Unilorin Student Union Presidential Aspirant, Uthman Olamilekan (Bagbasoro) Presents His Policy Document Titled UNTO GREATER HEIGHTS - THE ROAD Map, Check It Out

UNTO GREATER HEIGHTS: THE ROAD MAP

OUR VISION
Our vision is a union where people can fulfil their full potential and actively participate in the decision making that affects them, this is the type of union we want, and we will fight alongside everyone who feels the same, it is going to be in our purview to enable the power of our members to influence the people in power. We won’t stop until we are done making every of our members enjoy the dividends of democracy.


OUR MISSION
To lead a wide movement of our members to support a greater union, democracy, accountability and transparency.


UNTO GREATER HEIGHTS FOR UNILORITES.
The Directorate of Students Affairs,
The Central Executive Council,
The Senate Council,
Faculty Presidents,
Faculty Speakers,
Distinguished Congressmen.
Leadership is the ability to inspire confidence and support among people who are needed to achieve organizational goals and the process of facilitating individual and collective efforts to accomplish shared objectives (Dubbin ET Wick).
Good day distinguished and fabulous Unilorites, My name is Uthman Olamilekan, BAGBANSORO, A 400 level student of the department of quantity surveying, faculty of environmental sciences.
I consider it an honor to officially declare my intent that I seek the opportunity to serve as PRESIDENT, University of Ilorin student union 2019/2020 academic session to offer our union visionary, purposeful, charismatic and competent leadership.
Ladies and gentlemen, the richness of the democratic dispensation before us is a golden opportunity, which must not be squandered, it is a chance for rebirth and progressiveness, a chance to rekindle and take to greater heights the transformation and investment we have witnessed in our union in the last thirty two (32) -years.
Today, we have an opportunity before us, which is to join hands with the leadership at the top to continue to create the enabling environment to actualize the vast potential which nature and providence had endowed us in our better by far community.
As a union, we are partner in progress in making of the better by far community, and if given the opportunity to serve we will not derail from the path which we have inherited, because I believe that if the interest of the community as a whole is well taken care of, the interest of the components parts (Union inclusive) will be adequately satisfied in terms of the wellbeing and aspirations of the individuals.
I believe it is possible to collectively soar unto greater heights with an indivisible union devoid of ethnic, race, color and biases, we will lead a union where the wellbeing of our members will continue to be of foremost importance, a collective union that will continue to instill the highest level of confidence in our members.
Distinguished colleagues, you will agree with me that there is need a to improve on our transportation system and security, the need to consolidate on the activities of our predecessors particularly in the area of sports, entertainments, health care, digitalization, intellectual capacity development and welfare packages, these are some of the realities we are going to face in the year ahead, and it is in full consciousness and recognition of these that I am presenting myself to be given an opportunity to serve.
I am confident of the support we are going to get from Unilorites if elected, that we will not fail them, we will adhere strictly to the rules and regulations as enshrined in the student union constitution and the university codes of conduct in the pursuit of our cardinal programs and our other programs which are outlined in our manifesto and spelt out in detail in our policy papers.
I appeal to all Unilorites, irrespective of sex, religion, ethnic, origin, political affiliations, faculty, departments, units and social status to join hands with us in the work ahead to soar the flying eagle of our union unto greater heights.
I do sincerely hope that the good and discerning members of our union will give me the opportunity to serve in the days ahead by voting overwhelmingly for me as PRESIDENT at the student union elections. I appeal to all and sundry to join hands with me in the journey of taking our union unto greater heights.
Long live student union!
Long live University of Ilorin!
Long live Nigeria.
Thank you.

Uthman Olamilekan, BAGBANSORO
Presidential Aspirant
2019/2020 Academic Session.


MY INTENTIONS.
I consider it an honor to officially inform you that I am contesting as PRESIDENT, University of Ilorin Student Union 2019/2020 academic session. The aspirations to take the mantle of leadership in the union is borne out of the passion ‘to widen the horizon of our union and improve the confidence of UNILORITES in the students union through selfless, purposeful leadership and an all-inclusive administration’ my intentions are to offer a responsible, encompassing and responsive leadership having satisfied the requirements of the union and electoral laws.

