Mulumba Ngmenlabagna Songsore in this piece serves us some odd practices our various universities student populace engage persons contesting for leadership roles.
We are the cause of our own miseries, we are the architects of our doom, we propel ineffectiveness in our various Universities. The crave for student leadership has now degenerated into a big time investment that monies are required in large amounts to run a campaign with the hope of securing victory. Student leadership I strongly believe is a call for pure service by addressing the myriad needs of students to aid their academic progress for greater glories.
It baffles me how students of our various tertiary institutions expect their Student Leaders to work in the total interest of the populace by judiciously using hard earned dues paid by the populace for the betterment of all. Ask yourself, would you invest in a venture without expecting gains from it? Hell no! but yes, we have made it so, student leadership portfolios be it
- The SRC Presidency
- NUGS Presidency
- Women’s Commissioner position
And all other portfolios are big time investments, in the sense that to run for any of these positions you will need money to
- Buy forms at very high prices
- Paying for thousands of posters and banners in aid of advertising your personality
- Fueling motors and sometimes vehicles for hyping
- Photocopying handouts for students
- Buying of airtime for publicity of motivational messages predominantly on What’s App
And what annoys me most is that, Undergrads as we are demand monies, ‘’sobolo’’, pure water and all other goodies from these hopefuls when they come around our various hostels as enticement tickets for your votes. Have you asked yourself how much money it takes to do all the above rounds as a hopeful? Sometimes I don’t just get it whether we realize that these hopefuls are just regular students as we all are? And talking about a students, look at all the economic hardships surrounding the country, this translates directly to the pockets of students hence where do you expect persons with the inherent passion for service to avail themselves and take up these crucial leadership roles?
I believe you reading this message after going through this ordeal and triumphing as a winner would judiciously and religiously use student’s funds for their rightful purposes without taking a penny for yourself? If yes, then you might just be a Saint.
Yet, we are the same people who complain and sing songs that our SRC leaders are not working, they are doing virtually nothing, they haven’t fulfilled any of their campaign promises, useless SRC! Yes, we do all these, you can relate.
What did you expect? I ask again what did you expect? have you forgotten the goodies he/she bought for you during their campaign times? Oh! no you haven’t
Why should we continue to sell student leadership forms at high prices and expect that we would be fair with those who are born leaders with the intrinsic passion for service get the opportunity to serve?
We must shun such practices of demanding monies, and other goodies from hopefuls if we truly want to hold them accountable for not fulfilling their campaign promises. We tend to sell out our integrity by engaging in such practices. And also, the school administration should put in mechanism in that monetary burdens on Student elections are relaxed this move is apt for getting the best of leaders to stir the affairs of students in the right direction.
Mulumba Ngmenlabagna Songsore
Activist
