By Habeeb Olokooba
I have a friend in the UDUS students’ government. I have an enemy there as well. In fact, I have a brother among the stakeholders and I have a friend’s friend too.
I have an enemy who is a friend to my friend in the fucked up administration my campus is witnessing at the moment. I saw my friend’s boss stammering when he got suspended by the autocratic Speaker of the Students’ Representative Assembly, who looked up and shot democracy in the leg and suspended Executive officials as he deemed fit.
He was like: “in accordance with the students hand book, I have the right as long as I remain the presiding officer of this sitting, to suspend any person guilty of any misconduct.” That was a foul statement, coming from a supposed learned speaker of the pitiable Students Representative Assembly.
When yam transits it turns pounded yam, but when a matter becomes stale it becomes a narrative. (Bí isu bá paradà ádiyán, bí òrò bá pé nlè ádììtàn) where I come from no one betrays ‘àlájobí’. Do anything, but never bite a hand that has for once fed you.
I have a friend in the House (SRA) who was sullen as the totalitarian speaker dished out unchecked orders. Unchecked? Maybe checked, but the volume of the objecting minorities was never enough to stop that kind of order.
The fact is, I might not have witnessed Barade’s administration but what my eyes saw in the second meeting of the Students’ Representative Assembly registered in my brain and Usmanu Danfodiyo University students will never forget the ugly story. I saw the awful members of the Executives being bullied by the autocratic speaker of the Students’ Representative Assembly.
Like a child being confined by his guardian, the fouler Students’ Union president got suspended for not doing what ought to be done. While the judgment might be right, the procedure was so wrong and I must confess was more than an insult to the democracy we all know.
Well. In an administration where the doctrine of rule of law is least respected, I don’t expect less from a government when an element of checks and balance is missing and beg for attention. Confused?
Here is clarity. The students Handbook provides for the establishment of students’ Judicial Council but the other organs are busy fighting the war of might. But when they reach an anticlimactic climax, who is to decide who is at fault when the third organ and the most important arm of a democratic setting is missing.
I have an enemy in this administration who is a friend to my friend. Because of my friend, I feel reluctant to scratch his back because I hold my friend in high esteem. However, when I joined Digest 24 months ago, I promised myself to write the wrong no matter the barriers I encounter. I vowed to hold the true ethics of journalism. I’m not on the fence and I have emotions.
And believe me, I really do not wish to sadden my friend’s friend who is my enemy. But my pen cannot cease at the sight of foul plays just like the legendary Referee Pierluigi Collina, who had a wide eye. Help me tell my friend that he should tell his friend to do the needful always and we will remain friends till the end of time. To hold officials accountable is the essence of the journalism we do.
The total summary of what I witnessed is a bunch of corrupt Executive and a Totalitarian Speaker.