By Maestro
There are diversities of democracies in the world, but for a democracy to be truly democratic, there are some ingredients that are sacrosanct, in which one is accountability. Accountability is necessary in a democracy so as to keep track of the performance of elected leaders.
To uphold the accountability in Zik’s democracy, ZHPO sent out her reporters to examine the performances of the floor representatives. This reporter set out to make some inquiries about the floor representative of A3 constituency. To create a balanced report, he met with five different people to quiz them about the performance of the A3 constituency floor representative in person of Dibia Marc-Ernest, a 200 level student of Human Kinetics.
The floor representatives are the legislative members of the hall as culled from the Nnamdi Azikwe Constitution. Chapter (4), section (20) subsection (8) of the constitution states that “each member of the (legislative) council shall be responsible for the well-being and complaints of members of his constituency”. In light of this, Dibia also functions as the deputy speaker of the present Zik Hall Legislative Council.
His performance as a floor representative has been assessed on the following metrics: the extent of his knowledge on his floor by his floor members, how accessible and available he has been to complaints on issues on his floor, and how he has been handling the maintenance of facilities on his floor.
How familiar is Dibia on His floor?
All the persons interviewed relayed to this reporter how familiar Dibia is as the floor representative. One of the respondents, Shalom (not real name) stated: “We communicate a lot. He is my friend. We have gone out to events, I don follow am go some places. I don’t really know him very well. I sha know he is friendly. He is someone you can go to with problems”
Another respondent who pleaded to have his identity withheld said he knows Dibia quite well but does not know him as the floor representative.
Also, another said he (Dibia) is not easily accessible because they stay on wings apart on the floor, although, he responds to issues on the floor appropriately.
How Responsive and Accessible Is He?
In terms of responsiveness, four of the respondents had positive things to say about him. However, one of them opined differently, as he mistook Fadaca (the incumbent Hall Secretary) as the floor representative of the floor due to his active reactions concerning issues on the floor.
A uniform story almost all the respondents relayed to us was the insistent issue of power cuts on the floor in the past few days.
One of them, who also prefers to hide his identity, said that in situations where there has been power outages on the floor, the Hall’s IPM, Adeniji Uthman, who also stays on the floor, and Fadaca, are the ones who respond the most, calling the necessary quarters for restoration of electricity power on the floor.
He narrated that “the fuse box has been short-circuiting”, but because Fadaca’s room, as opposed to Dibia’s, is in the part of the wing affected, the former has been mostly up and doing in this regards than Dibia.
In addition, one of the narrated his experience with theft on the floor and how Yamburger was the one who acted actively:
“On this floor, our room has been the room that has experienced the most issue of burglary, and during these periods, it’s always Yamburger we used to go and meet; let me say like 99 percent, it’s Yamburger”, he narrated.
His Attitude to Maintenance of Facilities?
The Nnamdi Azikwe Hall constitution in the same chapter (4), section (20), subsection (11), affirms that floor representatives “shall be responsible for the judicious use of the toilets, bathrooms, facilities on the floor and the floor of his constituency…”
While almost all of the respondents had similar things to say about Dibia’s responsiveness, their opinions about his maintenance of facilities differ.
Ayodele Lewis, a 100 level student of Microbiology, who is one of the people we approached feels Dibia is performing well in terms of maintenance of toilets and bathrooms. He explained to this reporter how Dibia allotted toilets to rooms, which he (Lewis) thinks will debar strangers from inappropriate use of the toilets.
One of them thinks the toilets smell badly but feels it is a general problem with toilets in Zik Hall generally.
Also, one of the anonymous respondents pointed to the fact that most of the bins are not actual bins, they are just buckets placed there by members of the floor to serve as makeshifts since there are no actual bins on the floor.
While they mostly had positive remarks about the toilets and bathrooms, they had contrasting opinion about the kitchenette, most especially, the washing hand-basin.“…but the kitchenette is mostly clogged”, said, one of them. He also averred that he has never reported the issue of the washing hand-basin to the floor representative.
On the same issue, Lewis thinks it is mostly the faults of the users of the hand-basins for its deplorable state, as they pour food residue in them, which then blocks the pipes and prevents the free passage of waste water.
Lewis also stated that Dibia put cautious warning signs on washing basin. He however thinks he (Dibia) can level up by putting in place some close supervision to catch defaulters.
A meet with Dibia
Most of the opinions of the A3 floor members that Dibia represents were tabled before him and he had some things to say:
First, on the issue of power cuts that affected one wing on the floor, Dibia vindicated himself. He narrated to this reporter that he did not find out in time. According to him, most of the rooms on his floor put off their lights at night, so, he was unable to know when they had power cuts, and it was not proper for him to be entering the rooms, asking the reason why their room lights are out. He said he only got to know about the power issue after Yamburger informed him of it. He also explained that the persistence of the power issue was as a result of the school maintenance refusing to show up in time when he tabled his floor’s power issues to them.
Addressing the issue of the messy washing basins, he clarified that he frequently pleaded with the cleaners to wash it, but they mostly complain of the unavailability of soap. He also said that to aid his availability to floor issues, he created a whatsapp group for the floor, but despite his various attempts to strike conversations on the group, the responsiveness of his members on the group has always been nonchalant.
