On Tuesday evening, after an unusually short Congress Meeting, the Elections Timeline Bill, 2024 was passed into law after being enacted by the Senate last Sunday. The Bill was authored and sponsored by Senator Adesola of the 500 Level class and sought to alter the constitutionally stipulated timeline guiding the next set of elections and the end of the 2022/2023 Executive Council Tenure.
Why The Bill?
Firstly, the Constitution has a clearly stipulated provision for the timing of elections as highlighted below;
Chapter Six, Article XXIII, Section 1 states that “All elections to the Association’s Executive Council, Senate and Congress shall be held at the latest two (2) months before the commencement of the final MBBS examination, but the Senate shall have power to extend this period by not more than two (2) weeks if it finds the period inconvenient.“
The final year exams are currently slated for May and with the Health Week taking place in the first week of March, it is quite clear that the constitutional stipulation can not work. The next logical question is – Why is the health week taking place so close to the final year exams?
The Executive Council gave several reasons for this, including difficulties in securing funds, and the uncertainty surrounding the date of the final year MB. Apart from these, there was unavailability of several members of the health week planning committee in the 300 level class who were writing their first MB. All this led to the decision to schedule the Health week for its current date.
Now how does the timing of the Health Week affect the Elections?
For quite obvious reasons, the Executive Council has to be dissolved before the elections can be held – this is also a stipulated condition in the constitution. Chapter Six, Article XXVI mandates this by stating “The Executive Council shall be dissolved not later than three weeks before the date of the elections in a Senate meeting summoned for that purpose.”
However, the Executive Council cannot be dissolved before the Health Week. This is because they, especially the Vice-President, are in charge of planning and executing all the events that make up the Health Week. This means that the Health Week must be held before the dissolution of the Executive Council and before any elections can be held, barring any extenuating circumstances.
What Does the Bill Change?
The Bill alters the timeline by reducing the required time between the Elections and the commencement of the final year exams by a month. To put it in the same words of the Bill – The elections to the Association’s Executive Council, Senate and Congress shall be held at least one (1) month before the commencement of the final MBBS examination in the 2022/2023 tenure, but the Senate shall have power to extend this period by not more than two (2) weeks if it finds the period inconvenient.” It is important to note that this bill is binding for the 2022/2023 tenure alone, after which the constitutional provision comes back into effect.
Unfortunately, the enactment of this bill is not without its drawbacks. Pushing the elections so close to the final year exams has the possibility to affect the preparations of actively participating members of the final year class. Due to the peculiarities of this tenure (read: economic instability of the country), it appears to be a necessary measure to ensure the continuity of our Association’s leadership.
– Osisiogu Onyinyechi
