OPINION: Choose representatives wisely!

    

Quadri Yahya 

A course mate of mine was disappointed after sighting several times the president of a faculty smoking along a streetside. A senior also told me that a defeated aspirant to the office of the president of a department was caught cheating in an exam last semester. Judging by the increasing menace among Nigerian youth, such vices are not unusual and odd; but in the context of a citadel of learning, they constitute unpardonable acts — doing drugs and malpractice. And to think that those who are supposed to be role models carrying around bags of cabbages is not a good image for our great institution.

The truth is that some of those who are elected to lead students at the department and faculty level are not worthy of leading with the kind of lifestyle they lead. But because the crops of capable and cultivated students have, due to indifference and irresponsibility, taken to the backseat, we have smokers, exploiters, chronic cheaters and ambitious scallywags aspiring to lead us… to nowhere.

As the electioneering session kicks off on campus, it’s important to awaken political consciousness in the student populace; they should be wary of pretentious contestants: Those aspirants who are after honorific and benefits of office rather than true stewardship, with dignity and humility, should not be given a chance. Their names, if possible, should not make it to the ballot paper. They should be relegated to the background where they belong.

Flaunting expensive gadgets or exotic cars and dressing in corporate attire like a bank manager does not qualify an aspirant as a worthy representative of the students at the department or faculty or union level. Designing aesthetic graphics as well as creating numerous online groups to disseminate wishy-washy agenda is not a sign that someone will be truly committed to serving. The popularity of an aspirant is not a yardstick of capacity and capability.

While academic excellence counts, leadership positions require more than good grades. Accountability, empathy, fairness, and willingness to serve are at the core of what makes a true leader among students.