Many years ago, a man bought a house and decided to make several changes to its structure. This on its own is a beautiful idea; the house has to be made fitting for modern times and also adapted to the needs of its owner. Each step of the renovation was fuelled by ambition and curiosity, yet he never paused to understand the house’s silent architecture, the hidden lines of strength that held it upright through storms and years. In his zeal to remake, he overlooked the heart of its stability—the single, unassuming piece that bore the weight of everything else. When he finally removed it, the house did not creak or groan in warning; it surrendered quietly, a collapse of
forgotten wisdom and unseen support. And in that instant, he learns that cornerstones and foundations are rarely obvious, and the true strength of any structure—be it house or life—often lies in what is least noticed.
This story is fitting with a similar narrative of what led to the fall of the Roman Empire and then Soviet Union, where some brilliant minds trying to institute institutional change lacked the basic knowledge of how the institutions worked. Yes, change is important. We must all try to embrace it with open-mindedness; however, we cannot afford to be so open-minded that our brains begin to fall out.
Over the years, Zik Hall Press Organisation has consistently played a key role in the hall's electoral process. And this is not just a grand saying. Right from the planning to the screening process to the election proper, our members in the past and the present have sacrificed so much to make the process as seamless as the members of Nnamdi Azikiwe Hall deserve, as it is their professional responsibility. Every single session, the electoral committee has at least two pressmen on the committee, a representative from Zik Press, and at least one or two other Zik pressmen representing other communities in the hall. This arrangement is not arbitrary. Journalism, by its very nature, demands objectivity, accountability, and scrutiny. As members of the fourth estate, pressmen are trained to look beyond personal bias and insist on evidence, fairness, and due process.
However, a few months ago, a tide of change came, and we decided to be open-minded about the changes, at least for once. During the constitutional review of the hall, Zik Hall Press was removed from the entire process. There were no additional changes to the process, just that the section guaranteeing the press as a member of the committee was removed. The entire narrative was blindsiding, albeit even questionable, because what level of democratic inclusiveness will result from an electoral process without press men? But not to make unnecessary waves, we decided to be open-minded about this change. And consequently, the events of the past week and a half have shown how wrong the decision to remove the press is.
In the just concluded screening process, allegations of irregularities have been raised and levelled against the members of the committee, most especially its chairman, Adetunji Samson. This is a chairman that conducted an election so chaotic at his faculty that the dean of students had to intervene. While the logic behind his selection as electoral chairman might seem unarguable, given the fact that he is the image that comes to the mind of many when the average Zikite is being described. His political affiliations and character issues make him a poor choice of candidate. How sure are we he will not be out to get his own ideal choice of executives and floor reps for the hall? We have an electoral commissioner who only two sessions ago had his character scrutinised so intensely by the electoral committee he broke into sweat trying to question the character of others.
This whole situation is directly the fault of the hall chairman, Daniel Sotomi. The constitution of the hall empowers the chairman to pick every single member of the committee. He is constitutionally empowered to pick three co-opted members for the committee. Although there are still some people that he did not pick, like those from the Christian, Muslim and L & D communities, he is still the one submitting their names to the legislative council. So, in a way, the names being submitted are people he must have been satisfied with. So far, this session, Sotomi has not wielded this power appropriately. It is pathetic that of all the available individuals who could have done it, the hall chairman decided to pick a close friend of his for the position of electoral committee chairman. Even the renaming of the committee from the familiar ZIKCOM to NAHEC feels symbolic—not of progress, but of change for its own sake.
The reason why press men are trusted in contexts like these is because they can at least be trusted to look beyond their own convictions and bias and into what is concrete and convincing proof. But if members of the committee cannot hide their disgust for the character of the candidates and can even say to their faces that 'I will not let you qualify' or 'I will not screen you', it calls into question why they have been charged with that responsibility in the first place. This makes any reasonable person question the validity of the disqualified candidates in the process.
This election process has been and will still prove to be the most shambolic election process that Zik Hall has ever witnessed. A lot went wrong, from the composition of the committee to the choice of the chairman to the obvious and most irresponsible manner in which the press was undemocratically left out of the process.
At this point, it is a waste of breath to clamour for a return to the status quo. Everything has to be overhauled. There needs to be a top-to-bottom shakedown. Average Zikites must be able to decide who conducts their own election through a congress. The committee must decide on its own chairman. These are a few steps, but they are not minor steps. And hopefully, the hall can move forward into a future where their leaders are popularly and legitimately chosen.
The creative minds who thought it wise to draft a constitutional amendment where the press is left out of the electoral committee will now have to figure out one in which the people of Nnamdi Azikiwe Hall will be able to get a more transparent election process. Otherwise, it risks repeating the mistake of the man who renovated his house without understanding it, only to discover, too late, that the quiet structures he removed were the very things holding everything together.
