Breaking News: Zik Hall Electoral Committee Lifts Ban on Electoral Activities, Releases Electoral Guidelines

By: Akinjide Adebowale

In a public release sent to the Zik Hall community on May 21, 2023, the Electoral Committee of the Hall announced the lifting of the ban on electoral activities within the Hall. The communiqué, signed by the committee chairman, Mubarak Olapade, who was appointed according to the Hall’s constitution, stated that the purchase of forms would begin on May 22, 2023, and end on May 25, 2023.

Furthermore, the release outlined the minimum requirements for executive positions within the Hall, which include a minimum CGPA of 2.2 (second class lower division), in accordance with the Hall’s constitution. The additional requirements for aspirants are as follows:

• Only individuals officially allocated to Nnamdi Azikiwe Hall are eligible to vote and be voted for.
• Fresh students are eligible to vote but cannot contest for executive positions. However, they are eligible to contest for legislative positions (floor representative).
• Any Zikite who has been accused of an offense by the Students’ Disciplinary Commission (SDC) and found guilty will not be allowed to contest or be voted for.
• Aspirants with pending cases before the SDC are not eligible to contest.
• Each aspirant must have one agent and one referee, both of whom must be bonafide Zikites.
• Aspirants for executive positions are expected to score at least 45% during the screening, while those running for legislative positions must score a minimum of 40%.

Moreover, the guidelines for the election and campaign activities were explicitly stated as follows:

• Posters and advertisements should not be placed or written on unauthorized locations.
• Unauthorized locations for campaign materials include walls, doors, rails, floors, kitchenettes, bathrooms, toilets, and tanks.
• Authorized locations for campaign materials include pressboards, noticeboards, personal billboards, and banners.
• Each aspirant must submit two copies of their manifesto to the electoral commission before the screening day.
• Accredited poll agents should serve as observers for their candidates and display signed accredited tags on their chests during voting and the counting period to avoid any possible confusion.
• Open campaigning starts immediately after the ban is lifted and ends at 11:59 pm the day before the election. Any campaign that continues beyond this time will result in automatic disqualification of the candidate.
• All aspirants are required to attend all activities mandated by the commission for the election and must be punctual.
• Aspirants are advised to write their full names and preferred known-as (p.k.a), if any, on the application form, as they would like them to appear on the ballot.
• Candidates must refrain from defaming the character of their opponents during campaign activities and manifesto presentations.
• Final year students are not eligible to contest.
• Any petitions arising from the conduct of the election should be addressed to the Zik Hall Judicial Council.
• All eligible Zikites are strongly advised to strictly adhere to the stated guidelines for the conduct of the election.

Additionally, the article mentioned the prices for the various positions. The price for the Hall Chairman position was set at N4,000, while other executive positions were priced at N3,500. The form price for Floor Representatives was set at N2,500.

Zik Hall Holds Congress, Focuses On Campus Politics

By: Maestro

On the 19th of May, 2023, Zik Hall successfully held its first congress in the session. It will be recalled that the congress had been scheduled for an earlier date but was cancelled because the required quorum of 100 participants could not be formed.

Per the Zik Hall Constitution, the congress serves as the highest decision-making body of the Hall, and is regarded as the general assembly of all Zikites. The congress was held at the B-Block basement and was presided over by the Hall Chairman, Moriselade Faruq Soladoye-Adewole (Moriz), in accordance with the Hall’s constitution.

During the congress, the Hall Chairman passionately urged Zikites to wholeheartedly support political candidates from the Hall who are contesting for political positions outside the hall. In his address, the Hall Chairman indirectly referred to Dibia, a Zikite candidate who experienced defeat in the recent NUESA elections, attributing the loss to a lack of sufficient support from Zikites.

To underscore the importance of Zik’s endorsement in elections, he cited the example of Ojo Aderemi, a former Student Union president, who secured victory with the support of Zikites, despite not being a member of Zik Hall. Moriz also mentioned how Mascot, the incumbent president of the Student Union, sought Zik’s endorsement during the last SU elections.

Furthermore, the Hall Chairman emphasized that a Zikite’s success in an election outside the Hall brings pride to the entire community, while a failure reflects poorly on all Zikites collectively.

In addition, Moriz provided an opportunity for Zikites aspiring to various positions outside the hall, excluding the Student Union and those vying for positions within the Hall, to introduce themselves and share their political aspirations.

Idowest’s A1 Assessing Conduct as a Floor Representative.

