WHEN FOSSA UNN MADE FOOL OF EVERYONE, NO ITSELF

It is always the claim of the Faculty of the Social Sciences Association, (University of Nigeria, Nsukka) to be the largest faculty in the Sub-Sahara Africa. But the question is, largest in what, number or character? But must count base on quantity or quality? In the absence of the latter it is a mass of junks which invariably means that the Sub-Sahara Africa is plagued with a swarm of men with questionable characters.

The recent but botched FOSSA election speaks volume of the character of persons the faculty is made of. The election was a mere insult not only on the entire student who abandoned their works in a like this (exam period) to exercise their civic rights but got themselves messed up by some deluded elements, but also an insult on the leadership of FOSSA, and the citadel itself. Yes it questions the caliber of persons the institution is pushing into the society yearly as graduates. And when the higher institutions failed to produce resourceful materials for the society it then means the hope and survival of the country is dashed to pieces – when the youths, the assumed leaders of tomorrow were corrupt and “fantastically corrupt” (if I were to borrow a phrase from David Cameroon), and worse than the cabals in power that means the country is gallantly diving into a greater quagmire, a situation that calls for re-visitation of the school curricula vitae for upgrade so as to save the nation from a more serious danger.
Yesterday, July 9 marked the Election Day for the Faculty of Social Sciences Association, University of Nigeria, (FOSSA UNN). As scheduled, as early as 8: 00 GMT people trooped out to exercise their civic right. But up to 12 noon nothing was happening, no accreditation, no voting, though the electoral officials were very much around. The students being determined kept on waiting patiently until about 14:30 GMT when they were asked to come forward to vote. Immediately, voting started in earnest even without (proper) accreditation to ascertain the total number of voters and all the rest of them.
The worst part of it was that the agents to most of the contestants complained of not being allowed to see the ballot boxes before the voting commenced. In less than 20 minutes into the voting, the students could no longer contend with the electoral process thus they started chanting in disgust, banging on the doors and seeking ways to penetrate into the hall to show their disapproval of the fishy process of the election but they were prevailed upon by the security men (part of the school security agents) at the entrance. However, the security men were only able to stop the aggrieved students from breaking into the polling units but not to control the rowdiness that enveloped the milieu which the latter attracted the presence of the team of school security from their office who when on arrival put the voting to a stop according to the yearning of the majority of the students.
Then they parted with the ballot boxes. But when they came outside the hall and tore the ballot boxes the students could not believe what their eyes saw: several hundreds of ballot papers ticked “right” in favour of two persons, Okenwa Kingsley and Ezeh Friday for President and Financial Secretary, respectively. By this means the election was abruptly canceled.

Meanwhile, when I pondered over the whole matter, it reminded me of a piece of advice I overheard a former Faculty president in the school (but not from FOSSA) was giving to his younger brother in FOSSA who has a political ambition as a FOSSA president on how to go about the ambition if he must enjoy his administration “do and undo and yet go free”. According to him, “the post that matters to you a lot as a president is the post of the Financial Secretary. Do all your best to make sure your personal person emerge the Financial Secretary because he is the one to keep financial records and endorse the movement of money. With him on your side you can do and undo.” To them, their stock in trade in politics is nothing but to enrich their pockets from the student body, no wonder they run their administrations without budget and leave office without rendering any financial account; and where one is rendered it will be nothing but deficit accounts. And this same reason might have formed the foundation for the attempt to rig yesterday’s FOSSA election in favour of the President and the Financial Secretary.
Come to think of it, how was the election rigged? Who and who were responsible? Were the departmental presidents that made up FOSSA and who were also present as electoral officers not aware of it? In the same vein, was the Faculty Officer Representative who also doubled as the presiding and returning officer not privy to the plot? Even the resident security agents have a lot of questions to answer concerning the rigging. If these people mentioned here were ignorance of the rigging, then who was responsible? What brought about the delay of and the shady accreditation and the voting proper till about 15:00 GMT (maybe so that the students after being in patience can angrily go home withoutelection voting to give them full chance to execute their whims and caprices)? One more question is that if none of the people mentioned was a party to the rigging, why was it that when the students became skeptical about the electoral process and insist to see the ballot boxes before the voting and the number of eligible voters officers turned a deaf ear?
Nevertheless, while we wait for the answers to the above questions, it is a high time that transparency is incorporated in FOSSA election and students fully allowed to run their affairs without any interference from the ‘high places’. And pending when the re-run election will be announced, I am of the opinion that the tw candidates, Okenwa Kingsley and Ezeh Friday should stand disqualified in the re-run election.
Once again, our tertiary institutions still have a long way to go in producing credible human resources for our society. In this, I suggest that a compulsory course on “Character and Learning” is needful to be introduced in the school scheme of work for every department in order to see a way to fine tune the crude character of most students, all for the well being of our society.