- Adeyinka Ademola
Student politics is like family relatives that pop up only in the second semester. They come around once a year, tell you all the things you want to hear, promise to make an effort to stay in contact and be there for you, give you a spark of hope, and then disappear after opening the gift you got them.
It’s that time of semester when the hallways and lecture halls of the campus are littered with posters, and students’ political gesticulation result in noise pollution. A time when we hear the influential saying it’s an era of transformation. Vote for us at the SUG Level. Alas! It is that time again when they give tutorials for free, when they care about our grades. That time is closer when wearing shoes and formal wears becomes a culture.
Whether you are a fresh or stale Student, it is that time to decide if transformation era is the best or to vote for the emancipation team. In a mean time, they will walk up to you almost prostrating in a calm voice, solemn enough to vote for them on the spot.
But it has come to the notice of the people that care to know that some students sit at a corner observing either to predict and, in most case, they tend to care less. To them, the presidential candidates continue to make open-ended promises each year and sometimes they do nothing about the welfare of the students. They sit at an inner room less concerned with protest words “what will they do if we vote for them? Do they even go there for us or their personal interest which in most cases, for fame?”
To the fans of political apathy on campus, politicians are expected to pledge to help with campus costs, bring forth more budgeting and fund raising, plan awesome campus events and programs, ultimately use their voice to make a change but the opposite is the case. Therefore, they refuse to either show interest in politics or vote.
Some Students on campus show little or no interest in the electioneering process which makes the rest of the interested students elect wrong representatives when there’s no credible opposition. The political apathy leave students with no choice because the unopposed in the different Faculties and department as well as the SUG levels are on the high side.
Unknown to them, to enact changes in the present political system, it is imperative to resist political apathy. Instigating new ideas and creating good governance does not come from mere complacency, but from the voices and actions we possess in our everyday lives. If rallying up and protesting every time is not your cup of tea, then that is no problem.
However, it is pertinent to note that aside from physical involvement, a quick contact to Students Union Government and local representatives is a simple way to have your voice heard. Sometimes it may feel like taking action does not produce results since an individual stance can be drowned out by the crowd; however, our own Institution is a proof against that, hence, the need to eradicate the mindset of political apathy that has swept through on campus.
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