By Ibrahim Joenal Sesay
FREETOWN, June 24 (232News) – Student of the Fourah Bay College (FBC) have elected Adama Sillah as the first female Students’ Union President of that institution after 194 years of male domination.
In a re-run election Adama Sillah emerged winner after scoring 257 votes against her rivals Binta Jalloh 92 and Henry Kumbalay 23.
Below is the acceptance speech of the Presidential Elect Adama Sillah:
Colleagues all, it is with great pride and humility that I stand before you today on this hallowed mountain and our nation’s citadel of academia, to accept the honour to serve as your President for the 2021-2022 academic year.
Today, by every measure, is a historic day. It is a day that will go down in history as the day Fourah Bay College truly turned a corner; the moment it embraced equality and leveled the playing field. Once again, you have proven to be the harbinger of change in our country. This, too, shall echo in greater Freetown and the corridors of power.
And so, from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank you for your support, for trusting my leadership abilities, for seeing in me, not a woman, but a leader and for judging me, not by what I am, but by the content of my character.
Thank you very much Fourah Bay College. For your trust and faith in me, on this most memorable day, I want to solemnly promise you that I will do everything in my power to mend the cracks and crevices that have so stridently eroded the fabric of our union, to serve you diligently, selflessly and impartially.
I promise not to rest until our union is perfected, until our work here is done; your welfare is maximized, and address everyone of those challenges that bothered me so much that I was inspired to run for this office.
Fourabites, we have got so much work to do. Electing me as your President is just the beginning. So I am telling you now that I going to need you to come along with me in this great journey we are about to embark on. I need you , and I mean, every student of this great institution, with me every step of the way. It is the only way we can move and most certainly, the only way we can conquer.
To those of you who voted against me, I respect your decision and I salute you for keeping our democracy alive and thriving. I would work everyday of my Presidency to earn you trust. I assure you, I will be your President too.
To my opponents, I extend an invitation for solidarity and collaboration. Please work with me to make this place a better place for all of us and to strengthen our union. You have shown yourselves as leaders, and I am going to need all of you if I am to succeed. Thank you for your role in solidifying our democracy.
What you have done today is monumental and its significance will reverberate into the future. And this generation of Fourabites shall be remembered as a progressive generation, one that set the progressive bandwagon of Fourah Bay College in motion. It will take us some time to fully comprehend the significance of what we have achieved here today. Until then, let us all celebrate this victory. Let us surrender to the euphoria and savour the moment. And tomorrow let us to go work.
Thank you very much and God bless our Union. Adama Sillah, President Elect FBC Students’ Union.
