By
Kogi Abishai
U13MM1121
Gone are those days
where campus politics was an avenue where the rights of Students were known and
protected, from the time Students’ Unions were formed before independence which
were to protect lives and rights of African people in London, down till after
independence, it was a platform for selfless service and collective interest.
They were comrades made by the people because they had them (the people) at
heart. They cared less about their certificates as long as it was the right
thing they were standing for. They used favorable and confrontational methods
including diplomatic and radical means in fighting for a cause. Leaders were
made, those radical and ideological in thoughts. People like James Orengo in
Kenya, Hassan Omar Hassan, Adekunle Adepeju, among others.
They were highly
articulated, intellectually inclined and very dogged in their struggles. They
were activists who knew what unionism means, an avenue they used to serve as the
voice of the voiceless, whatever policy taken by either the institution or
government which did not favor the students was not accepted by these great
Comrades.
However, it is quite
unfortunate how things have metamorphosed into, in campus politics. It has now
become a platform where fellow Student leaders source for their pocket money
and rent “first-class” apartments off-campus, they have all the beautiful
ladies around them, and at the end present a terribly looking financial report
to their congress men, with inflated budgets. To make matters worse, they now
only call for congress once in a session and organize elections in such a way
that it will be rigged. They care less about the welfare of their people, yet
they carry shoulders high and call themselves “comrades”, I call them comrades
with portfolios. They do not even know their rights as leaders hence; they care
less about their people.
It is high time they
know that students’ Unions or Associations are not for popularity making but
for men who are ready to stand for the Students when things go wrong. Men who
go for “the people first” followed by any other thing. Those people who know
what in practice, accountability, transparency, honesty and bravery means.
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