THE MAN BAGBANSORO
BAGBANSORO, Uthman Olamilekan is my name, I am a 400 level student of the Department Of Quantity Surveying, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, University of Ilorin. I am a Responsible and Organized entrepreneur who sees the welfare of UNILORITES as a business with the primitive idea of bringing out the best in UNILORITES through effective representation, transparent and an all-inclusive leadership.

MY MANIFESTO.
Today we are at the threshold of another election which I believe is another opportunity for us to improve the status of or union and soar unto GREATER HEIGHTS, An opportunity to maintain and foster the remarkable progress of our visionary leaders and explore the uniqueness of our humanity.
I believe it is possible to collectively soar unto GREATER HEIGHTS with an indivisible union devoid of ethnic, race, color and biases, a union where the wellbeing of UNILORITES will continue to be of paramount importance, a collective union that will continue to build the highest level of confidence in UNILORITES.
The policies I am proposing here will enable us to further ameliorate the various challenges faced by UNILORITES. The central theme here is how we can soar unto GREATER HEIGHTS with the pragmatic process of our politics and campus life. The policy themes are:
Welfare
Sports and Entertainment
Security
Digitalization
Empowerments
Capital Projects.

Welfare
The heart of any association or union is for the welfare of its members, ditto to University of Ilorin Students Union in Article 2 Section B of the compendium of the student union laws, since welfare, that is, wellbeing, general happiness and safety is the essence of the union, we will be soaring unto GREATER HEIGHTS by ensuring that the university environment is conducive and ready for learning, your welfare will be the mainstay and the center piece of our decisions, policies and programs. -Salu populi est supreme lex meaning welfare of the people is the supreme law!
We will partner with the university management and governments at all levels to promote the harmonious relationship in gusto to make the environment conducive for learning. With our welfare packages we will promote educational and intellectual developments and make our by far the best tower intellectually competitive to enable the gown meet the expectations of the town. We will implement empowerments programs and policies to make our trail blazing haven a venue for cross fertilizations of ideas that the larger society needs to develop.
The welfare programs will be carried out through:

Academic:
(i) Tutorial: The primary objective and target of all student is academic excellence, we will not lay or bypass their goal for anything less, we will take the academics activities of UNILORITES as the primus interparies (first among equals) by supplementing the lectures received with tutorials to trim down the poor performance of our students especially the fresh students across all faculties, departments and units. This will be carried out in conjunction with all departmental and faculty heads to enable the early commencement of lectures, prompt release of results and other academic activities.
(ii)   Mock Exam: we will also be supplementing our mega tutorials with computer based test mock examination which will be conducted with at least 70% attendance to test their abilities and also to have examination look alike, which will help our members prepare and also know their stand before the commencement of exams, we will collaborate with the university management to make use of the our CBT center.
Intellectual Development
Essay and Debate Competition: One of the quality of an academic environment is competitiveness and awareness amongst the students. That is why we are BY FAR THE BEST and the first choice university, that is what we are booming on and that is why I have come to study here! Baring our normal academic routine, undergraduates are exposed to the society through essay and debate competitions, it is our intention to sustain this spirit on campus.

On the essay competition, we intend to offer platforms where students can generate reasons on contemporary issues and solve societal problems, we will also be moving unto GREATER HEIGHTS with business plan and proposal competition and other inter varsity competitions.

The debate competition will give birth to more members for the university debate community, it will also give birth to a platform for clash of intellectuals.
 
(iv) UNILORIN SU Journal (Inter Disciplinary): One of our proposed programs in students academics is the journal, the sixth edition was published in honor of Prof Ishaq Oloyede, OFR, who is an alumnus and a former vice chancellor of the better by far University and current Registrar of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), this project will stimulate the culture of research that is falling off amongst UNILORITES and contribute to their intellectual capacity building, it will be published in honor of a distinguished citizen of the country, preferably an ex UNILORITE with the view of celebrating and encouraging excellence, commitment, dedication and scholarship.

