It was a chilly Friday afternoon, canopies had been erected and the student turnout was slowly gaining momentum around the Basketball court which was the proposed venue for the very first guild presidential debate of the KIU Western Campus that had been scheduled to start by 2pm.
All had been set and everyone was talking about one thing or another, from the just concluded faculty elections that had produced 31 MPs to the contenders of the Presidential seat that had firsts of many kinds. This election is meant to produce either the first female President or the first international student President both students of the Faculty of Clinical Medicine and Dentistry or the first president from the Faculty of Allied Health Sciences since the guild was reinstated in 2014.
There were many hopefuls from the feminists and international students’ community all gathered at the venue when the chairs that had been set were being packed up, and three hours later from the proposed kick off time all that could be heard was the music from the DJ who seemed to be the only excited person in the arena as students were running out of patience and beginning to ask questions and sadly there was no one to address them.
Just as it had been gained, the student turnout began dwindling slowly as news of the cancellation of the debate and election began to spread. It was gathered that there was a kind of conflict between the trio of the Presidential candidates, the Independent Electoral Commission and the Varsity’s top management on grounds of the CGPA required for to be eligible for nominations and also questions regarding the eligibility of a Diploma student to contest for the seat of the presidency.
Whereas the IEC had published 2.5, the management sticks to 3.5 which is said to be in the constitution of KIU. Candidates have argued that KIU being a multinational and multi-site University should not have the same CGPA requirement for all campuses especially the medical students’ campus where having such a CGPA means scoring an average of 70 a hard feat for a student in medical school.
The IEC had published a notice yesterday apologizing to students for inconveniences and stating that the dates for the Presidential debate as well as the Presidential election will be announced.
Today May 24, the Deputy Vice Chancellor of the Campus will be deciding the fate of the candidates as well as the guild. A nullification would amount to lost time and resources alongside hopes that will be dashed against the wall.
All fingers are crossed and most tightly are those of the aspirants whom at the end of today will know their fate.
By Yeshua Essien
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