An Interview With the Caretaker Committee Chairman
Few days after the abrupt proscription of LAUTECH Students’ Union on the 8th of March, the Vice-Chancellor Professor Michael Ologunde inaugurated a 13 member Caretaker Committee comprising of the top students in each faculty and commandants of paramilitary groups on campus. Their purpose? To serve as an interface between the school management and students pending when the SUG proscription is resolved.
The responsibilities of these chosen ones are, among other things, to ensure peace on campus, pursue legal means of maintaining a stable academic calendar, promote the culture of learning and character among students and also to ensure interaction between the students and the management.
We carried out an interview with Olabiyi Olamide Anthony the appointed President of the Committee, to gain insight into how his nomination came about and how far his team has fared.
Anthony, a 400 level student of Pure and Applied Physics was appointed the President of the caretaker committee. All of his schoolings was at Ibadan, until he gained admission into LAUTECH and had to come to Ogbomosho to further his education.
Anthony heard about his appointment a week before the inauguration while he was at home getting treated due to some derailing health issues. When he got a text notifying him of his appointment, he didn’t think too much of it since it came from a strange number. Apparently, it was the Dean of Students’ Affairs inviting him to a meeting the next day.
It was quite a novelty to be invited to the Students’ Affairs out of the blue, but considering that he recently applied for an alumni scholarship, Anthony thought he had been awarded, and had to travel down to acknowledge the invite. That was when he realized he had been appointed as the number one student of LAUTECH.
Asides being the President of the caretaker committee, Anthony is also the current representative of his department. He admits that juggling both positions hasn’t been easy, but he was grateful for having a supportive level advisor and course mates and.
Anthony also admits that it has not been easy balancing academics with the administration of the school. “It’s not easy to know that your mates are in class reading while you’re at a meeting discussing their welfare,” he said “It makes me wonder why politics on campus becomes a do or die affair if it’s this draining. Their willingness to carry the burden of all the students no matter what is baffling.”
On the proscription of the Student Union Government, he said he didn’t pay attention to politics on campus, because he disliked how it was being played. “I wasn’t aware of the proscription, until later,” he said. He stated that the school has gone through some academic instability and was not willing to take chances after the resumption of the new session. “The major difference between the appointed committee and the SUG is that the SUG was selected by election, while the caretaker committee got appointed by the school management.”
“A caretaker committee is more tasking than the SUG,” he said. “In the SUG, the roles and responsibilities are already spelt out for different offices. But in this 13-man caretaker committee, it’s the Chairman, Vice-chairman and the General secretary that are recognized by the school. Every other person is a member. Every affair is the responsibility of those three, but the other members have to be carried along.”
Anthony explained that the first issue they tackled was the ‘no payment, no test/exams policy’. They met with the Dean of Student Affairs and were able to get extensions on the time frames. They also solved the NYSC regularization issues. “There is also the issue of increment in the cost of crossing form,” he said, “a letter was sent to the VC calling for a meeting to look into it.”
“Also, the students’ union building isn’t supposed to be a secluded place for a few people” he noted. “It should be a place filled with a lot of activities and fun where students can go to any time. We all pay our SUG fees and we’re supposed to have things to show for it.” He said that if the SUB is handed over to them, they would make drastic changes to the place.
Although he admitted that he isn’t sure of how long the committee would last, he said they would work to make a positive impact in the school that would last for a long time even after they are dissolved.