By Jet-Li Bololo

The A1 constituency is represented by Hon. Bello Abeeb Idowu a.k.a Idowest, A 200L petroleum engineering student, who is also a member of the Zik Hall House of Representatives. Discussing with a few floor members represented by him on his floor, some responses indicated how effective he has been, while others were of the view that there is a need to improve in certain areas on his level of activeness towards discharging his duties as the representative of each resident in the constituency.

AWARENESS

Francis Ikoi(A12), a 100L MBBS student, made it known how he came about the identity of the floor reps through popularity. “….I don’t really know his name, but I know he’s Idowu, like they call him Idowest so I believe his name is Idowu but I don’t know his surname.”,” he said.

Owoade Abdul Azeez living in A4, a 200L ASSE student, had a supporting opinion, in an interview with him where he mentioned how popular the identity of the floor rep is in the block. “…..Yeah, I know my floor rep, we do call him Idowest. He was part of the people I voted for when I was in my 100l.” He announced.

Olowu Daniel (A12) acknowledged the identity of the floor rep while speaking with the Zik Press correspondence. “…..Idowest, that’s what we call him. Personally, I think everybody knows him but I don’t know, I can’t speak for everyone, but he’s quite popular,” he stated.

However, Abdul Rauf (A9) expresses denial of the identity of the floor reps. “…. I don’t actually know him, I don’t know his name,” he commented.

An occupant of A15 who craved anonymity also had a supporting opinion to be oblivious of the identity of the floor reps.“….. I don’t know his name, but I think he’s Idowest, I don’t really know because I’m not the type that does really stay indoors, most times I don’t use to be around.” he said.

ACCESSIBILITY

On accessibility, Francis (A12) affirmed that Idowest, their floor rep is very approachable to everyone in the block. He explained;
…..I have had conversations with him like several times, and he appears to be, sometimes based on random stuff, something concerning issues affecting our floor, like why the toilet are always dirty, and putting out a solution on how to stop getting our dirty and all of that, because sometimes when we want to use the toilet, we found out that they are always filled up with human faeces so he had to come up with a suggestion that everybody should have a padlock. I believe he has been performing well in his duties. He’s approachable, When it comes to being approachable, he’s someone that’s very very approachable. He plays and likes interacting with people.

Posing a question to Azeez, regarding how accessible the floor rep is, he commented positively. ….“Yes, I think he’s like an approachable person, I have not seen anybody say anything bad about him”

Olowu Daniel (A12) acknowledged how accessible the floor rep is through how he reacts to issues that come up on the floor. “He’s very accessible, for instance, a toilet issue when someone was claiming that he will break down the toilet, and immediately he came out to solve the issue. He was the one that told us to lock the toilet when a lot of people were coming to spoil it. Apart from that, there was even a time, the woman was not washing the bathroom and immediately he solved it all.” he stated.

Abdul Rauf (A9) however, expresses a refusal to acknowledge the accessibility of the floor reps.“ ….I don’t think many people know him,” he commented.

The occupant of A15, who craved anonymity, corroborated the same view.“…. Because I don’t really know who he is, so when I don’t have light then, when we had a light issue, I went to meet Idowest so he said I should go and meet the Porter.” he announced.

MAINTENANCE OF FACILITIES

Francis(A12) Responses on how effective the floor rep has been in terms of maintenance of facilities of the floor was affirmative. “For me, I have not been having issues that I will need to call him, although when issues arise, they are more like the first set to find out and bring the issue to everyone and proffer solutions on how we can solve the issues. We have been using our toilets and it has been okay like since the beginning of the semester because we have our personal padlock to the toilet, all rooms have that too but about the kitchen we don’t use it because it’s not okay”. he explained.

Owoade Abdul Azeez(A4) was again affirmative of Idowest’s activeness in the maintenance of facilities. He said “This is Zik Hall. You know not everything at all here is actually right, but I think he is actually trying his best. If you look at the toilets on the left axis, you can see that there are padlocks there and the toilet is actually always neat also because that’s the one I use as I am in room 4. Speaking on the other side, if you check it out, it is just one that doesn’t have a key, while the others have and those keys are assigned rooms to each toilet and I think the particular one without a key is open for people to urinate on so that they will not urinate on the floor.”

Olowu Daniel (A12) was also affirmative on the floor reps maintenance of toilets and kitchenette and provided an instance where Idowest made maintenance efforts on his floor. He said “….Yes, The kitchen, I know that there was a time he told those Iya to sweep it and I think that’s just the only time I have seen but they were not cleaning it to date. To me, I think he’s effective.”

Abdul Rauf (A9) was however indecisive with Idowest’s maintenance efforts. He remarked, “I have not used the kitchen, I don’t really see his work, what I know is that the cleaners wash the toilet and most of the time it’s always clean, but it’s the work of the floor reps just to make them get the cleaning done.”

