By KG
With these words, Omotosho David Ayomide opened his manifesto for Vice chairman candidacy. And, after eight months, with the tenure of Team Sustainability finally winding down, one can objectively confirm that this is how this is how he has treated his office – flippantly and without any impact whatsoever. According to the Nnamdi Azikiwe Hall’s constitution, the vice hall chair “shall assist the Hall chairman in the performance of the functions and duties of the office.” It further states that the vice hall chair shall in the absence of all Hall chairman exercise all the functions and powers of the office, and this goes to prove one thing – the hall chair and vice hall chair share an equal amount of responsibility in how woeful and underwhelming the outgoing administration has been.
When we needed him the most…
In his manifesto, Mr. Omotosho David promised to refine, rejuvenate and rebrand the Zik Hall’s supporters club. While this is not a novel initiative as the supporters club is constitutionally supposed to be under his office, he outlined plans on how he intends to go about this “rebranding” in his manifesto in which he claimed that he would work with the IPM to reeducate zikites, both old and new on the core values of Zikism. He also promised to organize more gyrations and events to rekindle the flames of pure Zikism. While these plans are, in the face of present realities, fickle and irrelevant, DaveAyo has successfully disappointed in areas where Zikites did not have much expectations.
Among all the Zikites interviewed for this report, the general consensus is that DaveAyo is not as socially vibrant as one might hope. Technically, one cannot be expected to give one does not have. And to be fair, all these social plans that DaveAyo listed have been executed despite his absence. But then, in his administration of the supporters club, he has been woeful. According to a member of the supporter’s club whose identity is concealed wherein, the supporter’s club has mobilized for gyrations in the hall and in other halls and they have also gone to cheer Zik Hall at events and outings. But DaveAyo has not been really active on their whatsapp group unlike his predecessor.
Clothesline: Commendable, but…
In his manifesto, DaveAyo identified a very annoying issue in Zik hall with the issue of insufficient clothesline and insufficient cloth spreading spaces. While this has contributed in no small way to cloth thievery, some of the previous administrations in the hall have consistently ignored it. DaveAyo on the other hand saw it as a problem worthy of intervention and went on with getting ropes for some of the cloth spreading spaces that otherwise did not have ropes. In his manifesto, he meant this to discourage Zikites from spreading their clothes on the lawn in front of the residential blocks.
However, his plan has not exactly yielded results because Zikites still spread their clothes on the ground as there are still not enough spreading spaces. Rather than creating more clotheslines to cater to the needs of the residents of the Hall like he promised, DaveAyo merely replaced the old ropes with new ropes in places where the ropes were weak.
Tradition Week?
In furtherance of his election campaign, DaveAyo promised to organize a Tradition week 2.0 to toe in the path of his predecessor. According to his manifesto, he intended to merge the traditional week with the Hall’s Diamond Jubilee celebration. The Diamond jubilee has come and gone, and the excitement which the first tradition week had could barely be felt in it. The novel events which the first tradition week had was not seen. It was not even indicated on the anniversary posters and fliers. Maybe that was the entire point of the merging that he proposed. Perhaps DaveAyo added this Tradition week to make his manifesto more voluminous, no one knows.
Where is Project Aqua?
A focal point in DaveAyo’s campaign which also proved to be an effective tactic was the idea of an Aqua Project. In the plan which he vividly explained in his manifesto, DaveAyo promised in his manifesto that he would facilitate the usage of existing storage tanks in the hall to ensure maximum efficiency. And he promised to do this within the first few weeks of the administration. This idea, if one is not being too critical, is a great idea as most of the tanks in the hall stand empty despite their capacity to effectively serve all the residents of the hall if they are restored to optimal level. However, whether he intends to still do it within the last few weeks of this outgoing administration or not remains to be seen.
He also promised the maintenance of existing pumping machines and installation of new ones to ensure that no block is left behind. Another great idea, but that’s just what it is, an idea. This is because DaveAyo did not deign to turn these ideas into constructive plans for effective implementation. Whether he actually had the capacity and resources to bring these plans to life is not the concern of this review as he was not coerced to make that promise.
As at the time of this publication, the water supply condition in Zik hall has taken an all time turn for the worse. Most of the tanks stand empty most of the time, especially the one in front of Block C and the ones at the back of Block A, while the rest have intermittent pumping issues. While it is conceded that there are a lot more technicalities involved in water supply (e.g the Awba dam tanks etc), the fact still remains that DaveAyo did not follow through with his promise.
That is not all. The Team Sustainability of which DaveAyo has been a part for more than seven months now has not been very impressive in their overall vision (which seems to be rather nonexistent) and their spontaneous response to issues affecting the welfare of Zikites in general. From issues on exorbitant charges by vendors in zik hall, to electricity issues, to water issues, and septic spillage, the responses of the hall chair and his vice, DaveAyo to these issues has portrayed the executive as powerless individuals. With time gradually ticking down for their crop of executives, it is hoped that things will still go on as smoothly as possible, for their sakes and for the sake of zik hall as a whole.
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