential Manifesto One of the candidates (Paradigm) listed something about “ensuring no delay in accommodation, prioritizing freshers and finalists” as a plan. What is the plan there? The Management already prioritizes freshers and finalists. What then happens to us STAYLITES who suffered for accommodation this session? What do we stand to gain if we vote you in? That is not a plan, that is repeating what already exists.
My biggest disappointment was the audience. We came to support our candidates, not to question them. We clapped for everything they said, even incompetence, but we complain in our hostels and in DMs. UITES are known for intelligence, we should show it.
In my short time in UI, I have not seen or heard of an SU Congress where students’ complaints are truly heard. Decisions are made FOR us, not WITH us. Democracy should not be an excuse to deny accountability.
I call on the ever-transparent SUEC to please ensure that subsequent manifesto days allow UITES to ask questions. Let our voices be heard. Let competence be tested, not just displayed.
Thank you.
A Concerned UITE