The occupant who desired anonymity expressed uncertainty regarding the floor rep maintenance efforts. He said,“….Because I don’t know him, so I don’t know. Had it been I know him now, it’s a different case, maybe I will try to look for who he is now, but for now I don’t know who he is.”

In a conversation with the Block A floor rep, Bello Abeeb Idowu, a student of petroleum engineering from the faculty of Technology, who’s also a member of the Zik Hall House of Representatives. In contrast to the opinion of some of the people who claimed not to be familiar with the floor rep, Idowest in his first statement claimed he’s not a popular person on his floor and later attested that he’s quite popular.

“I’m popular because I’ve once showed up at every door to make announcements to them about a particular issue affecting the whole floor and I told them I’m the floor rep of the A1 block. I’m surprised some people would have claimed not to have known me here.” Idowest claimed.

“Earlier, we had one padlock for the toilet and we shared the key between me and a guy there, whenever people want to use the toilet they’ll come to me or the guy for the key but there was a time someone broke the key, and messed up the gent, which caused a lot of controversies and I had to request for the people to get different keys and gave two rooms a key to use to put a stop to such incident from being repeated” Idowest revealed.

Also, in the further discussion concerning his effectiveness as an honourable floor rep and how he had been effectively carrying out his duties, Idowest gave his reasons why he asked the anonymous occupant of A(15) to go by himself to complain to the porter.

“What happened was that the person had already spoken to me about their room not having light when other rooms do, I have already reported their names down and he later came to my dm to ask me how has been the process, I told him to go and meet the porters to ask them when it’s going to be ready.” He cleared.

Asking Idowest how he has been able to carry out his duties concerning lights and other maintenance of the floor, Idowest claimed he has been trying his best by doing the needful in maintaining them.

“The main problem of this floor is usually electricity and the toilet, then my duty is to acknowledge the problems of each room and report to the porters, firstly, I usually advise them to not touch electrical appliances in their rooms, so they should report to me and I’ll report to the porter till they’ll bring repairer and not use their own, then I restrict them from touching the electrical room so as not to disrupt the electricity of the floor. Ever since we’ve made the padlocks decision we’ve not been having toilet issues and we are good.” He claimed.

Zik Hall Jawwar Story: The Tale of Bravado and the Apparent Lack of it

BY KG

Nnamdi Azikiwe hall’s Literary and Debating club (LnD) performance at the 2023 Jawwar is what many would describe as a dream turned nightmare. The journey started out with high hopes, perhaps not on part the LnD members,but in the minds of every other Zikite. But they were all let down and let down hard when the president of the LnD, Omotayo Ajibola, announced just a day to the semifinals of Zik Hall’s withdrawal from the LnD. The captain who had originally promised to go all the way had jumped ship leaving shipmates in limbo.

A little bit of backstory won’t hurt. Truly, Nnamdi Azikiwe hall did not have the enviable track record in the public speaking circle, at least judging from the past four years. Even though the hall could not boast of a host of known public speakers,the hall did not loss hope, neither did it see itself as inferior. Every Zikite always cheered the speakers with strong enthusiasm. But Jawwar 2023 was a different story, and what a story it was. In the first round of debates, Zik was drawn against Queen Elizabeth 2 hall over two legs. The Zik Hall speakers exhuded a higher charisma, wit and logic which the Queens hall speaker did not really exhibit. They tried but the Baluba speakers were better, and the cheering for them (the zik speakers) was also louder. Zik won with an aggregate of 65 against 59.

In the quarter finals, Zik hall was drawn against Awo hall in a single round faceoff. The Awoites tried to make a show of marching through Zik hall, it was hilarious. But come d day, it was serious. Zik hall had a previous jinx of being knocked out in the quaterfinals and that makes another hill to surmount. Awo hall had the better side of the debate, but in the end Zik was beaten by minimal margin. The baluba citizens went home as victors in the end when they moved to the next round as best losers, narrowly beating Tedder to it by half a point.

Then began a one week break before the semifinals, time to prepare. Then news filtered out on Thursday, 28th of April, 2023. The president of the LnD, Omotayo announed that he was indisposed and also could not internalise his speech, hence Zik hall would not be speaking at the finals. Further probing by ZHPO and many other concerned Zikites revealed that this was just the tip of the iceberg, so many things were wrong underneath. It was revealed as observed by Ebenezer Olayemi, Speakin Eben, who was supposed to be the second speaker in the semifinals that this was supposed to be the presidents first speech in this year’s ongoing competition. Meanwhile Eben had spoken for Zik Hall twice. Speaking further Eben revealed that he was not even told by the president, as he saw the announcement same as everyone else. Further investigations questioned the legitimacy of the president’s administration, some LnD members said he ‘announced himself’ as president. There was no formal hand over. There was also different reports on his arbitrariness and nonchalance. There’s even news that he was varely present in the Jawwar Speaker selectiln process. It was when it landed on him, that he pulled our altogether.

