ELECTION SEASON OFFICIALLY BEGINS AS GREAT IFE SRC SWEARS IN NEW ELECTORAL COMMISSION

ELECTION SEASON OFFICIALLY BEGINS AS GREAT IFE SRC SWEARS IN NEW ELECTORAL COMMISSION

BY ABDULRAHMAN ADEDOJA

Aspirants can now start calling themselves candidates. The Great Ife SRC swore in a new Electoral Commission and Electoral Petition Committee on Saturday, July 11, formally opening the window for the 2024/2025 election season, at the tail end of a two-day sitting that opened at Ajose on Friday, moved to Awo Café on Saturday, and closed under the weight of budget disputes, mass resignations, and an unresolved question over the Union's only bus.

Under the Great Ife constitution, no aspirant seeking Union office can attain formal candidate status until that year's Electoral Commission has been duly constituted. The constitution does not specify how many members must sit on the commission, only that it is charged with conducting all elections within the union. That threshold was crossed at exactly 7:10 p.m. on Saturday, when the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Awe Ademola, administered the oath of office to the new commission, each member swearing with the right hand placed on the chest and the left raised above the head. Handing the commission a copy of the constitution, the Speaker charged its members to remember that posterity would judge their conduct and that history would hold them accountable for every decision taken in the course of their duties.

The House first invoked Article 4, Section 61 of the constitution to dissolve the outgoing Electoral Commission and Electoral Petition Committee before opening the floor to fresh nominations. Drawing one representative from each of the union's fifteen faculties, the new Electoral Commission was then left to decide its own leadership structure. After a brief recess for internal deliberation, the commission announced Olamitayo Olalegan of Law as Chairman, Adekola Afeez of Education as General Secretary, Akanni Taiwo of Technology as Public Relations Officer, and Umunakwe Genevieve of Social Sciences as Financial Secretary, with Kolawale Timileyin of Science named Chief Security Officer. The remaining members are Idowu Adebola (Pharmacy), Aanuoluwa Fasayan (Administration), Bankole Samuel (Agriculture), Orimogunje Olagoke (Arts), Adamekun Temitope (Computing Science), Ogunrinde Samuel (Environmental Design and Management), Jogbodo Jesufunmi (Nursing Sciences), Arije Mayowa (Clinical Sciences), Emmanuel Segun (Dentistry), and Babatunde Salisu (Basic Medical Sciences).

Under Article 3, Section 56(2), which requires a chairman and eight other members, the House also constituted the Electoral Petition Committee, the body charged with adjudicating any disputes that arise from the coming polls. Sworn in at 7:45 p.m., its members are Daodu Taiwo Lynda of Clinical Sciences as Chairman, Fasanya Alex of Pharmacy as General Secretary, Awe Olajuwon of Science as Public Relations Officer, and Omoboriowo Joshua of Environmental Design and Management as Financial Secretary, alongside Marvellous Chukwuka (Law), Adewale Paul (Social Sciences), Adewoye Ayomide (Agriculture), Adeniji Kayode (Arts), and Adepoju Damilare (Technology).

The commission's swearing-in came at the end of a sitting that had opened under strain the day before. Friday's session at Ajose started at 5:07 p.m., over an hour behind its scheduled 4:00 p.m. start, a delay the Speaker attributed to transportation difficulties and activities marking the July 10 anniversary. With time running out, deliberation on the Electoral Commission itself was pushed to Saturday, along with several other agenda items.

Before adjourning to allow members join the AFRIKA Legacy candlelight procession and bonfire, lawmakers disclosed a ₦6 million gap between the ₦33 million budget Parliament had approved for the Union and the ₦27 million University Management ultimately released. Of that, ₦16.7 million had already reached the Union's account and been shared among the Central Executive Council, a distribution that pointedly excluded the Vice President, the Hall Executive Councils, and the Parliament's own leadership and committees. The Financial Secretary offered no timeline for when the excluded offices would be paid.

The same sitting saw the House receive resignation letters from five SRC members, Íkúbola Olalekan Sunday, Abdul-Ayobami Fattai, Lateef Hakeem Emmanuel, Olaniyan Olawale, and Akinwola Olakunle, without any reasons entered into the record, and hear a Transport Management Committee update confirming that University Management had ordered the committee to withdraw entirely from the ongoing exchange of old transport tickets for laminated ones.

Saturday's sitting, in turn, saw the House unanimously recognise Nursing Sciences as an independent faculty, separating it from Basic Medical Sciences after a request from the Nigerian Nursing Universities Student Association's OAU chapter. Lawmakers also revisited the long-running question of the Union bus, known on campus as the Aluta Jet. An honourable member pressed the House on its whereabouts; the committee assigned to investigate said it had met with the Student Union President, who told them the bus was in Ibadan, a response that stalled further inquiry. The SRC chairman then called on the President to address the House directly, but he was absent from the sitting, and the matter was deferred once again.

With the commission and petition committee now in place, the House proceeded on recess at 8:13 p.m., with sessional reports expected from all arms of the Union when sitting resumes next week. For aspirants across Great Ife's fifteen faculties, the countdown to election season has now formally begun.