Exclusive with Alexander Brown Hall Chairman.
Following the inauguration of the executive council on 18th of June, 2018, life in ABH has been relatively normal. Life has gone on without much changes, some may argue that it’s a bit disappointing as they were promised change but a few others still believe that maintaining the standard of ABH-X is no small feat.
In an attempt to know the mindset of our leaders, one of our ABH press reporters interviewed the current hall chairman.
REPORTER: Good afternoon Mr. hall chairman and how are you?
HALL CHAIRMAN: good afternoon and I’m fine thank you. How are you?
REPORTER: I’m fine thank you. Please Brownites would like to know a bit about you, can you introduce yourself to us?
HALL CHAIRMAN: okay, thank you for that. My name is Ogeleyinbo Bodunrin Joseph aka OBJ, I’m a 600level medical student in 2015 set. I’m from Ondo state, my birthday is 17th October and I’m the hall chairman of Alexander Brown Hall.
REPORTER: do you have a quote or an ideology you believe in?
OBJ: I have two, the first is by Napoleon Hills that whatever the mind of man can believe, it can achieve. I mean, if you believe you can do something just go for it. People may discourage you, but don’t discourage yourself. The second is that wherever you find yourself, try to make an impact because when you are gone, you won’t be able to come back to change things. These are my two main quotes.
REPORTER: okay, very inspiring. I have a question for you, what made you decide to be the hall chairman of Alexander Brown Hall?
OBJ: I have this burning desire to serve and to serve most especially, I considered the general well-being of brownites and decided that it is something that I would love to improve and having served as the vice hall chairman of Mellanby I think I can do the job.
REPORTER: so in the few weeks you have been the hall chairman, how has it been for you?
OBJ: it has not been easy somehow, it has been stressful a bit. I have to be everywhere to make sure things are working. We recently had light and water issues, so it has not been easy getting that fixed. I just thank God that everything is getting better now.
REPORTER: okay, well what can you say about the members of your executive council who you have worked with for these few weeks. Are you confident that with this people you can make ABH a better place?
OBJ: Yes, I think I am lucky to have them. They are very nice and good people. You can see that they only want to serve, you see the passion in them and they have all been working hard. Though we got our deputy hall chairperson and our sports minister late but hey have been doing their jobs. In fact, the sports minister was already active in his department before he was elected and the deputy hall chairperson really wants to work. She comes at times and asks me if I need any help or if there is anything for her to do. So in my opinion, everyone is doing great and they are also fun people, we play and joke around to relieve stress. I like them.
REPORTER: some people share the opinion that you were too lax in your campaign for the post of hall chairman. If you had an opponent would you have campaigned more viciously?
OBJ: That is a very direct question so I’ll answer it directly. Yes, I would have campaigned better and more aggressively.
REPORTER: Mr. Hall chairman, please can you kindly remind us some of your campaign promises?
OBJ: yes, thank you. That is a good point, it’s the most important point. During my manifesto, I made some certain promises to brownites and we have actually started working to put them in place. Most importantly, my main concern was the general welfare of brownites. The water, the electricity, I promised brownites an improvement in our water and electricity problems and I have already started work in that aspect. I met the dean of students and told him that we are out of diesel, the diesel we have now is the very last and considering the finalists writing exams, he said he will help us to fast-track the acquisition of the diesel for the generator. Then I also promised brownites that I would take care of the general maintenance of ABH. To fix the light, replace bulbs and to maintain ABH in general and we have a team for that already in place. I also promised brownites that I would renovate the TV room and get us a new TV to replace the spoilt one, also to renovate the reading room which as at now is not conducive. It has a lot of issues and I promised brownites that I will work on that. Then for the food vendors and the butteries, I promised brownites that I would make sure that they work with the social and buttery minister to make things easier. Then for the food vendors, I promised brownites that I would ensure that they get POS to make transactions easier. That is seeming more feasible now as we have discussed with them even in the presence of the dean of students and they promised that they would soon make it available. Then there are a few other promises I made but these are the ones I can mention for now.
REPORTER: what about the ABH ventures, did you make any promises on that?
OBJ: yes, I did. I have plans for the ventures. Presently we have had at least two meetings with the ABH venture committee and we had very good discussions. The executive council will give funds to the ventures to assist her in her activities. We have already given them N50,000 but that is not all. We just gave the that because we are not yet signatory to the account. When we become the signatory to the account, we will release more funds to the ventures.
REPORTER: you made some really good promises but that was before you became the hall chairman, now that you are the hall chairman, is there any promise that you think won’t be feasible to fulfill?
OBJ: well, the thing about me is that I don’t like giving a lot of promises for the sake of manifesto because is not just for manifesto sake but for the brownites, so all my promises can be fulfilled because I sat down and thought well about it and I looked at the manifestos of previous hall chairmen and so I know what is realistic enough to pull off. So we can do everything I promised and by God’s grace we will fulfill them all.
REPORTER: alright, concerning the hall package issue, I’m sure you have heard of that. brownites are complaining and complaining. Do you know anything about that?
OBJ: yes, I know something about that. I spoke to the previous hall chairman and he said the package is ready and in the “advanced” stage. I also went to UI to see the person in charge of the package and he said that the package will be ready very soon. So I can assure brownites that on behalf of the past executives that they will get their package soon.
REPORTER: so, what about your tenure, are brownites expecting the usual bucket and hanger as the package or you want to add something new and fresh?
OBJ: ahh! We can’t keep doing the same thing now, we have to put in some fresh ideas. What I plan to do is to ask brownites what they want because they paid their dues and it is tradition that we give them something back. So if we take an opinion poll on what brownites want then from there I and my executives would know how to go about it.
REPORTER: the ABH press is here to support you but we are also here to criticize you so that you don’t forget who put you were you are
OBJ: yes, I know that. Thank you very much and I will like the press to know that they have the full support of the hall executives both financially and otherwise and we would be expecting their criticism because without that we can’t pride ourselves that we are getting better.
REPORTER: any words for brownites?
OBJ: yes, I have a few. I would like brownites to know that we are aware that they voted for us. We are their servants in reality but their leaders on paper. I would like to assure brownites not to worry, we will try to make good of our campaign promises but we can’t do it without brownites, we need their support, we need them to believe in us. To come out for our activities and to participate and join committees. If they don’t believe in us, then we can’t achieve anything so I would like to plead with brownites to please support us and believe in us even when things are not going well.
REPORTER: alright, thank you Mr. hall chairman, I hope brownites heed your plea.
OBJ: Thank you very much.
Though this was meant to be an exclusive interview of the hall chairman, his roommate insisted and making a few statements.
REPORTER: Mr. Paul Edet, what can you say about the hall chairman on a personal note?
Paul: he is an awesome person really; he is someone I have learnt a lot from. There I one thing he has always thought me; ‘Chase what you believe in.’ I mean, the idea of being the hall chairman of Alexander Brown Hall was conceived when we were in 200level actually. He told me that once we get to ABH he would start working on that. To me then it was a joke, he has not even passed part 1. But now here he is. He has always taught me to go for what I believe in and for that I think he is going to take ABH to greater heights and he is also a very jovial person, we still play around, he doesn’t let it get to his head that he is the hall chairman and besides please can I just say you look very pretty.
There is hope that ABH will be taken to greater heights.
Thumbs up!