LASPOSUG: lingering crises, suspension and reinstatement; how long will this last?

OUR STAND

It so disturbing each time to see the LASPOTECH union Government, on social media platforms serving as topic for discussion and usually not for positive reasons. This is as a result of the persistent and seemingly unending internal crises that has continued to rock the Union.

It seems for each step taken forward, three are taken backwards and this has prevented them from achieving the goals for which it was established and has turned it into a laughing stock among its peers and the general public.

There’s never been a time in the recent dispensation of the Lagos State Polytechnic Student Union Government (LASPOSUG) that the issue of suspending and denial of suspension of its top officials is more pronounced than it is now. The most recent of this suspension spree was the report in the internet space on March 28. 2018 by Ëngist Media “that the  president of the Student Union Government (SUG) Comrade Jubril Adewale Rahman stands suspended till further notice for what was referred to as “omission of his constitutional duties and unruly behaviour”. This resolution was a decision by the Student Representative Council (SRC). The SRC claimed that the president failed to present the budget for 2017/2018 academic session on the required date after failing to present the said budget on two different occasions which they regard as negligence of duty on the part of the president.

One would have thought that the decision by the SRC would gain ground but as typical of this administration, after a brief meeting with the management and the speaker, a broadcast message was sent out pending the action taken to suspend the president on that same day stating that the suspended president is to resume his duties.

In another counter claim, The SUG’s public relations officer, Comrade Semiu Balogun has it that the suspension of the president was not constitutional; hence he remains the head of the union. He went as far as regarding the information on the suspension of the president in his word as baseless and regarded the SRC sitting as alien to the Article 18 subsection(2) of the Union’s constitution.

This claim of the Union’s spokesman according to some concerned members of the polytechnic community is indeed not the holistic representation of the Union’s constitution as he neglects the section that the SRC has the power to suspend the president and any other elected official with a 2/3 majority vote in support of such suspension.

It is pertinent to note that this pattern of suspension, denial of suspension and sudden reinstatement has gradually become a landmark of the current administration led by Comrade Jubril. One would recall that earlier in the year, the welfare director was reported to have been suspended after a faceoff with the president and the next report after this was the denial of such suspension by the welfare director himself stating that the president has no power to do such. The question begging for answers on the lips of many certainly is the question of who or what body has the legitimate power  to suspend another official in the SUG or is this a mere superiority contest by its officials?

It is less than seven months to the expiration of this administration and all we see from the elected officers is a game of claims and counter claims. The student union government should not be seen as force mitigation against its own progress. It is in this light that the Judicial arm of the union saddled with the responsibility of interpreting the law should come out and tell the Polytechnic community in clear terms who or what body in the Union has the power to suspend rather the current pattern of unending suspension and sudden reinstatement.