When I was appointed as the acting president of the National Association of Kogi State Students (NAKOSS), everyone that knew me on campus celebrated with me.
NAKOSS is a national body for Kogi students nationwide, but I was appointed the acting president of my university chapter.
There was a major problem leading to the election of the president of the association. The university, in its wisdom, suspended the election indefinitely. I was thereby appointed in an acting capacity to fill the vacant position.
The president's position was highly sought after, and the election to fill it was always characterized by desperation. After the candidates wrote many petitions and counter-petitions against each other, the election was suspended.
"This is a great responsibility placed on our shoulders. I never dreamed of becoming president in any capacity by now. All I wanted to do was conduct a credible election for the vacant leadership positions of our noble association. Let's use this opportunity to redeem our battered image," I told the four caretaker members appointed with me to oversee the affairs of the association.
I was the chairman of the electoral committee that was to conduct the election. The committee was a five-member one, which I chaired. Upon the suspension of the election, the university authority appointed the five of us as the executive leaders of the association in an acting capacity. Our mandate was to stabilize the association and conduct the election when the atmosphere was conducive enough to do that.
"Mr. President, we are ready to give you the necessary support to change the association for the better," Ephraim responded to me.
The other three members corroborated his statement.
The first litmus test was the payment of the government's bursary to the members of the association. I was in my room a few weeks after my inauguration when my phone rang, and the woman on the other side of the phone introduced herself as the executive secretary of the bursary board. She told me that she would be coming to my university the following week to disburse the bursary to the beneficiaries.
"Get ready with your team for the exercise. When I arrive, I will call you to join me in my hotel to chat about the way forward to having hitch-free exercise."
"Alright Ma. We will be on the ground to welcome you. We will give you the maximum cooperation," I assured her.
I called for the meeting of my executive members immediately to inform them about the conversation I had with the executive secretary of the bursary board.
"Congratulations, president. It is our time to enjoy," Ephraim told me, grinning over his face.
"It is our time to serve," I responded to him very snappily.
I didn't understand what Ephraim meant by enjoyment. However, it came to my mind that he was one of the elected executives whose tenure elapsed. The president of that team bought a car immediately the bursary was paid during their time. Everyone was highly suspicious of where he got the money from.
"If this is what Ephraim meant by enjoyment, I am waiting to see everything unfold," I told myself.
The following week, the bursary board secretary brought the money from the Lokoja, the state capital to the university as promised. She came along with the document containing the list of beneficiaries.
She invited me to her hotel that evening. I arrived at the hotel to a surprising welcome. Fruits, expensive wine, and intercontinental dishes ordered from the hotel restaurant shocked me at the reason behind such spending.
Without wasting time, she brought out the document and told me what I needed to know about the mode of payment.
"Mr. President, I know you are an understanding leader who is ready to make things work," the woman, who was clad in millions of Naira worth of clothes and gold jewelry, stated her statement.
I nodded in response with a signal for her to continue her speech.
"This document contains about 3000 names. We are going to pay for it while you and I share the money meant for the rest of the 1500 students in the ratio of 30:70, respectively."
My mouth was wide open. Her confidence in saying it without her voice shaking shocked me.
"I know you would wonder how we are going to select the 1500 students to be paid," she continued. "We will select pages of this document randomly to be pasted for beneficiaries to check their names and claim their bursaries. Anyone who doesn't see his name would be informed that his name was considered for the bursary from the headquarters."
For a few minutes, I was short on what to say.
"Are you not talking, Mr. President?" She asked me.
"My interest is for all the beneficiaries to be paid. The blame of whoever is denied his bursary would be on my head. If no one knows, Almighty God knows. Let's pay everyone, please."
"This is the norm. I have been paying this bursary for the state for the last fifteen years across universities. Don't stress the process. This is the tradition."
"Do you mean doing the normal thing is now to be taken as stressing the system? This is unheard of, Ma."
Hajia wasn't pleased with my response and my insistence that everyone get paid.
I left the hotel without any agreement being reached. I summoned the meeting of the members of my team. I explained everything to them and demanded their input on the way forward.
"Let's cooperate with the woman and do this thing. Are you allergic to money?" Ephraim asked.
"I am allergic to money that is not legally mine," I responded to him.
All my fellow executive members advised me to do the woman's bidding.
"Instead of denying some people their money, the bursary would be taken back to the state the way it was brought," I told them before walking out of the meeting.
I decided to take the road less traveled to protect my integrity.
When my life was being threatened, I went incommunicado.
Hajia had no option but to take the money back to Lokoja because the system was structured in such a way that I had to sign a document before and after the payment.
I emerged from my hiding afterwards and called for a congress meeting. I briefed the members of the association on everything that happened and told them to go to Lokoja to get their bursaries.