The FATSSSAITES Aspiring For Offices In The Coming Students Union Elections.

by Caleb and Fiyinfoluwa

 INTERVIEW SESSION WITH MR OLAWALE JOSHUA BABATUNDE aka OJB 

 (aspiring for the post of Sports Secretary of the Students Union)

On Monday, 13th September 2021, the University of Ibadan students’ union committee announced the lifting of the ban on electoral activities. 

On 19th December, 2019, the Akeju-led administration was sworn in. This administration that was meant to last for only six months was however extended by the incidence of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, it is finally coming to its end, with the lifting of the ban on all campaign and electoral activities as announced.

Accompanying the news of the lifting of the ban, the committee also announced that interested candidates would now obtain the forms for the Executive and SRC positions. In response to these announcements, aspirants for various union posts have started declaring their intentions. 

Interestingly, some of these aspirants are FATSSSAITES, and FATSSSA press has made it a point of duty to quiz a number of them.

We made them introduce themselves, then went on to ask about their motivations to run, their plans, among others.

Meet Mr OJB

PRESSMAN: Good morning. My name is Caleb and here with me is Fiyin. We are correspondents for FATSSSA PRESS. Please can I meet you? We would love to know your level and department

MR JOSHUA: My name is Olawale Joshua Babatunde, also known as OJB. I am a 300L student of the department of sociology, Faculty of the social sciences.

PRESSMAN: It is quite obvious from the posters pasted around that you are aspiring for the post of sports secretary in the next SU administration. Please kindly give an affirmation to this.

MR JOSHUA: I am actually aspiring for the post of the General sports secretary so yes, it is true.

PRESSMAN: Are you part of this outgoing student union or are you in their legislative council?

MR JOSHUA? Not at all

PRESSMAN: what motivated your decision to aspire for an executive role seeing that you aren’t part of the present administration? In other words, what gave you that courage?

MR JOSHUA: So far so good, I will say the passion for sport development actually gave me the courage and the mindset to contest for the election

PRESSMAN: You are the current sports director for the faculty, so we believe that you are experienced in things like this. What are your achievements so far, how have you been able to contribute to the improvement of sport activities in the faculty, what are the challenges faced and how have been able to manage them?

MR JOSHUA: So far so good, within the faculty, the faculty executives and I have been working as a team, starting from the president to the last office. In one way or the other, I remembered during last election when I was campaigning, I made mention of introduction of other sports especially indoor games. Currently, within the faculty, we have indoor games like chess, scrabble, etc. In fact, the chess team will be playing at the inter faculty competition that is ongoing, and we are fully involved. So far so good, our teams have been trying. The football team is currently topping its group with 6points, 5 goals defeating the faculties of renewable resources and Veterinary medicine. The basketball team has been defending its championship, since they emerged the defending champions in 2019.

The challenge so far has been that we all know this is an administration, and it is not everything you want that you will get. No matter how much we publicize for people to participate in sport activities, some people will still not to engage in anything and maybe wait for me to talk to them personally. And so far, so good I have been able to meet with athletes to influence them. So, by meeting them personally, they get involved. We all know that FATSSSAites are bookworms, so anything that will disturb their book, they will not want to do it.

PRESSMAN: I know beyond doubts that you already have your manifestos and aims for this position you are aspiring for. Can you briefly tell us the central idea of your manifesto?

MR JOSHUA: I will just say one thing which is a sportified union 

PRESSMAN: Okay. You talked about participation in sporting activities and you made mention of the fact that the publicity hasn’t really been effective and the participation of students in sports is low which is noticeable, so if you emerge as the sport director at the student’s union level, what do you think you will do to make students to participate more in sports

MR JOSHUA: Actually, so far within the faculty of the social sciences, although they make excuses like they don’t want to participate in sport because sport is stressful, the numbers of participants we are having right now in the faculty of social sciences have made us believe that what we can do here, we can actually do it there. Since we have tried it here and it worked, it will also work at the union level.  We have been pushing out the publicity from our own side and we still try our best to meet sports athletes, even those who haven’t trained in a long time. I believe if we can achieve it here and it’s working, we will actually achieve greater things.

PRESSMAN: I recently learnt that the ongoing student union administration has nobody occupying the post of the sport director. Is that true?

MR JOSHUA: Yes, it is.

PRESSMAN: How do you think this void has affected the sporting activities in the university and how do you intend to rectify the situation?

MR JOSHUA: The absence of the sport secretary in the union didn’t stop sports actually because I am part of the committee that plans for the student union inter-hall competition and also supervises inter hall competition

PRESSMAN: So, from what you have said, so you have a committee that controls sports activities in the university

MR JOSHUA: Yes, we have.

PRESSMAN: Is it because of the union lacked a sports director that was why it was created?

MR JOSHUA: No, it wasn’t because of the student union or anything. The committee was established by the AGS

PRESSMAN: Since when?

*MR JOSHUA: I remember it was in 2019, they actually wanted to have sports week for the freshers’ cup but due to the issues we had during the pandemic that came up, we couldn’t hold the freshers’ cup.

PRESSMAN: Does that mean there was a central leader or someone acting as the leader?

MR JOSHUA: No, we all deliberate on issues together.

PRESSMAN: Was the committee set up because of the absence of the sports director at the union?

MR JOSHUA: No. Actually, the committee was organized for a program, not for sporting activities.

PRESSMAN: Do you have the endorsement of anyone holding a political position either at the department or faculty or even from the outgoing student union?

MR JOSHUA: No.

PRESSMAN: Thank you very much for your time. We wish you the best in your endeavours.