The Inauguration Speech of Pantu Fwanshak SUG President Unijos 2018/2019 Session

I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices born by our founding fathers. I thank President Samson Luka Haruna for his service to our union, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.
From the year I stepped into this university, inaugurations have been carried out during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, SUG University of Jos has carried on not because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because “We” the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.
That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our Union is at war, against a far-reaching network of disunity and hatred. Our collective conscience is badly weakened, not solely a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some of our leaders, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the SUG UNIJOS for a new age.
It is not a gainsaying that the challenges we face are real. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, they will be met. On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord. On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled not just our union but our politics.
We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal.
Our domicile is filled up with a lot of questions to answer. The state of our hostels calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act — not only to ensure constant supply of needs, but to lay a new foundation for sustainability. We will build the roads and bridges using legal bricks to work in consensus of mind with the management. We will establish a solid podium for needs assessments through partnership with the faculty Presidents. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to blaze the spirit of the struggle and common brotherhood.
To those who never get leery of questioning the scale of our ambitions — who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.
What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them — that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether the SUG President is brave enough to lead protest, but whether he is smart enough to take proactive measures to curtail such tendencies.
As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted the tenets to shape our value system through the basic principle of UBUNTU (I am, because you are). Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake.
Under the shadows of the fallen heroes of the struggle, I stand today to assert with all sense of responsibility that we are the custodians of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort — even greater cooperation and understanding between the Students and the Union, and between the Union and the Management. We will begin to responsibly foster mutual understanding and forge love with old friends a