Political activities in the University are gradually shifting toward the climax. The school is back at that time in the political cycle when incumbent and emerging politicians promise us dinner with the moon, and breakfast with the stars while flossing our gums twice a day. We are, of course, not strangers to these antics; the average UI student must have witnessed one election or the other in the past. However, for the purpose of decisiveness and accountability, it’s important for the student body to think about the aftermath. What happens when the fancy balloons of promises are popped; when the confetti of affection is swept away?
While it is impractical – at the moment – to see the future, we may be able to predict the likely outcomes by studying the past. With the bold assumption that the student body will be more attentive to accountability than ever, this piece will attempt a concise evaluation of the incumbent administration in the hall, per office. The basis for the analysis and consequent evaluation are the promises documented and submitted by these individuals during the campaign phase of the political cycle.
Most importantly, this piece is intended to achieve two major purposes. One, it should serve as the basis for perspectival recalibration for Katangites. Katangites should ask themselves, who do I want to vote for and why? Are these promises – like in George Orwell’s animal farm – unrealistic and detrimental to me? How well have they served in their previous executive capacities? Secondly, all things being equal, the piece should gear the incumbent towards judiciously doing justice to their promises. After all, they still have time!
Sports Commissioning: How Well Has Jesubiyi Delivered?
Sports in the University seem to be in its buildup stage. It may therefore be difficult to fully evaluate sport commissioning in the context of major competitions. However, there are some peculiar promises that may be irrelevant to the buildup, and therefore subject to inquiry in Jesubiyi Damilare’s manifesto promises. A prominent example would be the promise to expand the scope of sporting activities in the hall, to accommodate indoor games. To be more specific, the incumbent sports commissioner promised to introduce E-football competitions and board games into the mix.
However, up until the point of this analysis, the hall does not have a standard indoor games portfolio. Quite certainly, the issue with this cannot be a lack of interest. The reality rather points to poor planning, nonchalance, or less pungently, lack of proper execution. For instance, the Hall is home to Chess enthusiasts, who belong to the school chess team. The excuse for lack of interest is therefore outside the window. We should rather be looking to see any semblance of effort toward purchasing indoor games or mobilizing Katangites to participate. To drive this evaluation home, it is important to ask how many times have students had access to the Junior common room for Indoor games. Does the Hall even have Indoor games? How many times did the sports commissioner actively mobilize toward indoor games? This same line of thought could be applied to the promise to introduce an E-football competition. However, we may extend the benefit of the doubt in this case; after all, the competition could still hold before the semester is over.
Moving forward, Jeubiyi Damilare promised the Katangites to renovate or initiate the renovation of the Katanga Maracana. According to his manifesto, he intended to fill the Maracana with Sand or create a pathway for the stagnant water to flow. However, up until the time of this analysis, the Maracana remains water clogged. Also, the argument as to whether the session is far from over may be irrelevant in this case. The intent behind this promise is to allow Katangites to enjoy football as much as they can, and compete fairly without controversies. Considering this antecedent, the sports commissioner has not delivered on this promise; the Hall has had a number of competitions on the Maracana in the past as deteriorated as it is. So this begs the question, how long do Katagites have to wait until they have a good Maracana? Why does the sports commissioner not address Katangites about the Maracana?
On the plus side, the Hall has a Football Fan page on WhatsApp in fulfillment of Jesubiyi’s promises to create a Fanbase. However, on the scale of relevance, how much worth does it hold?
Bam Connect In the Secretarial Palace; What has Changed?
The office of the house secretary is taxed with welfare, repair, and maintenance. Before becoming the house secretary, Olaniyan Ibrahim had served the hall in the legislative capacity for two sessions consecutively. His Manifesto was rather short, basic, and bereft of details. However, despite the relative conciseness of the manifesto, a substantial part of the promises was not executed at all. For instance, Ibrahim Olaniyan promised Katangites to distribute Exam Welfare packages on a sessional basis. To date, there seems to be no concrete plan for advancing students’ welfare during the exam period. Maybe this Messiah had forgotten to feed the Katanga multitude after all?
Also, the House secretary also promised to renovate the Hall secretariat in partnership with other members of the executive council. Aside from the new painting, the Hall executive palace remains the same as before he assumed office. Considering that the office doubles as the meeting place of the Hall Literary and Debating Society, the nonchalance is rather disturbing. Bam’s plans also extended to building and consolidating maintenance culture in the Hall through sensitization and awareness. As far as Independence Hall is concerned today, there are no specific structures in place to teach Katangites maintenance or remind them. There has been no serious and consistent awareness campaign on social media or physically as far as the session is concerned. Also for the record, the trite once-in-a-blue-moon reminders through Indy’s public announcement system do not count as awareness toward building a maintenance culture.
Oluwaseun Akinkuade and the Indy Health Mandate
If health is indeed wealth, maybe Independence Hall is not wealthy after all. Following this analogy, Indy might as well be a Middle-class or even Low-income family of men. Here is Why: when Oluwaseun wanted the votes of Katangite to become the Health commissioner, he made a series of promises that included orientation and bathroom supervision, cafeteria supervision and maintenance, tank maintenance, and health kits. However, aside from tank maintenance and health kits, the health commission has not made good on the rest of its promises.
For one, there has been no significant supervision of the cafeteria since last semester. In some instances, the hall cafeteria had been caught lacking regarding the number of waste bins, and proper wash tanks. In the same vein, the Health Commissioner promised to supervise raw food processing and storage for the different sides of the cafeteria periodically. For one, these promises have not been delivered upon; the hall also does not have a structure that caters specifically to cafeteria supervision and regulation. In the same vein, Oluwaseun also promised consistent awareness of bathroom culture through the public address system. Aside from occasional pleas and warnings from the Administrator General, there has been no trace of awareness toward healthy bathroom culture in the Hall.
Most importantly, Jatto promised access to Katangites. According to his manifesto, Katangites would have access to the phone numbers and room numbers of committee members. The concluding part of this promise stipulated the medium of access. According to the latter part of Jatto’s innovative plans, Katangites would have access to the phone numbers and room numbers on boards in respective halls. However, the members of the health committee are rather inaccessible to Katangites; none of the boards in the block has the name or number of any member of the health committee.
Also, the health commissioner promised to keep the health tags and Jaja numbers of all Katangites within reach. By implication, there was supposed to be a health database specifically tailored to Katangites. However, as far as the session is concerned, the office of the health commissioner has neither called for the health data of Katangites nor attempted to document and broadcast emergency call lines. Finally, the health talks were supposed to be held periodically, according to the Health commissioner. What happened to the periodicity tag that these promises carried? How does the health commissioner measure periodicity?
In the end, Katangites should ponder on this; promises are easy to make but how much attention do we pay to execution and feasibility?
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