EXCLUSIVE: Interview With Faculty of Law President

The President of the Faculty of Law University of ILORIN, Olalekan AbdulRahman(Sir Advocate), in an interview today granted by the LSS PRESS, made startling revelations about the state of the society. The award given to Dino Melaye, the Dinner, the power play amongst other things.*

_To be Frank with you, with the politics being played in the society of less than 900 students, I see no promising future to the country as it stand._

L'Press: Good day Mr AbdulRahman. In light of the trending issue on social media as regards the award of honour given to Sen. Dino Melaye, as the President of the Faculty, what do you have to say about it?

Sir Advocate: I am Olalekan Abdul Rahman Omokunmi (LSS President)

God forbid the day that I will be party to mediocrity and hypocrisy, nor will I take responsibility of what I do not know. It has always been a silent battle between me and the acclaimed cabals of the society who always go behind to portray themselves as who they are not.
I always disagree with them on many grounds in as much they are  not for the best interest of the society. Thus they resulted into suspending me from office in order to find their ways, and since democracy is a game of majority and not a game of reasonability, so they succeeded in achieving their aims.

The instances of such was the names of I.S.E.C members that were agreed upon by the member of the executive council but altered while I was on suspension.

This was not unconnected with the fact that they failed to ratify the Dinner committee sent to them so that their plot may be executed and we are a living witness to the end product of the Dinner.

By virtue of section 43(5) of LSS constitution 2011, the Social Committee which shall be headed by the Social Director spare head all social activities Dinner inclusive.

It is on this note that I OLALEKAN ABDUL RAHMAN AKA SIR ADVOCATE, AND President of the society disassociate myself from the awards and occurrence that transpired at the LSS Dinner held on the 13th of July, 2017 at Banquent because I was never informed of any of the program that happened at the dinner.

As the president of the faculty being saddled with supervisory power met the social director and requested for the programs of the Dinner: the awards; the ticket printed and other information about the program. But to my surprise he told me point blank. That he has the sole constitutional right to plan the dinner, and I need not to interfere.

All question, correspondences and comments as regard the law dinner be directed to the Social Director as he is constitutionally charged by virtue of section 43 of the constitution of the society.

To cap it all, we are elected differently and separately in which everyone is accountable to the society. So he should be solely responsible for the Dinner.

It is on this note that i I OLALEKAN ABDUL RAHMAN AKA SIR  ADVOCATE,with my fellow reasonable members of the society thereby disassociate ourselves from the in-famous Award and the Dinner in its entirety

*LP:*If I understand you properly, President, you're saying there's a cabal behind the presentation of these awards?

*SA: Yes sir. Not only the presentation of the awards but even from day one of the administration.

*LP: To what extent have these cabals been eating deep into the current administration?

*SA: They have always tried their best to poke nose into the affairs and have been so stubborn. In their words, they always say _bobo yen ni agidi_ I.e I'm adamant. This was not unconnected with my suspension. They went to the extent of calling my friends to beg and influence me on their behalf and they will go out to portray themselves as if they are in control of the administration.

*LP: Speaking about these button pushers. At a point in your administration, some people started saying a certain person is the De-facto President and that the General Secretary is the Vice President, to what extent do you agree with this?

*SA: That is the cabal I'm talking about. He begs and uses my friends to beg me on most issues and I agree on which ever one I deemed its in the interest of the society and after that he goes out to portray himself as someone in control of the administration. In which in the true sense, he begs for whatever he wants.

*LP: Who is this person we are talking about, Mr President Sir?

*SA: He is no other person than Accour that everybody is saying he is the President.

*LP: To what extent did this Accour person influence the administration generally, and specifically, the presentation of awards at the Dinner?

*SA:*Well, as far as the administration is concerned, I do not give him the chance and that probably led to my suspension, because all he wanted is a situation where two or three of us will be making the decisions but I always subject it to the executive house. However on the issue of award presentation, I knew nothing about it. Even the awards shared to members of the society. As I heard, he got the award of leader of the faculty which was so strange and funny to me. Those that attended the Dinner said a lot that the awards given were based on Favouritism and nepotism. And not on merit.

*LP:*Are you saying as the President of the Faculty, you didn't attend the dinner?

*SA:*I met with the social director to let me know the program, awards and tickets for the dinner but he refused telling me. He said he is the social director and he has the constitutional backup to plan the dinner.

And I told him point blank that I'm the president and LSS gave you the sum of #300, 000 to plan the dinner so am entitled to know what our money is being used for.

He almost turned it to quarrel and I had to leave him alone. It's so worse to an extent that I was begging for tables for executive, legislature and Judiciary but it all turn a deaf hear. After a serious persuasion, he decided to give us regular table in which I went again to meet him.

I was not surprised all these were coming because the house decided not to ratify the names of committee sent to them and he decided everything together with his cohorts.

I cannot be party to hypocrisy and mediocrity... So how do you expect me to attend a dinner I do not know about as the President. I think that will be unfair.

