Comr. Bala handover speech: I feel fulfilled to have done my bit

The Chairman of the ELCOM, the ELCOM members, my workaholic executives, distinguished comrades, ladies and gentlemen. I welcome you all to one of the historic transition in the history of Ihima Students' union.

Comrade Isah Amoto Bala

I will start by appreciating the favour of Allah who sustain us from January last year to this present moment, and make the excruciating task of Ihima Students' Union easy for us.

It's true that whatever has a beginning must surely has an end. It could be recalled that this administration came on board on 3rd January 2017 and today I will be relieved as Ihima Students' Union leader.

Though it was quite challenging and the road through which we navigate to this present moment has not been a smooth one but with the unalloyed support of my resilient executives and our members, we were able to stamp our feet on the sand of time.

We took over ISU on a zero account and we've been able to open an account for the union, sustain our traditional career talk, give scholarship to 35 pupils, and organised spelling bee, quiz and debating competitions; the grand finale which remains an unprecedented educational programme in the history of our dear land.

While we were awash with accolades from different quarters, we refused to let it becloud our set goals and we strived further to publish the second edition of Epoch Magazine with best quality you can find anywhere in the world.
We capped this with an online programme to keep in touch with our students in different high institutions of learning.

We were able to acquaint our students with historical events in Ebiraland in our Friday's online programme (Did You Know), our students were also motivated to make the history part of their work lives through our Saturday's online programme (ISU Weekly Quiz) as we motivate the winners with airtime sufficient for weekly routine and at the same time touch the lives of our students through our Sunday's online programme (Education Talk) by giving out topical issues for discussion.
All these programmes cost us more than a million naira.

Today I will be handing over a redefined and reformed ISU. We did not owe for incoming administration to settle, but we will be living a reasonable amount of money in the union's account and over hundred thousand naira as pledges which we will facilitate to be deposited in the union's account before the end of January.

On Ihima library project, we've drawn out a location plan and we went to map out the land with the land surveyor of Okehi Local Government few weeks ago. The formal approval is still in progress and in due time the certificate of ownership will be handed over to the incoming administration.

We wouldn't have achieved this milestone without the support of our members, my selfless executives who placed the union's interest above their personal interest and the good people of Ihima and other parts of Ebiraland whose love for education led us this far.

We see leadership as a call to serve humanity and as such we try to give it our best and today we feel fulfilled to have done our bit. I will seize to be ISU president today but by the grace of God, I will never seize to be an active member and always render my support to the growth of the union at any point in time.

I advise the incoming administration to sustain the aforementioned innovations and achievements and work hard to surpass it.

This speech will be incomplete without acknowledging the laudable roles played by the Director General Kogi State Bureau of Information and Grassroots Sensitisation, Mr. Abdulmalik Abdulkarim who solely sponsored all our competitions and scholarship programme, and all those who have contributed to our success, it's our earnest prayer that God will reward you all in manifolds.

Thanks

Comrade Isah Amoto Bala, Out-going President, Ihima Students' Union.