Hello Brownites. Quick question. Who are our current representatives on the floor of the Students’ Representative Council? How many can you name? If you do not know any, you would at least know that the Honourable Speaker of the SRC is our very own Oluwaferanmi Omitoyin.
There are honourable people among us – not deliberately, but significantly undercover. You don’t know them, but you see them daily – at the tank fetching water, waiting with you for insipid Indomie at Spicy Bites, or washing their hands at the hall gate. In fact, you walk past their notice board at the porter’s lodge daily as you check your border-line hypothermic temperature. But since it is nearly almost empty, you get a pass – for there is nothing to notice about the notice board.
Every year, the Students’ Representative Council, which is the legislative arm of the Students’ Union, is constituted by representatives from every Hall of Residence and Faculty Presidents. Thanks to the peculiarity of the College, things are a little different with the faculty president part. In anyways, each hall of residence has a fixed number of representatives based on the size of the Hall of Residence.
The Alexander Brown Hall has the least number of representatives – seven. Few slots, but they still don’t get taken up. We will not cast aspersions on how active some of them are. Given this benefit of the doubt, we should address the other elephant in the room.
There are seven slots, Brownites, but we have yet to confirm if anyone has picked up the form (as at the writing of this article). The begs the question, “whom shall we send, and who will go for us?” Seeing the interview with Mr Speaker some months ago, it is only apt to use a biblical allusion.
It is not common to find such political apathy among students in this divide. However, it seems to look a lot worse this year. Of the 5,438 accredited students of the University, only 83 Brownites have been accredited as of 4:00 PM yesterday (Monday, September 27). This represents a meagre 1.56%, the least on the list.
The total number of accredited voters have since risen to 6,468 (around 7 PM today), but we doubt much has changed with the percentage of accredited voters from ABH. It is too late to pick a form now for any office or SRC. We might still get people to pick up the slots if there is a by-election. However, the facts are still before us, unsettling but not surprising.
In conclusion, still in line with representation, Jaw War kicks off tomorrow with Alexander Brown Hall hoping to settle last year’s vendetta with Independence Hall. Yesterday, a list of the 20 speakers to look out for at this year’s Jaw War was published on the competition’s website. Conspicuously missing, ABH speakers are not rated and have a lot to prove from tomorrow. Again, “whom shall we send, and who will go for us?” Fingers crossed.