I'm sure the house will never call on him to give account because most honourables were even there with him planning it and that tells why they did not ratify the committee sent to the house so that they execute their plot and we are all a living witness to the end product of the dinner

*LP:* But meeting with the social director to help him plan his event, don't you think that would lead to another usurpation of power? Or close to it, influencing his decisions?

Also. Isn't it the duty of the Financial Secretary to know what the money is being used for and to report to you?

*SA:*Well, I never met him to plan with him but to know the order of the program and have prior knowledge about how the program is going to be. Particularly, the Dean requested for the order of the program so I was interested in the programs so that I can give report to the Dean.

Because the fact remains that, the dean always believe I must be able to give account of everything that happened in the administration and he is less concerned maybe anyone is in charge. I quote him in this words _'How will you tell me you don't know as the president'._Even by provision of section 19 of the LSS constitution, I'm entitled to know what transpired in other offices because I'm saddled with the responsibility of supervisory duty.

And yes. It is the duty of the Financial Secretary.

*LP:* How come you are taking steps to execute that duty?

*SA* Which duty perse?

*LP:*The duty of the Financial Secretary to know how much was spent and to report same.

*SA:*I never asked him to roport to me personally but to give programmes of event at the award night. It is a general responsibility for him to give the CEC account of what transpired.

And the awards that were given at the dinner. Someone even told me one of the awards given, they had to use paper to cover it...

*LP:*What award was that in particular? And why do you think they covered it?

*SA:*Well, I do not know and I don't want to know why it was covered.

Posterity will judge us all. For whatever we do today becomes a history and people will always make reference to it
To be Frank with you, with the politics being played in the society of less than 900 students, I see no promising future to the country as it stand. And God forbid the day the youths of this era should lead this country, it will collapse in totality.... though ,  there are still some good ones but very minute

*LP:*So basically sir. What you are telling the over 800 members of the society is that you do not know anything about the situation, the award presented TO Dino and the award night generally?

*SA:*I knew about the award night but all what transpired at the award night was not part of my knowledge.

You can see glaringly it was the people at the dinner, that's one, then secondly you can see it was the office of the social director that did the award, then the entire crew of his friends and his cabals and his cohorts , Accour inclusive. They were the ones in charge. It wasn't the whole faculty.

*LP:*Mr President Sir. You made reference to the manipulation of names for the ISEC Committee. You've also been making inferences to failure of the house to ratify the social director's committee. Are these two related and if so, who are the persons behind the manipulations?

*SA:*Well, as regard the manipulation of names of ISEC member, I can remember vividly that the executive council agreed that all the incumbent member of the committee be retained and only the vacant level be filled which is 400l and 100level class I.e other 3levels are occupied. I was shocked when the names of the ISEC member was brought to me because the 300 Lady was opted out for another 300l guy in person of Fathiu which was never part of the names decided by the executive council. This act is greatly questionable and this tells to what extent our society is bastardized when the executive council should make decision and some set of people will set it aside for their own personal interest and they claim they are fighting the interest of the society when in the true sense they are fighting their personal interest. Though this plot was executed when I was suspended and I think my suspension was not unconnected with me being adamant on not agreeing with these acts. I know posterity will judge us all.

*LP:*What about the Social director's committee?

*SA:*On the second issue, the issue of the committee was raised times without number but the Speaker silenced it knowing fully well that the program was imminent and by implication, the dinner was left to whims and caprices of the Social Director and his cohort which led to the glaring unproductive end of the Dinner ....

If our society must progress, it is high time we have a rethink of how we run our society. Because we are leaders of this generation

*LP:*Are you by chance inferring that the speaker enjoys a level of bias?

*SA:* Not ratifying the committee is purely political and they used the avenue to execute their evil and malicious plot

*LP:*And does this in any way relate to a picture sent at a time to the UNILAWRITE group by the General Secretary, tagging it "LSS IS ONE" with the Gen Sec, Accour, Speaker and some other members of the society being in it?

*SA:*I think that portray them well...
You wonder when the social director says the fuel per hour the generator used is #12,000 or 60 LITERS. 12,000 per hour and four hours was used making 48,000 fuel for four hours

*LP:* So you're saying that the Speaker belongs to a particular caucus that's against growth and development in the LSS?... Could Accour and the speaker possibly be in the same cabal?

*SA:* Possibly they are in the same cabal.

*LP:* All that being said Mr President. As you move towards the closure of your administration, what would you like to say to the faculty and as a person, what would you like to be remembered for?

*SA:*To the faculty as a whole I will say, the society is microcosm of larger society and whatever legacy you trailed today, is mostly likely you trail in the future. Whatever you do today becomes history tomorrow so be watchful of your actions and inactions, people are watching and posterity will always judge you. To fellow lssites let Integrity be your watchword and act because today for tomorrow, today becomes yesterday. Always be eager to learn and lead. The two go pari pasu.

Long live LSS,
Long live Unilorin,
Long live Nigeria.

Interviewer, Akinyemi Muhammed A,

*For LSS PRESS