Will the politicians destroy LAUMSA?

The 2023 elections nearly brought LAUMSA to her knees. Emotions rose like a hypertensive crisis reading 240 over 120 on a digital sphygmomanometer. The pressure was palpable. The air was heavy. The campus watched in disbelief the dagboru-ism of LAUTECH medical students.

Character assassination became a sport. Relationships fractured beyond repair. Some classmates stopped greeting one another until graduation rescued them from the awkwardness. Politics was mistaken for purpose. Banter replaced brilliance. There were even reports of physical altercations. Manifesto night, which should have been a theatre of ideas, became a spectacle of noise. What ought to have been the most intellectual display on campus turned into a parody. Other departments looked on with thinly veiled amusement. Those were dark days! Darky days!

The administration that emerged carried controversy like a badge. Agendas floated like kites without strings. Executives ran parallel offices. Visible cracks widened into ideological fault lines.

Peace only returned when student unionism was suspended by the school. Silence replaced political affiliation slogans. Calm replaced chaos. Until recently.

Now elections are back.

One would think a new generation would birth new behaviour. That we would be different. Better. Elevated. But what we are witnessing resembles a rehearsal of national rancour. It is beginning to look like a campus adaptation of Bola Ahmed Tinubu versus Atiku Abubakar. Even worse! When did medical intellect descend into agbero theatrics?

Barely weeks into campaign season and the temperature is rising. A repeat of what happened last time. Insults hurled at seniors. Hierarchies defied without wisdom. The LAUMSA preclinicals page turned into a battleground. Juniors are fighting each other for their seniors. Destroying work relationships in the name of loyalty. Name calling everywhere. Status updates dripping with banters instead of substance. Have they forgotten that there is a life after politics?

Where are the debates on welfare? On academic advocacy. On strategic partnerships. On research visibility. On mental health frameworks for medical students navigating an already punishing curriculum.

Instead we see factions. Near physical altercations. Lies circulating like pathogens in a poorly ventilated ward. Agendas. Dangerous agendas. Pure lies! All parties should do the needful.

LAUMSAITES are watching.

Ogbontarigi(LAUMSA Literary and Debating Society) is seeing everything. We are monitoring closely. We are the watchdog. The whistleblower. Not under our watch will this association become a war zone. Not under our watch will the fabric of our community be torn by ego and excess.

This is a call to conscience.

Say no to agbero politics. Say yes to intellectual engagement. Let campaigns be about ideas. Let manifesto nights become laboratories of thought. Let leadership be about service not supremacy. This is not a do or die affair!

Every candidate should remember. You are not just contesting for office. You are auditioning for legacy.

And legacy is watching.

WE ARE WATCHING!