Student unionism: the game of permutations and prowess

Politics is all about permutations.

It's unusual to see medical students divert attention to extracurricular activities such as politics. Oftentimes, you would rather see us engaging in sporting activities as leisure. My career in student politics started in 2014, when I was elected as a senator for a clinical constituency in my faculty. My campaign was light; I did not have to print banners, fliers, or flex. It was like a walk-through for me to get in; little did I know that I would need more efforts to stay in politics. The health faculties were two and situated in the minicampus, which was a significant distance away from the main campus, which had 13 faculties.

My first mistake was made not long after I got in. My colleague senator representing clinical science was withdrawn from medical school, and his position was declared vacant. A tribesman junior colleague approached me to help him with the vacant position, and being nepotic towards my tribesmen, I pulled all the strings I could within and outside the Senate council to facilitate his selection rather than subjecting him to an election that was more objective and would be termed free and fair. I never knew I picked my Waterloo in the process. I was the unanimous leader of the senators from the health faculties, and my attention was drawn to the new senator, who chose to pitch his tent with others during plenary and occasionally rubbished our demands before the council with the excuse that he would fund those demands from his pocket instead.

I was least worried, as politics to me is not a "do or die" affair. The elections approached, and interests began to come to light. My interest in being the deputy senate president of the council was already declared to a few, which mattered right before I facilitated the replacement of the senator from my constituency, and, as you can rightly guess, he declared his intention to be the Senate president. There is a saying that a house divided against itself cannot stand. An internal crisis was brewing, and I knew I had to quench it fast, especially as I was the voice for my constituency (well, except for the most recent senator who also declared his interest).

I approached the new senator to iron things out. Ordinarily, the junior student should seek out the older. Being in the system before him with a few years left in college, I made him an offer. The offer was that he should contest for the position of deputy senate president (DSP), which held more certainty of being won as a college, while I would step down totally. He had more political careers ahead, and it was wise to set him on the right track. I knew we were not ripe for Senate president because our permutations were not solid and the major contender was a formidable one. Unfortunately, the new senator said he would never stoop to accept the offer to become the DSP. I was angry but maintained my calmness. Out of 54 senators in the council, the College of Health Sciences had only 12, meaning that our permutations had to be strong enough. Politics is all about give and take.

I went ahead to contest the general elections, and for the first time, I had a soft copy flier designed by my roommate. Funny enough, I didn't ask him to design one, but the whole college knew the tense political atmosphere in the college.

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"Come, MJ, everyone has banners and posters; you have none; now take this at least." My roommate said, I looked at the flier he designed and laughed. Of course I appreciated it, and jointly, we circulated the soft copy as my campaign flier. The general elections are often conducted before the in-house senate council elections; thus, I had to overcome the first hurdle, which, for me and as usual, was seamless. The new senator, however, could not scale through; he had too many enemies, and later, I realized that was why he requested that I facilitate his entry into the Senate Council. Several petitions were written against him, emanating from his fellow classmates, due to some shady financial misappropriations he could not account for as a freshman student, among others. I did not have to raise any dust before he got consumed in his own flames, which he failed to take care of. This is politics; people will dig things up about you. He lost the general elections to qualify him for a return ticket, which left me to contend with the main campus opponent.

The main campus knew I had 12 votes to deliver, and there were two contenders for the seat of senate council president. Each of the two major contenders wanted my 12 votes, which I knew was significant enough to tilt one of them to victory. Beyond my number, I also had a good rapport with other politicians on the main campus. I had one opponent for DSP, which I did not take with levity. I took my time to meet each of the senators to solicit their votes. My opponent was also working tirelessly, creating WhatsApp groups as caucuses. One thing I am glad that I did not do was meet the student union subdean to seek his support. He was, however, shocked when I quoted his words on the in-house election day, and many people thought I was his choice of candidate. The win for me was 43 votes to 4. I had 43 votes, and my opponent had 4 votes!

"Everyone has a skeleton in their cupboards, and even those that do not have one can always be created for them." was a valuable lesson I learned from the senator who was petitioned and subsequently lost the general elections.