In the meantime, consequence to the announcement, some Zikites pressed to be represented at Jawwar regardless of the presidents misdemeanour, since even Speaking Eben had withdrawn due to his disappointment. ( Talk about what poor leadership, even if it’s abitrary can do). Just when all hopes seem lost, out of the thick fog, two LnD members, Samson Law and Uthman Yamburger showed up to speak, withour prior or thorough preparations themselves. It was obvious what they were going to do. They were going to lose, defeat was imminent against our opponents, Sultan Bello hall, who were known for powerful speech delivery. In an interview with Yamburger, he said “…What we did was taking up responsibilities”

“Samson Law is Someone that really understands and practices the Zik Hall tradition, and what he did was one out of many sacrifices he has made for the hall…”
“To me, it was just me carrying out my duty as a Zikite, and as a member of the Nnamdi Azikiwe Hall Literary and Debating Society. Because even when I was recruited and inducted into the society, I promised to always be there whenever I am needed…”

Zik hall did not pull out without a fight. Judging from the opposing main speakers speech, delivery, it was obvious Baluba kingdom could have stood a chance, but one can only wish. It was bitter to watch Zik being banted. But the Zikites, betrayed by the captain and issues among the crew did not go down quietly. Maybe in the future, it will be better, maybe Baluba kingdom will be adequately fortified. Samson Law and Yamburger were heroes of the night, amongst the jawwar jeers and boos, they were cheered by their own.

“I’ll Like to Set the Record Straight” – Expelled Omotayo Gives his Side of the Story

By Saint

Omotayo Ajibola, ex-President of Nnamdi Azikiwe Hall Literary and Debating Society has spoken up on the reason for his decision to pull out of Jaw War. The expelled President who has recently come under fire for his decision to quit Jaw War at the semifinal rounds and other alleged misconducts including irresponsibility in the discharge of his duties to the society during the preparations for Jaw War has revealed to ZHPO his side of the story.

In a chat with a ZHPO correspondent Omotayo stated,

“To set the record straight, my decision to not speak at Jaw war was not out of disrespect to the Hall or the society but my frailness. I was indisposed that my internalization couldn’t get past “two paragraphs of my speech” And I had even made several attempts to get someone to take over my speech and deliver, but this proved futile as everyone had one or two things to do. I felt there was a standard that had been established by the LnD that I didn’t want to ruin with my own issues. So this birthed the “pulling out” conversation.”

However, as it was recalled that the emergency meeting held by the society revealed that Omotayo had proposed the idea of pulling out when speakers where being selected for the semifinal rounds and not when he realised he was too indisposed to speak, Omotayo expatiated as follows,

“At the point of selecting speakers for the semifinals, our preferred option was a speaker – Lanre – who was sick and the other not too desired speaker was a rookie who hasn’t spoken on any public speaking space before. This was like being caught between the anvil and the hammer. And the fact that the meeting was happening on Tuesday when the debate was on Friday further compounded the problem as we couldn’t seek for other options. The fact that I was speaking as the first speaker was in no doubt. But no one was impressed with the speeches of the two guys. At this point, several options and suggestions were pulled out, one of which was the idea of pulling out; which was even said as a passing comment with less conviction. It wasn’t even up for debate. Until Eben suggested that he was going to speak and the mood of the room changed.”

Again, discussions during the emergency meeting unveiled that Lanre, the PRO of the society and speaker in the second leg of the first round, had in spite of his illness volunteered to speak while it was Omotayo that had insisted he couldn’t speak due to his illness, and later proposed the idea that Zik Hall should pull out of Jaw War.

When asked why the decision to pull out of Jaw War was not a unanimous decision of the excos of the society but his unilateral decision, he said, “I guess I didn’t handle it well and there are lessons to be learnt. But I carried the General Secretary along every bit of the way. Albeit he had his reservations. I really do not want to drag issues with him tho. However, the exco is made up of six members, a large majority wasn’t aware. ” Responding to why some excos were not carried along, he said, “Yes, I didn’t. I drafted the letter around 7-8 pm, jaw war was just the next day. I felt the urgent need to inform the TLDS and the zik public. I thought the process would drag down the process. Now I know better.”

