The President of Nigerian Universities Education Students Association, University of Benin Chapter (2020/21), shares with ACJ-UNIBEN, the achievements of his administration, sheds more light on matters arising in his Faculty and reveals some plans he has for the Faculty of Education, University of Benin.

Name, Department and Level.

My name is Agu Prince, a 400lv student of Department of Education Foundations.

What Prompted you to run for office of the President of NUESA?

Well, for every time I am privileged to answer this question, I like to give credits to one of my leaders and a brother, Charles Bernard. I came into school to meet him as the president of this Faculty and he ignited the fire of politics in me. I’ve seen leaders who just come into office because they want to be in office, but Charles Bernard was an exemplary leader. His leadership style was such that he had passion for students. So I felt that since we have somebody who has navigated our thoughts to a different perspective of politics, then I am interested and I told myself that I will beat whatever standard it was that he had set. So that was why I decided to path this road.

How has your administration improved the welfare of students in the Faculty of Education?

Okay, by God’s special grace, coming into office, we have done notable things. We started with the Edu-Feed-Edu program. The program was such that we needed to feed our students because during exam period, students run out of foodstuffs and students may not be attentive when it comes to studying when they don’t have food. So we decided to feed our students. Apart from that, we also had “Clean The Faculty”. It was not just done by executives alone, we had students participate after which they were certified. So by that, we have been able to draw students close. It is not an administration where we just run it as par executives or senior comrades. It is an administration that is open to students. I’ve had students call me as at 12am and said “Mr President, I have this problem”, and we have been able to proffer solutions to those problems. So our administration has helped students in other areas that we may not even be able to mention. But these little ones are one of the few things we have done since we came into office.

According to your Manifesto, how many percent success have you achieved in accomplishing your goals for the Faculty?

Specifically, I think I have been able to achieve 60 percent of the goals. Yes, because when we came into office, we met a major problem which was the destabilisation of different departments. We did not come into office to meet a uniform faculty, courtesy the last election. And as such, it was a burden. So what we chose to do was first of all bring back the spirit of Aluta, the spirit of love that had once been found in this place. So for me, that is the major problem I think the faculty had last time and that alone accounted for 40% of what we were supposed to do in addition to every other thing we added. We were able to create a disciplinary committee to look out for certain excesses in the Faculty, and I can say that we have been able to at 60% achieve some of the manifestos that were given.

There are rumours that your administration is using power to sub-charge some departments. These departments are furious about their slots at the SUG senate. What can you say about this?

This is the first time I am hearing this, and I’ll like to correct that notion. I spoke with the constitution drafting committee as regards slot issues. Before now, we used to have different slots at the SUG level, where a department has higher number than others and I said to myself, “No, as long as you’re a department in this faculty, you are entitled to the same slot regardless of whether your department is more politically active than others”. And what we did was to make sure that every department was entitled to just 2 slots. This faculty has eight departments, and at the SUG level, we have 16 slots. So before now, what we used to have was that some department had 4, some had 6, while some didn’t even have at all. The newly created department is EECD, and as at the last administration, they were fighting for slots. They had to borrow certain slots from different departments to give to them. And when I came into office, I said “No, we will not do that”. So we made it normal for every department to have 2 slots so that we could incorporate EECD into the system. So when people come to say that their slots was taken from them, I strongly believe that on their hand, they are either misinformed about this new development or I would say they are being selfish.

Are there any upcoming events in the Faculty this semester?

Yes, one of the biggest events coming up this semester is the NUESA conference. It’s a conference that used to be but at some point, we couldn’t hold it anymore but now, it’s coming back bigger and better. That’s the major event. Though we have others, like we have the office of the Secretary-General who is organising NUESA ESSAY WRITING. We have our Freshers’ Welcome, we have our Dinner, we have so many events coming up this semester and they are worthwhile events.

A leader of your calibre will not want someone else to come and spoil the good works you have done. Is there anyone you are recommending to the Faculty to assume office after your administration has ended?

Well, sincerely I do not have because I do not know the minds of people. Like I’ve always said, “we all have different intentions towards certain things”. Some persons, I believe, who will like to take over from me are persons who must have seen and said “okay, I think this person has done well, let us improve on what he has done”. And I think that is what good leadership is. Not coming into office to say “this person did not do anything at all”, so taking up a position is that you want to improve on what someone has done. I cannot categorically say that I don’t recommend anybody because we have too many persons vying for the position. I could recommend somebody and the person flops, so it means that my good name has gone to the mud. Whoever wants to takeover, should, as long as the legacy that has been created is reciprocated and advanced.

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