(v) UNILORIN SU Magazine: The first edition of the union magazine will be published and tagged ‘’The Unilorites’’ aimed at promoting the image of the union and the University, the magazine will influence social trends on campus, it will cover matters that bother on academics and social within and outside the university. It will circulate across tertiary institution to give the UNILORITES and the union the apt image it need in the public sphere. This will serve the surveillance, correlation, cultural transmission and entertainment functions. We will do all within our arsenal to ensure the achievement of this lofty project and it will also be made available at an affordable price.

(vi) Distinguished Lecture Series: it is our foremost plans to have a distinguished personality lecture of the students’ union. We will invite astute and cerebral public intellectuals to graciously assist to lead us in the debate on possible connections and interface between the gown and town.  The lectures will be our own contributions to finding solutions to the myriad of problems in the larger society. It will also expose UNILORITES to the challenges and realities beyond the four walls of the university and how to key into the solutions rather than getting outside bewildered with little or no clue of the trends.

(vii) Finalist Development Seminar (FDS): This program is aimed at making our final year students understand the situation of the town and also make them realize their potentials and different ways of exploring and job opportunities, we will invite seasoned entrepreneurs and well celebrated career men and women to discuss different issues which will help our finalist and prepare them for the great task ahead.

(c)   Transportation
Movement is connected to our studentship, we go through it every day. As such it cannot be discarded with a wave of wand. UNILORITES do not deserve to be tormented and subjected to acute hardship in the name of locomotion, we don’t deserve to fight tooth and nail to get buses, we deserve flexible, comfortable, and convenient transportation system to make our stay on campus easy, hitch free and memorable. We have identified a lot of problems which has caused persistence of transportation hiccups we have faced on campus and also their respective solutions among which are partnering with the private organization to bring more campus shuttle to ply our roads and also re organization of our motor park/garage to ensure easement in movement on and off campus.
(d)   Health.
The health state of UNILORITES will be adequately prioritized. At any point in time, we will not cease to bring it to the hearing of the management, the filthy conditions of our places of convenience  and over grown bushes that possess threat to UNILORITES, we will also join hands with the management to make sure that these problems are attended to and our members welfare are adequately catered for.
We will also put into action a befitting health week that will feature seminar, medical checkups, environmental awareness, HIV/AIDS awareness, diet awareness and other programs such as
#CleanBetterByFar

SPORTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

Sports
Unilorin SU League: Government is a continual process, as such we will also continue with the inherited league where different teams would be able to participate and end up with laurels and awards, we will call for more teams by ensuring the Vice chancellor has a team and some others members of the university management. As a way of giving back to our host community a team will be named after the Emir of Ilorin which will comprises of students from Ilorin.

Female 5 Aside Competition: This program is aimed at our female students, it is our wish to bring out the best in them and also encourage female participation in sports.

Unilorin SU Freshers Cup: The program which will be tagged #CatchThemYoung is specifically for our fresh students with the motive of getting them acquainted with the sports setting on campus and also a way of familiarization with our returning students who will be in attendance to watch.

Unilorin SU Marathon: This program will hold at least once in a month to ensure physical and mental wellbeing of our students as we believe #ExerciseIsMedicine.

Entertainment.

The Union Week: The students’ union week has always been a major event, we will celebrate the week in grand style and set the campus agog with feelings of excitement everywhere, we will make it historical that our returning members will value the memories such that the next set of fresh students will be eager to see what it entails. Several programs will be lined up for the week such as.
#CorporateDay
#CulturalDay
#BackToSchoolDay
#JerseyDay
#CharityDay

The OkeOyi Carnival: In our way of bridging the gap between the students of the permanent site and college of health sciences (COHS) we are going to stage a carnival at the college, it will go a long way in relieving their stress and also make them feel happy.

Hostels Weeks Nights:  We want to recreate the social atmosphere for UNILORITES by making sure we bring students making use of the school halls of residence together in a wake to mingle amidst each other and also make them feel the atmosphere going on off campus, this will be taken to different hostels and general one for all private hostels on campus.

Comedy Night: Aimed at increasing the social trend on our campus, the program which will be tagged #UniloritesLetUsLaugh #ULUL1.0 where we will celebrate different comedians we have on campus, we will also bring a standup comedian to make it worthwhile.

