The Inactivity of political activities in AASA: Covid 19 pandemic is to blame

The political sector is one very important sector in every society and the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology of the University of Ibadan is not to be exempted.

The Political sector of the department is necessary to ensure the orderliness in the activities that concern the student is ensured and they act as a voice for the students in the department. This vibrant sector of the department in its activities has been inactive due to the pandemic, having had the last election for executives in the 2018/2019 session before the pandemic.

On 31 December 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) was formally notified about a cluster of cases of pneumonia in Wuhan City, home to 11 million people and the cultural and economic hub of central China called the Corona Virus. This disease is still existing and claiming lives till today with a new variant called the Delta variant. Although, there has been improvement with vaccines like Moderna and AstraZeneca.

The pandemic took a whole year from students, workers, etc, and we were all made to stay at home and follow the laid down guidelines to curtail the disease.  The University of Ibadan had to resume in February for the 2019/2020 session owing to the Covid pandemic and also the ASUU (Academic Staff Union of Universities) strike.  The Covid had to make the University make the decision of going virtual which is not the normal way the system is being run before the pandemic started as against face-to-face interactions.  This decision was taken to avoid the spread of the disease. This decision lead to the Inactivity of most political sectors in the University.  The hall of residence’s political sectors, for example, could not operate because students were not allowed to stay on campus, the same goes for faculties and departments.   Even the Students Union did not encourage large gatherings for its activities in a bid to follow the laid down rules of the University.  Communications to students were mostly done virtually through WhatsApp and Telegram groups. 

In the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, the executives of the 2018/2019 session are still in power even in the current 2019/2020 session, even some of the executives like the Vice President have graduated.   When the University decided to resume physically after spending months having classes virtually owing to the examinations.  Plans were made by the electoral committee of the department to elect new executives for the 2019/2020 session.  The plans were already being put into action until the electoral committee had to put all the plans on hold due to unknown reasons.  After examinations, the University allowed for both physical and virtual classes for the second semester.  The virtual and physical classes are to be determined by each department based on the size of the classes.  There have been no political activities since then until this week that the electoral committee sent broadcast messages to notify students to purchase forms and apply for their desired executive positions. 

         Hopefully, political activities will resume in full gear in the coming weeks, after being inactive for three years due to the pandemic.  I hope the whole electioneering process will be a peaceful one and bring smiles to the students of the department.