By: Jolaoso JOHN

Barely a week after handing over the mantle of leadership of the Senate arm of the department (NAPSS). In this interview with Jolaoso JOHN, Sen. Adekoya AMINAT shared her opinion on an array of topics ranging from leadership, experiences in office and advice to her successor. Here is what she has to say.

POSSPRESS: Can we meet you madam?
SEN. AMINAT: Good evening, I’m Aminat the immediate past Senate President of NAPSS (National Association of Political Science Students), University of Ibadan chapter.

POSSPRESS: Being in a leadership position requires a lot of sacrifice, as the immediate NAPSS Senate President, what sacrifices was worth making for the sake of NAPSS?
SEN. AMINAT: Every sacrifice was actually worth making for the sake of NAPSS, to make sure that the administration was an itch free one, even though on several occasions Senator’s clamoured for impeachment and suspension. I had to make the Staff Adviser intervene in some issues just to calm our nerves down and I think, that is one of the best sacrifices.

POSSPRESS: There is always something good and bad to say about an administration, what were the challenges you faced and how did you solve them?
SEN. AMINAT: There is no administration without challenges but most of the challenges we faced was as a result of the President not succumbing to the verdict of the Senate House. But glory be to God the administration has come and gone. We were able to solve them though – should I say the preference of the Senate house and not taking drastic actions against them because if we did the administration might not have been this way. We are glad everything went smoothly that is the most important thing.

POSSPRESS: While serving the association, did you ever at a point thought of giving up?

SEN. AMINAT: You know in every organisation, regardless of what the organisation is all about, when you get to a stage and you feel like the responsibilities, expectations or roles you are performing is being thwarted by individuals because of their personal ways of doing something, and you tend to get tired and fed up. But just like the saying that you never give up with anything you still strive to the end. There are times like that when you get angry and you are like what is the meaning of this rubbish, I tried to do this thing then someone else comes to thwart it and everything, but at the end you give glory to God. It was worth it because even though there were challenges and bad times I have actually learnt a lot from the office. So i am equally grateful to God for going through those challenges because it has helped my personal being and development.

POSSPRESS: What inspired you to keep moving?
SEN. AMINAT: The yoruba saying that a good name is better than riches or wealth. So I wanted to finish it to the line, making sure that things went right under my name.

POSSPRESS: If you were given an opportunity again to serve as a Senate President somewhere else, would you take the position and why?
SEN. AMINAT: Just like I said, I have learnt some lessons from my former office, so taking a new position of such would depend on which organization and what surrounds the co-operative entities in that organization.

POSSPRESS: What were the things people said concerning your administration that you were pleased with and not pleased with?
SEN. AMINAT: Since no one said anything to my face, I would say I heard rumors of the Senate being against the Executive Council and always looking for loopholes to blame the executives. Generally, I am pleased with what people say because I get to work on my shortcomings from those talks.

POSSPRESS: So what were the shortcomings you worked on?
SEN. AMINAT: To mention a few, it helped me in team management, carrying my principal officers opinion in any of my decisions and I also stopped the habit of trying to satisfy everyone which is impossible and detrimental to myself.

POSSPRESS: What do you think needs improvement in the legislature?
SEN. AMINAT: Firstly Senator’s need to leave their biases and personal relations outside the House. As far as the legislators continue to be subjective in their dealings, there can be no way forward for that organization because the truth would refuse to be told in the face of wrong.

POSSPRESS: You know of the new Senate President, what can you say about him, and what is your advice to him?
SEN. AMINAT: Hmmm! I can only trust him to lead the Senate House well. He worked in the last administration and all the Senator’s during my administration were amazing, so I trust he would be fair and objective.

POSSPRESS: At the last Senate sitting, a motion to cancel the debts of the Executive Council was moved and accepted, this led to a conflict between the outgoing president and a Senator, your comments concerning this?
SEN. AMINAT: Firstly, I would say it was actually disheartening that an hallowed chamber of such would have such incident occurring. I know that one of the reasons as regard this was because of everybody’s personal interest (opinion) the Senator and the outgoing president got into an argument because they all had different opinions and although that was not the best way to have settled it, it actually ended up ensuring into a fight and it wasn’t good to say. But thank God we were able to control it after about ten minutes when the House got back and continued the session. What I have to say as regards that is, just like I said at the sitting, the debt of the Executive Council was not the problem. The problem is, you can’t use the money belonging to an organisation without informing them. So you coming to tell them after you have used it, no organisation will accept that, you are supposed to tell them before hand that you need the money and they are to give you willingly. Not that you spend it and you come to the House to tell the us that you have spent the money belonging to the organisation. So that was actually what caused the fight as regards debt and everything. Though just like the Executive said, it was for “NAPSSites, the debt was incurred for programmes done for “NAPSSites”, everything is for “NAPSSites”, including the legislators sitting down. All in all it was the different personal interest that actually caused that and we have actually tried to manage it so far. It was actually just painful that it was at the last sitting, where I thought I was able to control and manage the affairs of my House till the very last sitting but we thank God we were still able to continue, that did not stop the sitting, that did not make it come to an end. We were still able to achieve our aim and our agenda of the sitting.

POSSPRESS: Finally, can you state your full name and what you have to say to NAPSSites?

SEN. AMINAT: Adekoya Omotunde Aminat; the best thing that an association can have is constituent parts unity. Organizations within association needs to be accorded due respect to perform expected roles because it is only when the parts functions well, that the whole system can function properly.

POSSPRESS: Thank you very much madam for this privilege and time sacrificed for the sake of NAPSS.