BBOL: Bring back our leaders is a program which will bring back all our founding fathers and union leaders together with primitive motive of them coming together and share their union experiences both the good and the bad. We believe this will make us reminisce and also increase UNILORITES participation in leadership.

Final Year Directory: The final year book will cover biodata of all final year students with the primary motive of getting them acquainted with each other even after their stay on campus, it will also make the final year students remember the BY FAR THE BEST University and be proud of their Alma matter.  
 

SECURITY.
Social Security
We are going to ensure we create a sound system that will make sure that the social wellbeing of UNILORITES is indispensable in our administration. We will ensure that an average UNILORITES is free to engage freely in activities that makes us happy. We will collaborate with the management to create a caring and inclusive society where our members regardless of age, tribe and gender will be protected and assured of moving freely to read and move about on campus without any iota of fear or intimidation.

Security Feedback.
Our campus security is the pivot on which the prosperity and the general welfare of UNILORITES turns, security considerations are paramount in any effort at upholding the integrity of our union, we will complement the management effort at ensuring the safety of UNILORITES. I salute the efforts of the management at tackling the burgeoning security challenges.
As we intend to make UNILORITES security conscious and ensuring a peaceful atmosphere on and off campus we will create a toll free line where students can call, text and also lodge complaints and get quick responses, We will consult all security agencies on and off campus, We will also embark on courtesy visit to police station around the campus vicinity for cordial relationship and prompt adherence when needed. We will also sensitize our members on the need to be security conscious and self-security, we will make sure all bulbs at our lecture theaters and lecture rooms are functional at all times particularly during examination periods because these are the moments when those night crawlers strikes.

Social Security Trust Fund.
The social security trust fund is a special account which will be created to cater for tuition fees of indigent students who doesn’t have a source of fund for school charges. The fund in this account will be sourced from university alumni, philanthropist and NGOs. An executive bill will be sponsored to the senate to cater for the process of selection of successful applicants.


DIGITALIZATION.
The Social Media.
Information technology has occupied a central stage in unfolding events in an expeditiously changing global environment. One of such technologies is the social media. With the social media, we will give UNILORITES and the union a brand. We will connect all social media platforms for the sake of our image. We intend to hangout so that UNILORITES can communicate their feeling directly to the union executives from anywhere, at any time amongst others. These will be a means to showcase our inventiveness and achievement.

EMPOWERMENT.
We believe education received within the four walls of the classroom is not enough to make us a graduate, To survive the 21st century graduates most be armed to confront the hydra-headed societal challenges, we intend to organize empowerment programs to give power and enable UNILORITES improve themselves, familiarize with the society as a whole, to enable the gown meet the expectation of the town.

This will come inform of entrepreneurs and youth empowerment workshops, seminars and leadership training programs to prompt our self-confidence and reliance. These programs will go a long way to casting out dependency nature of our youths and strengthen them to overcome poverty, we will partner with top governmental and non-governmental organization to bring these programs to reality.

We will also partner with corporate organizations such as Lagos business school and Unilorin business school to avail UNILORITES the opportunity of pitching their ideas. We will also ensure contracts are bided for students as we believe experience cannot be bought in the market, we need to start patronizing ourselves.

We will also be soaring unto GREATER HEIGHTS by partnering with school to allow students bid for contracts which they can execute as we believe this will supplement their Graduate Self Employment Skills which is being learnt by our members.

CAPITAL PROJECT
Mathma Gandhi says and I quote “ The best of service is service to humanity‘’, We are going to set a pace for the establishment of a dormitory for indigent student which will be built by the union to cater for indigent students with no means of accommodation or new intakes who are coming from far distance without accommodation. It will also cater for students of various departments means of accommodation. The dormitory which will cater for a minimum of 100 students and also a suite for the students union executives.

The dormitory will be named after our first student’s union president Professor Durosaro. This will be called the DUROSARO HOUSE. We will be soliciting for a space from the university management and also solicit for supports from NGOs and others government agencies to finance the lofty project.


Conclusively, Government Is a continual process and it involves different activities, we are going to continue with the legacies of our predecessors and also introduce new ones to make our union enviable and further soar the eagles of our union unto GREATER HEIGHTS.