Furthermore, Omotayo addressed the notion of quitting Jaw War out of cowardice. He said, “The cowardice narrative is so laughable when I heard it. You mean a two-time jaw war speaker is afraid to speak. The best rookie speaker at the 2019 Jaw War is afraid to speak. The winner of Francis Adepoju Oratory Competition is afraid to speak. The Winner of Faculty of Law Intervarsity Debate is afraid to speak. The Winner of Awo Inter-hall oratory is afraid to speak. C’mon. This is funny and outrageous.”

Also speaking on the allegations of neglecting his duties as President during the Jaw War period, Omotayo explained that he stayed miles from school and that the Jaw War period was not convenient for him. In his words, “And concerning the talks of me neglecting my jaw war duties, I’d say that I had addressed this several times and my reasons are quite justifiable. I do not stay in school. I stay miles away from school. But because of my responsibility, sometimes, I used to stay overnight. However, this Jaw War period had me in a chokehold. Most of these meetings are held in the evening. Those times when I was rushing just to get home in time. My alternative was to engage or join meetings on phone or Whatsapp calls, which I did.”

When asked where exactly he stayed outside school, he said, “, I stay in my parents’ house at Iyaganku and my uncle’s at Bodija Housing Estate when it gets really late after school work. But even my uncle’s place which is like 11 km from school has a time restriction for residents.” Also, when was asked if he was absent during the Jaw War preparatory meetings because the time was clashing with other activities he was involved in, Omotayo replied, “…and yes, other activities I was invested in were clashing with my duties. Meanwhile, it would interest you that over the course of months that I served as the president, I only miss the jaw war speech hearing thing twice. And I even do WhatsApp call to meet up.”

Finally, Omotayo stated that he admitted responsibility for Zik hal’s loss in the semifinal round. “I actually do take responsibility for Zik’s loss, and I say I am sorry. But my decision to not speak was also out of my control. I know many people feel it’s just an excuse and I do not expect them to understand my position but I really am sorry”, he said. He was however asked why he left the L and D group chat when an emergency meeting was called to address his decision to pull Zik hall out of Jaw War and why he was absent from the meeting when his presence was requested and his presence would have afforded him the opportunity to state his side of the story to the L and D, he replied, “I left because I was offended by what Chizzy said. Plus he removed me as an admin immediately he dropped the message. I was shocked. It felt he had a motive before and was waiting for the right time. It was so crass and defamatory. More shocking because we had talked for over 30 minutes on phone. I didn’t feel I should be at the meeting because he already created a narrative and was running with it. I was so overwhelmed that I tendered my resignation notice. I didn’t feel I needed to be there.”  

Given the discussions around further sanctions against him by the hall, ZHPO asked if he was prepared to take responsibility and submit to such sanctions, he replied, “I do not want to assume that such would happen. More because it’d be baseless. I have accepted responsibility and resigned. You want my head on a platter for missing jaw war. The same jaw war that I had represented the hall more than once and won awards for.”

In other news, the interim President of the society, Tijani Abdulkabeer has made a press release which among other things disclaims Omotayo Ajibola. Here’s a reproduced copy of the release.

Press Release: NALDS Issues Disclaimer on Omotayo Ajibola

It came to us as a shock that the president of the Nnamdi Azikiwe Literary & Debating Society (NALDS), Omotayo Ajibola, attempted to withdraw the hall from the ongoing Jaw War tournament. He singlehandedly paraded the leadership of The Literary & Debating Society (TLDS) with a false letter of withdrawal to justify this unscrupulous act.

We saw the dismay that this unilateral decision of his, without any consultation with the executive council and important stakeholders of the society caused in the late hours of Thursday, 27th, 2023, the effect that it had on the appearance of the hall the next day in the semi-finals and how it eventually jeopardized the hall’s first chance to be in the finals in the history of Jaw War.

We hereby state categorically that the said letter is a fraud and did not emanate from the society. The society and the hall management was not involved whatsoever in the decision of Omotayo Ajibola to withdraw the hall from the tournament.

Resolution of the Society

Following his notification to the house of the unilateral decision to pull out of the tournament, an emergency meeting was held on Friday, 28th 2023 to address members of the society. The meeting was presided over by the immediate past president of the society, Chiziterem Ogbonna.

The following was the outcome of the meeting:

– Omotayo Ajibola has been expelled as the president of the Nnamdi Azikiwe Hall Literary and Debating Society (NALDS).

– He is no longer a member of the NALDS.

– He is to be removed on the senator’s page of the TLDS.

– Stakeholders of NALDS would further discuss appropriate sanctions.

– Tijani Abdulkabeer installed as the interim president of the society.

SIGNED

TIJANI ABDULKABEER

Interim President, NALDS.

OLANREWAJU OYEDIJO

PRO, NALDS.