A Two-Horse Race | The Ink Well May Contest #race

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Blossom and Mirabel met at the reception on their first day in Baptist Girls High School at Molete, Ibadan. Every girl child wanted to be a student of the prestigious Girls-only school because of the niche the school has created over the years. Being the first missionary school with facilities in place, it became the eye of every parent and child to be here.

Good morning. Can I sit over there?

Mirabel, who had just arrived, asked Blossom, who had been in line waiting to be assigned a hostel and a issued ticket for meals.

Yes, you can.

Blossom replied with a dint of smile on her face. The two girls sat close to each other, watching how events unfold. The porters were busy allocating hostels to all fresh students while the stale students were seen welcoming each other with hugs and embrace.
After a long wait, Blossom got a hostel. She dragged her long haversack and mattress, one on each hand, and matched it towards Wande Hall. Whereas, Mirabel still had to wait for her turn to be assigned one hostel too. She however got Queen Amina Hall which was directly opposite Wande Hall where Blossom was allocated. The two girls were also lucky to be in the same class.

During their orientation program for all fresh and stale girls, the students were addressed by both the principal, Mr. Clark, and other teachers who were assigned roles. Mr. Clark introduced College Politics as one of the events that would characterize their first term in school. Senior students in the final class were the only ones eligible to contest for the position of senior perfect while the other positions were open to all students. Mr. Clark opined that though the elections will be held immediately after mid-term, all learners should gird up to prepare for a difficult term. They were informed that they would be writing continuous assessments daily except for Saturdays and Sundays. This was to reignite the dying reading culture among students.

The orientation program did not come to an end until Mr. Clark told the fresh girls to study the student handbook where simple codes and conducts have been itemized to control students' behavior within the school.

After the orientation program, most fresh students were seen in clusters discussing college politics because it sounded quite strange to them. They were so enthusiastic about how it would go and cannot wait for it to begin already.

The list of positions one can vie for is already displayed on the notice board at the quadrangle.

Mirabel spoke to Blossom as they walked smartly to the quadrangle to see what their hearts were beating for a moment.

A few hours later, the students went to their classes and during the long break period, campaign posters of Ofuobi, a science student in the final class flooded the whole arena. On the poster was the inscription "Fresh Air".

beautiful picture and a great smile

Tolu, one of Blossom's classmates said.

The inscription catches my fancy more.

Blossom replied as they strolled down the path that leads to the school common room. Soon, the long break was over and the learners returned to their classes.

More posters emerged in the coming weeks. And the contestants were seen campaigning by creating stands around the premises of the school with support from students who support their candidacy. All the girls at Queen Amina Hall supported Ofuobi's candidacy. She is a gentle fellow who cared for the junior students. Every time a junior student has issues both in their studies or welfare, she is always available to help out.

Whereas, her closest contender, Cynthia, an arts student who is the school football and athletes captain decides to join in the race. She argued that the science students felt that they were better than other students, especially those in the commercial and art classes.

Over the years, the science students have held this position and they felt it is their right. Now that Cynthia had shown interest in running for the position of senior prefect, there seemed to be a tense situation. The campaigns have to change and the manifesto that Ofuobi had displayed, being the first candidate to declare to run for the senior prefect already seemed biased. That would give Cynthia the upper hand.

Another thing that may work against Ofuobi was that the art and commercial students in the school have agreed to stand solidly behind Cynthia even though some of them are friends with Ofuobi. The politics that are playing out here are that the jinx of crowning a science senior prefect had to stop.
Ofuobi's only strength is coming from the trust she has earned from the junior student. In the senior school, the commercial and art students were more in number than the whole science students put together.
Cynthia's strategy to win the election is to lobby the fresh class one student. And in doing so, she employed the services of the closest friends in the class one arm of the school, Mirabel and Blossom.

Other contestants, those who are seeking to be elected as games prefects, social prefects, health prefects, and so on had no contenders. They are contesting unopposed.

Blossom and Mirabel who were quite famous among the new students, especially those in class one, did a good job canvassing them to the side of Cynthia. There were benefits they would enjoy if Cynthia eventually wins at the polls.

After six weeks of stressful academics and campaign politics, Baptist High School closed for one week, marking the end of the first half of the term.

During the first day of the concluding half of the term, Mr. Clark addressed the whole school and mentioned how the elections and voting exercise will be conducted. The election would be on the weekend of the eighth week of the term, all campaigns were to stop a week before the elections.

All was set for the elections. There were jubilations already in some quarters. The new games prefect, Maryam, was seen wearing a complete sports kit as she led other girls from Queen Amina Hall to vote for Cynthia. She is a science student but for the sake that Cynthia was captain of the football team, she must give her full support.

It was a two-horse race. Ofuobi would never give up. She still held her head high in expectation even though there were indications here and there that she will not win the election.
Suddenly, the sky changed from being bright to dark. It was going to rain. The hearts of the two contestants started to rage. How would they be able to monitor the exercise? Blossom and Mirabel promised to keep an eye on the ballot box so that only those who voted will be counted.

Then, it began to drizzle. This was just about an hour before the election ended. Yet, the sky seemed heavy with rain but the rains refused to fall.

When the voting exercise had ended, the ballot boxes from all the four halls of residence were brought to the school hall where other school officials were waiting to receive and for the counting to begin.

Welcome to the final phase of this exercise. All agents representing each contestant should mount the stage as we begin the counting.

All agents appeared and looked cursory as the counting began. It was a tough one. After counting the votes from three halls, Wande Hall, which had the highest number of occupants, and hence the largest number of votes, started.

Ofuobi was leading with just two votes after the vote count from the first three halls. The student populace were in total silence. Though those who follow Cynthia knew that she has the upper hand in Wande Hall, they still wanted the process to end before they would begin junilation.

Out of about a hundred votes from Wande Hall, Ofuobi was only able to pull sixteen while a whole lot of other votes went to Cynthia. At the last count, Cynthia won the elections and was announced at the senior prefect. Ofuobi stood from her seat, walked straight to Cynthia and congratulated her in the spirit of sportsmanship.

This was an eye-opener for Blossom and Mirabel. They both became relevant in the school. Their political life started from the cradle when most fresh girls were still timid to break loose.