STAFF ADVISER FOR PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REPLIES TO PRESS COUNCIL REPORT; PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION SLAPS DEMOCRACY, IMPOSES EXECUTIVES

 BY NAPADs PRESS 

Crew

           Sir According to the report from the campus press that the department public Administration imposes the excos which should be election, and it was claimed that the department slaps democracy.

 We will like to hear from you sir?

Staff Adviser:

   "The department public Administration and myself is not interested in what so ever reported by the campus press but what I think we should seek is the truth, it is as well very true that the department contributed to the choosing of the student president for the department.This is not the very first time such will happen, the first of it happen under Alhaji Busari he instructed me to select the new excos someone who is able to report to the department and I did.Even that was base on the last administration then, who mismanaged the department funds."

     "Even under Dr A.B Akinola there was another mismanagement, that one was even one of the worst administration in the department and I asked also to choose the department excos so it is not the first or the second time this will happen. Infact, the department is not interested in such not even me, I am doing that because of the love for the student and the love for things to move forward and each of the time.As a staff adviser i always do my best within my capacity. I Barrister Diekola have being a staff adviser for a very long time, in fact, let me confess I'm so tired of it, because every day its issue upon issue, although am a lawyer and settling issue, is what i do but it could have being so lovely if this is in court or where am paid for it but here it is the order way round. you know people perceive issues from different perspectives and everybody should be open to criticism but i tell you those who report that i consider them as immature reporter, they are not equitable,not justice  in their report  which make it lopsided, bias, and sentimental. This journalism is not something strange, I wrote my first article to the Nigerian tribune when I was in form two 1978 which is the talk of the town and have been invited to so many radios and television stations and have been an editor in chief in so many campuses so it is not a strange thing, and I know when writing is not true, so I see that report as a sponsored report." 

       "Let me start with the last administration led by Bamigbade Ibukun, I do not have anything against that guy. They were saying slaps on democracy, what do they understand by democracy? democracy where someone rig election, that kind of democracy my foot. I know the manipulation that goes on even in student elections even in the department also from the lecturers, I stand against injustice always."

          "Bamigbade and his team started this electoral process without our knowledge, the HOD(Dr. Mrs R.A Akinseye)  and I were coming from somewhere and we encounter a guy putting on white and black, we ask him if today was Monday and he said they are doing screening ,  what screening? He said NAPADS excos screening and we are  so surprised, I was planning to call Bamigbade later and ask him what is going on but the HOD does not have that kind of patient, she was so furious and she ask if i know about it but I replied her that I didn't know about the process although, about 30minutes  Bamigbade was telling me they are considering election and instructing him on the right step he should take knowing that exam was around the corner  maybe a couple of days to the exam and later that day  we heard they were doing screening which we don't know about. And the HOD (Dr.Akinseye R.A) suspended him immediately.In aspect of that I will say he did not do well. The HOD asked him to report  to the staff adviser and Surrender all items in his custody and the details account of his stewardship and for like two weeks he did not do that perhaps, if he had shown up then i would have pleaded on his behalf but he didn't."

           "He did a lot of bad things, and one of it was the souvenir for the student was not ready until the second semester was closing to an end when student are not in need of it again, of which i told him on the day of his inauguration that he should make sure he submit the student souvenir ready as soon as possible. I told him all this and he kept on apologizing that he was misled and also admitted of being stupid and of all his shortcomings and in such circumstance no responsible head of the department will stand and watch thing move from bad to worse, so i and the HOD (Dr Mrs Akinseye) seek for what to do together, and the she said her decision is that she did not want him to organize the election that she did not trust Bamigbade on such thing. I asked, how are we going to do this? We have so many options and she gave express direction to go and organize the election, along the line, there was a rumble on campus the state of the security was threatened, and on the account of that, the institution said all student's activities should be placed on hold. Along the line,we were considering e-voting ,am saying this to make you understand it was not a sudden agreement from the department. It was in patience and a lot of brainstorming, so we were considering e-voting then we received a security alert that it can also be manipulated. We start thinking on our way forward to put justice in place."

     "Based on the two aspirants, I got the mandate from the HOD (Dr.Mrs Akinseye) that I should choose one of the aspirants Usman  and Aminat for the post of president but I felt I should not do that and we decided to organize another screening,  we did screening for them and they really perform well and either of them was a president in waiting but along the line. While the process was going on, of course, some of the results are available but we also want to consider academic performance and raise a score from that an average of each will be added to the screening respectively as we were trying to do that a lot issues happened. One of the contestants was already carrying himself as the president-elect, he was addressing some authorities to show he was the president-elect and along the line,there was another report that his first lady  has been chosen and she is confrontational with other ladies of the department, in fact, there were some funny competition among  the first ladies. We also heard that this same person Usman, was already addressing online, such as welcoming students online like he has been elected to be the student president, and it was concluded that he was too ambitious and to zealous."

    "The other aspirant Aminat, for me she was getting too close to a lecturer especially close to that period and the department felt like we wanted somebody natural, somebody who will be firm, a mature mind someone who can bare the storm. We think this so democracy will give us the wrong individual again and we should pick the right person through a provided procedure which we will know it will not be contaminated and all this was done in the favor of the student, and we decided that both aspirants should be step down so we can call for somebody that can stand for the department. I called some of the student, ND, and HND and we both deliberate on it and they suggest we pick one of the aspirant." 

         "I told them that they should forget about them and seek for someone else and they bring the suggestion of the current secretary and the current president I don't even know her from anywhere, I don't even mind the current general secretary to be the president but the pressure for seeking for general we don't want to face that again and I said why don't we leave the general secretary for the one who seeks for it and seek for the president alone that will ease the stress.Then we think there was a time when we settle the issue of money and the president(com.Nnena Ude) was so transparent and upright and I did not know then that she will be suggested to be the student president of the department."

          "All of this attributes is what we see in her that makes it so easy for us to select her as the president for that matter of fact she was not aware of all this when we called her. she was very surprised and not willing to be the president, she claimed she does not want any trouble with this and I told her not to worry."

      "With all of this, I consider the right step for the department, you see an election is not the best state to choose a leader sometimes we have to consider other methods, and sometimes we apply some methods wrongly and one of them is our so-called democracy. We are so concerned about politics and left aside governance which should not be, am not saying politics is wrong but let's take care of governance our society needs that. We may not be perfect but nevertheless, our intention was pure without bias."

       "Democracy is very good just like fire, fire is very good we do a lot of stuff with it positively but when it is applied wrongly its burn, I will say in our society today we're facing the wrong side of democracy. "

     "So therefore public administration department "never slaps democracy" but we consider another method of choosing the right person for the benefit of all the students in the department."

     "I assure the whole public Administration student and management that we are not going to regret the steps taken. God bless the department of public Administration. Thank you all."