18/10/2017
The result of screening
of honourable members of the Students Parliamentary Council (SPC) of the Lagos
State University Students Union (LASUSU) has once again become a subject of
controversy. This time around, a huge number of candidates for seats in the SPC
were screened out. These include a number of our members like comrades YNA
Omomeewa, Dhikrullah Aasim (Bintinlaye) and a whole lot of known radical and
progressive student activists. Like previous years, no one knows the criteria
used, no one knows how the screening is done and what factors are considered
before approving or disqualifying an applicant.
The Education Rights
Campaign (ERC) Lagos State University (LASU) hereby rejects the
disqualification of the candidates. The candidates as well as the mass of
students have a right to know the reasons for the disqualification. We
therefore challenge the Independent Electoral Committee (IEC) to publish the
criteria it used for the screening. This is the least the IEC must do if the
mass of students are to continue to retain any confidence in the on-going
electioneering process of the Students Union.
So far the electioneering
process has been fraught with irregularity which has cast a shadow over the
credibility of its outcome. Of particular importance is the undue interference
of the management in the affairs and conducts of the elections. This only goes
to show that LASUSU remains tied to the apron string of the management. To
build an independent and virile LASUSU, a vibrant SPC is required. But this
cannot be achieved going by the highly opaque and undemocratic manner
honourables of the SPC are selected.
On several occasions, we
in the Education Rights Campaign (ERC) had condemned the process for the
election of SPC members as shady, undemocratic, fraudulent and not in
consonance with the democratic ideals of a Students union. Instead of
elections, members of the SPC are selected through a shady screening process.
We had also condemned similar undemocratic practices in the union and had
always canvassed that it is about time to amend the LASUSU constitution in
order to make the union more independent and democratic. This shady process of
SPC elections replaces the right of all matriculated members of the union to
elect their representatives and places this responsibility in the hands of a
cabal of godfathers and kingmakers.
The outcome of this
year’s screening process has again confirmed the correctness of our position
which is that the SPC screening process is patently fraudulent undemocratic.
Otherwise how can the IEC or anyone explain the disqualification of applicants
who are so active in students’ union activities and equally popular on campus
that if they should even contest for any office in the SEC some of them would
garner hundreds if not thousands of votes?
We hereby urge all
LASUITES to rise up and reject this fraudulent process. We must all demand that
members of the SPC be elected by popular votes the same way parliaments are
elected in many students unions across the country. Without insisting on this,
the choice of who become our representatives at the SPC will continue to be
decided by the cabal.
The question we must ask
is if members of the SEC are democratically elected, then why are the
honourables who are to make laws and checkmate the union not democratically
elected? Also, if democracy is a system popular representation (Majority), it
is only logical that students’ representatives at either SPC or SEC must be
elected by popular vote.
Students must understand
that the undemocratic process of electing honourables into the LASUSU SPC is a
major factor affecting the efficiency and effectiveness of students’
representative. It's only when the mandate to represent is giving by students
then we can have quality representation to check balance the union.
Therefore students should
not sit back and watch. It is to this end that ERC draws the conclusion that
the screening results is far from being credible and obviously it is incapable
of representing the genuine interest of students on campus and therefore it
must be rejected.
Our
Demands are:
- The IEC with
immediate effect and in the interest of the entire students and the union
as a whole to reconsider the qualification of those disqualified.
2.
The IEC in further discharge of her duties should put first the interest of the
union above all other interest.
(3)
A halt to the shady process for election of SPC members. Henceforth, all SPC
members to be elected through direct vote by all valid members of their
constituencies.
(4)
An independent, mass based and democratic LASUSU free of management
interference and capable of defending the rights of the mass of students
We therefore hope the IEC
considers these genuine demands in the interest of students at large. We like
to reiterate our commitment to a responsible union which serves the interest of
her members.
signed
Dhikrullah
Aasim (Bintinlaye)
Coordinator
ERC
LASU BRANCH
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