Leadership Accountability: Awo Hall Academic Committee

By Rihanat Adekola

It is understandable that members of the executive council are not lone leviathan and cannot discharge some of their duties alone, considering the large number of population and since they are students just like every other student. At the beginning of every administration, the executive elect has the autonomy to select few individuals whom she deemed fit to be capable enough to be a member of her committee, which would help in discharging her duties smoothly and her call for service won’t just be theoretical but practical.  It is also the decision of the executive to choose to continue with the commitee left by the previous administration or not. If that suit her plans, then it’s a go ahead.

A committee is a group of people appointed or elected to perform a specific function or set of tasks, often on behalf of a larger organization or governing body. They are specifically selected to bring their skills, knowledge, expertise to a task in other to benefit the whole. They act primarily as advisory body since the whole population can’t be part of  decision making. They provide insights, gather and evaluate information, identify issues, and take up delegated tasks from the head or the chairman. A committee is not just set up to have an edge over others, or to receive a certificate of recognition after every administration, instead, they make decisions on behalf of the mass.
Series of committees have been set up in the hall by the executives which is help in implementation of policies. However, it seems some committee were established for the purpose of getting award of recognition at the end of the session. One of the vital committee needed in the hall is the academic committee, owing to the fact that academic pursuit is the manifest function of students in the university environment. Therefore, the need to provide academic assistance for students in need is very important.
It is that time of the session where students are focused on academics and also one of the strategic moments where the academic committee are needed for students, the freshers whom most are still naive to the system and in need of mentoring, the stalites who need continuous information on how to go about academics owing to the popular saying “info leyan fin fo” and the finalists who need insights from experienced individuals on research and project writing.

Few weeks ago, the vice president of the hall, Miss Tomiwa Shofolabo, acknowledged the existence of the academic committee on the WhatsApp platform of the hall after a question directed to her on if there was an existing academic committee or not. Following the list of her plans in her manifesto which she referred to as the sterling agenda, she presented one of her plans to be student academic empowerment and career development. She said she would organise GES and general faculty courses tutorials for freshers and 200-level students. It is quite disappointing that none of these tutorials have been organized, perhaps, it has been done in her abode which is not publicly recognised.

In an interview with the Vice president about the academic committee, questions like, what are the requirements to be a member of the academic committee? What measures are in place to make Awoites benefit from the committee (if there is a committee) in matters like mentorship, tutorials, broadcast messages, academic updates, etc. She said “We’re already working on a webinar that will benefit  Awoites to win scholarships instead of taking student loan. I keep sending links for scholarships to Awo groups and I found out that people don’t know how to apply for them. So the webinar is to help with that. During last semester exam, the TV room was opened for students to use to study and the TV room and reading room were cleaned regularly by the cleaners so the place could be conducive for students to read. This is all I can say for now”. While the academic committee issue is being sorted, we will make do with the information that has been provided and see the outcome between now and the end.

It is recognised that the workload on members of the executive council are sometimes stressful nonetheless executives should always perform their duties and put their plans into practice while balancing their manifest function in the university, instead of writing things that they won’t be able to achieve when elected.