By, Adekola Rihanat
Days ago, the University of Ibadan transformed itself from a gentle villa to a busy one. The transition could be attributed to the resumption of students to their academic activities. Almost every sector of the school is occupied with administrative duties regarding the resumption of students to ensure the smooth running of academic activities.
The new session is back like the return of Harmattan during the dry season. The school has officially resumed physically to kick-start academic activities. And as the norms of the school, new session, new activities, new plans, new aims, new recruitment and dismissal. Students, Lecturers and organisations are interested in formulating their plans, recruiting progressive ideas and filtering out the bad ones. Starting from the recently concluded session, it’s a tradition of the students’ association to elect new student leaders to take position of the old ones who have succeeded in discharging their administrative duties. Every department, faculty, hall of residence and even the students Union are prone to this. The Department of Political Science comprises both Executive and legislative bodies similar to real state politics. The Executive Council were already elected by the students towards the end of the session as they were deemed fit for the position. The Legislative Council were also elected to represent their levels in the senate. Every level is expected to provide students to fill up the allocated seats for each level. The Legislative Council is to recruit students from 100 level to fill in the seats provided for the constituency. The election also covers other levels if a senator resigns from being a senator. Before the election commences the aspirants are usually given orientation on what being a senator is all about. Their duty, the do’s and don’ts, discipline etc. The orientation is usually organised by the principal officers of the House, including the freshers orientation which the executive president is to take responsibility for.
The election of the senators took place on Wednesday, 19th of June. Before the emergence of the election, a screening was organised for the aspirants, which took place on Monday, 17th of June. The major aim of this is to assess and examine them if they are fit for the position or not. In an interview with the Senate President , Mr Sunday Noah, he claimed that, currently only five candidates are available to represent the 100-level constituency, in which six seats were allocated to the constituency. The names of the aspirants include:
100-level senatorial candidates
1. Akinleye Esther
2. Emmanuel Olayemi Akinbusuyi
3. Sunday Oluwanifesimi Victor
4. Adewale Oluwaseun Micheal
5. Abiodun Oluwatimileyin
6. Oriade Ibrahim.
Akinleye Esther has 25 votes
Akinbusuyi Emmanuel has 25 votes
Sunday Oluwanifesimi Victor has 4 votes
Adewale Micheal has 19 votes
Abiodun Oluwatimileyin has 23 votes
Oriade Ibrahim has 23 votes.
According to the senate president, Sunday Oluwanifesimi Victor automatically lost the election because the votes scored were below the average. The senate president also explained that after the election, a majority leader was to be picked from the winners. He went further, that constitutionally it’s the candidate with the highest number of votes that automatically becomes the majority leader of the constituency. Coincidentally, two candidates scored the same number of votes, which is the highest. The senate president claimed that another election was conducted between the two candidates with the highest votes to select the majority leader. Fortunately, Akinbusuyi Emmanuel won the election and automatically emerged as the majority leader of the constituency.
Also, the Senate President revealed that in case the number of senators is below the number of seats allocated to the constituency, an election would be conducted to bring in candidates to fill up the space. He went further stating that the election was delegated to the majority leader of such constituency to conduct the elections on his behalf, and also such election would be in-house. He revealed that the reason behind this is attributed to the unavailability of the candidates. Their absence deters the making of the election physical as the election would be conducted online.
The election was graced by the presence of members of the Executive Council, The executive president of the department’s students’ association was present physically. Also, principal officers of the House were recognized. The deputy speaker; Senator Olayinka Anne, The chief whip; Senator Sylvia Obi and other members of the House were recognised.
