KSA:The Tale of a Fallen House -By Alamin Abubakar Adam

Caveat; KSA stands for Katagum Students’ Association. The article is meant to express an opinion as a passionate stakeholder, and advise the new set of Excos—not for personality attack, politics or anything else. If you interprete otherwise, then..I’m sorry.

The misadventure started, 3 years ago, with the rise of a certain man as a presidential candidate. Bold. Vibrant. And fierce. “Katagum Forum is enemy of KSA” he said on the Manifestation day, with a level of gusto in his face that defeated the weight of the statement he had spitted out. He added, “Secondary students are not part of KSA” and finally alluded that he’d struggle to reclaim Islamic Orientation Primary School land from Katagum Forum while his opponent was discussing equity, viable economy and robust welfarism in KSA.

With a push from top bananas in mainstream politics, he ascended to power. Our man was to later build a political startup out of KSA evolving into a venture-cum-empire, that’d serve as KSA Executives’ Coronation Council for years to come, on the altar of impeding the progress of the 60-year old association, and leading it back to the dark, dark ages.

After finishing his reign with no single major project with the exception of abusive messages to elders in Katagum Forum, he handpicked a successor from his institution to continue with the management of the enterprise. Year out, with no much to write home about also, the election season came again. It was time to continue with the unfinished transaction.

The then CEO of KSA (Ruler II) planted the convention committee (CC) in a way that majority were there to handpick the next poster-President of the shadow empire. It was not a bumpy road though. A trio of forthright comrade in the CC stood their ground. They were forcefully made to resign to the tune of visiting one at his area of residence, dropping blows on him by a member of the CC. This member (beating the other), after turbaning the the next President of KSA, was payed for his job by placing him among the KSA Board of Trustee. That KSA BoT, a room mapped to be an impartial court for fanning down lingering crisis in the house, a room once housing decent elders, is now a parley parlor for a fellow who could, for politics, physically fight and rig elections, speaks mountain on the tale of a house on the brink of crumbling.

Fast forward to 2020 convention, the usual script (of Ruler I) was followed. A lopsided CC formed. Talking about the elections, “it is all about (our) interests” said the CC Chairman on a video he was taped on the night of the elections. He then moved on to mention three aspirants which, he said, their winning of the respective offices they contested was his responsibility.

The Secretary of the CC who stood against the last minute release of guidelines invented to disenfranchise a crop of rightful voters, and enfranchise a mercenary of artificial voters, was stripped off his office on the night of the elections to pave way for a perfect selection process of Ruler IV of our imaginary empire.

The results were out. At presidential level, it’s 85 votes against 7. VP, two candidates from the same camp got 48 and 45, while the other aspirant from the ‘losing’ camp got 3. If you’re holding mouth, wait for the atomic bomb.. although a couple of aspirants from the ‘winning’ team who contested unopposed were declared winners of their respective offices, the elections of the unfortunate Abdussalam Duala from the ‘losing’ camp, despite being the only person contesting the office, was declared ‘inconclusive’.

That even with a push from the existing Executives, total control of the CC, political power from above, a pool of hired thugs (as witnessed on the Manifestation Day), the managers of the KSA destiny, in their pursuit of injustice, could only give birth to an easily decrypt-able rigged result provides a comprehensive explanation on the capacity of thinking that manufactures the inglorious death of creativity, and staggering poverty of idea that is metaphor of KSA activities in recent times.

A take from the dirty play of power tussle in KSA is that rigging, corruption, injustice are not monopoly of the old breed in higher tiers of the Nigeria’s food chain. They’re reflections of the value system of the Nigerian society. If a network of youth could mastermind a low-budget version of Ganduje’s Gama Ward run-off election, the gory picture of the machinery they’ll deploy when vying for a seat in a higher tropical level of the Nigeria’s food chain can only be imagined.

To digress again, the KSA 2020 Convention provides us with specimens that underpin the stand that even characters, whom by optics display civility and decency, could emerge victims of the savory deception of power. The Nigeria’s system of politicking is, to many, a graveyard of morality. We justify our evil moves with “to change the system we must first play dirty” to get into it, that the end will justify the means. But that line of Machiavellian philosophy has never rung true. At first, the end is uncertain, and out of our control. Second is that a single dirt will require a series of dirty plays to cover it up. And as time moves, instead of changing the system, one will emerge changed by the system. The end does not justify the means; it is the means that justify the end. As a people of believe, our ultimate goal must be; doing what’s right, for what’s right, in hope for better times.

Now, to truly “revive and improve the 60-year old association”, the fresh team of Executive Officers must cut the chain of the union’s gradual descent to a political empire. They must bow out of the unwritten contract, betray the script they were given to play, and make the union free of the vested interests of political entrepreneurs. Unless the cascade of annual coronation is extinguished, any development they’ll bring—of establishing an online blog or of even a mega project—will be short term. The new managers should understand that sound political culture precedes progress. And no development can stand where persistent cycle of injustice is the order.