Feature Report

John Adeleke (aka COLOSSUS) the immediate past FATSSSA President back in  the spotlight over  more than 118 non-disbursed packages

By Eniola Fase and Habeeb Lanlehin

The mandate for  Basic Dues and the denial of packages

At least 118 students of the Faculty of the Social Sciences have lodged the complain of denial of basic packages in the Colossus's administration, even after the payment of their basic dues.

It should be recalled that in the last election, a mandate on the payment of basic dues by every student of the faculty was raised. An hitherto silent clause of the constitution was rebirthed with life, which made the dues' paying members of the faculty, the only eligible voters . On the other hand, a threat was hung on FATSSSAites as the 2018/2019 exams drew near. Those who had not paid were threatened with disqualification from writing exams. At the end, it seems the majority of the dues paid by FATSSSAites during these wee hours were  missing from the association's coffers, and this is the full gist around.

Some students have referred to this last hour electoral mandate as an imposition', a subtle attempt at skewing the scale of the upcoming elections in the way of some department and their candidates, and against those of the others. It was controversial to say the least. The mandate was initiated and imposed by the then Mr.President himself, who being an executive, should not have had access to determining the modality of an election that would succeed him.

  According to Hon. Kayode Ijimakinwa during the legislative sitting held on 10th of September, 2021, this mandate was brought to the House of Representatives of the Faculty of The Social Science ten to fifteen days before the election and the House approved this mandate three days before the election date. 

Yet the story at stake is not about remedying the non-credibility of  a two year old past election.

Needless Denial of  FATSSSAItes who obeyed

What is more?  It's an established  tradition in the University of Ibadan that different associations offer  various packages to their dues paying members.  Executives of these various associations in the University claim to give their students appealing packages such as Umbrella, Water bottle, Tote bags, Lamps, Extensions, Books, Towels, Manual blender, e.t.c. Alas! In the last administration, the obedient members who paid to vote, and even a good number of early payers have had themselves denied  this traditional right. The number of those who got nothing has continued to increase. Although the current Financial Secretary, Miss Balogun Megafortune Bukola stated that receiving just a book as a package is rather a tradition at the Faculty of The Social Science even since her 100L. However, when there's a large number of students who fulfilled their financial obligation claimed to receive not even a book as a package till this present day, there is a breach of trust of FATSSSAites, and a denial that should not have occurred. 

Starting this current session, various students have been going to the executive council of the new administration to request their rightful packages. Initially, no action was taken, however, when the numbers were discovered to be shockingly above 118 , excluding the department of political science and geography, then the new administration knew actions must be taken as soon as possible and this lead the members of the executive and “FHR” to contact members of the last administration, so as to find out from them what went amiss.

 Responses From the Past Administration 

Mr. Oke Emmanuel Ayomide, the former General Secretary FATSSSA claimed that there was an early low turnout in the payment of dues, last session. Therefore, the budget for the packages was delivered early in the semester and the budget was determined by the cash at hand at the moment. He further stated the book was about 25% of dues and the other 75% was used for other faculty purposes such as dinner, FATSSSA week, etc. According to the last administration, these activities ate into the payment later made by other students and in that light, they couldn’t provide for them to get their packages. In other words, they blamed the shortage of funds for not delivering packages to every FATSSSAITES.

However, when FATSSSA Press got in touch with the president of the past administration, Mr John Adeleke aka Colossus,  he firmly stated “ I am not interested in what happened or didn’t happen in FATSSSA” he was further questioned, “ so you’re saying you prefer not to say anything, right?” To which he replied “ Yes”.  During an interview with the current speaker of the "FHR", Adejumo Mayowa, he made it known to members of the press that the previous president would be invited to the sitting to give a detailed report but when our correspondent asked the former president, he said he didn’t receive such invitation. In addition, he claimed that the pressman who interviewed  him was probably "Misinformed".

It is worthy to note that the current speaker of the “FHR” stated that the executive council of the previous administration has shown they are not willing to cooperate fully to finding a solution to the issue at hand. In that spirit, the speaker made it known that the matters might and will most definitely be left to the faculty authorities to handle. But before that, he has ordered each honorable to compile a list of students affected in their constituencies. 

Conclusion 

Through interviews and other investigative works, the  FATSSSA PRESS has uncovered this irregularity that contradicts basic ethics and amount to a breach of trust. Funds for the ungiven packages were not left behind by the Mr.Colossus administration, who definitely has a case to answer unlike he believes. 

What happens next can and will not be predicted by the PRESS, but later resolutions will be made known to the students of the faculty.