The social media was literally on fire last week when the story about the Students Union executives and legislators at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife was reported in the Punch of September 15. The paper reported that the executives presented a budget of N1, 837, 550 to make official phone calls between August, 2015 and January, 2016. Nigerians were furious online.
According to the paper, it relied on a copy of the Students Union budget made available to it which was debated by members of the student representative council two days before the publication of the story. It added that the leaders also had a separate budget for internet facilities and sending of bulk Short Message Service (SMS).
The sum, which did not include the one for purchase of phones, was budgeted by the leadership of the central executive council and students’ representative council led by Mr. Omotayo Akande and Mr. Adebari Aare. Others are the clerk, deputy speaker, halls of residence executives, chairmen and secretary of transport, judicial, and budget and finance committees. The students union leaders, who in all budgeted N26, 090, 469 for their various needs, are expecting an income of about N15million.
A breakdown of the budget showed that the speaker, Mr. Adebari Aare, proposed to spend N232, 500 for official phone calls for 310 days, while the president of the union also proposed to make calls for 180 days with N108, 000. Among other items that surfaced on the president’s budget were fueling at the cost of N270, 000; bus maintenance, N300, 000; ‘intervention’, N300, 000; and security vote, N300, 000.
Also contained in the speaker’s budget is welfare costing N217, 000; long journey and short journey accommodation, N1, 250, 000; long and short journey trip, N500, 000 among others. However, the paper reported that the Chairman, Budget and Finance Committee, Mr. Abayomi Samuel, said the budget “had not been approved.” His committee also has a budget of N114, 000 for phone calls. “Some of the expenses,” he stated “had been reduced.”
Wow! We are really living in interesting times. Like some Nigerians who reacted to the story, I wasn’t aware that student leaders now run this kind of budgets. This goes to show the impact our ways of doing things has affected virtually every facet of our society; even the spiritual is not spared.
Going by the estimate, the expected revenue is N15 million but the student leaders intend to spend N26 million thus leaving a deficit of N11 million. That would be a deficit of about 70 percent! If the leadership of a student union begins to think they should spend money they don’t intend to earn, mostly on frivolous expenditure, is anyone then in doubt that we are already in “deep deep trouble,” (apologies to one of my former lecturers)?
I definitely did not miss out the sum of N300,000 as “security vote” and another N300,000 for “intervention.” The import of those proposed allocations is that the chairman wants to spend money that would not be accounted for. In governance and political parlance in Nigeria “security vote” and others like “ecological fund” are areas that have been abused in the past – in essence; few actually question how the funds are expended. I still recollect vividly how a late political godfather queried on live television why he should not have a fair chunk of the “security vote” of his state since he plays a pivotal role in containing his ever restless constituency.
What, I may ask, is the meaning of the N1.25 million voted for “long journey and short journey accommodation” and “long and short journey trip”? My investigation revealed that when student leaders travel to another institution of learning these days they no longer sleep on such campuses but rather sleep in the best hotels in the town. By so doing, they miss out on the peculiarities of the campus in question.
An ex-student leader told me that most of the leaders travel with a retinue of female “aides” hence the need to sleep in the best hotels in town. And then what can one say about those scandalous sums of money voted for telephone calls?
I find it extremely disturbing that student leaders would generate this sort of reckless, indeed irresponsible budget proposal. Ironically, it’s a microcosm of the ills of governance in Nigeria. Where do we start to root out the evil? How do they intend to finance the budget deficit of N11 million? Will they go a borrowing or seek for bail-out funds from the institution’s authority?
Remember these are the youths that Nigerians are hoping to see as tomorrow’s leaders. What good leadership will these students give to the people when they finally become tomorrow’s leaders? That’s why it is important to fight corruption from the grassroots. These student union leaders are already grooming themselves to become monsters when they finally take up public service.
I was also made to understand that the union leadership may have done their “homework” very well with credible data from the accounts department. They already know the total amount that will accrue to students union’s account from the union dues to be paid by both new and returning students’ at the beginning of the academic session. Perhaps that was why they made a budget of N26million when they already know that N15million revenue will be generated. What it means is that the present SUG will definitely loot the treasury and make sure nothing is left at the end of their tenure. What is being replicated here is what is actually happening in our polity.
What I equally find worrying about the report was that the students in the school are divided in over this issue. How can, and why should they, be divided over this issue? I expect them to be unified in opposing this highly questionable act by their executives. This is where our problem as a society really lays – our society’s inability to effectively evolve a critical unified public opinion backed up with actions to check dishonesty amongst public office holders.
These were the same students who reportedly stoned the convoy of former President Goodluck Jonathan who they accused of running a corrupt government. Now they’ve given us a bird’s eye view of the sordid affairs that is a recurring decimal in student leadership these days. Little wonder that their elections now have all the trappings of elections in the “real world.” I was told by a student that some candidates even go to the extent of kidnapping candidates of “opposition parties” before the day of election.
I don’t think it will come as a shock to many that the government is now fully involved in election matters on our campuses. In the last political dispensation, we saw how student leaders became “endorsement consultants” as they arranged their colleagues to be at the forefront of anointing political candidates contesting various elections.
A few questions would suffice here: how did things become this terrible? When did we get to a situation where mediocrity had an upper hand over competence and capacity? Where exactly did we miss our steps? Can this situation be remedied or we should, like some have said, resign to fate that it is the will of God for us? I am asking these questions from a myriad of questions against the backdrop of barefaced stories of corruption we hear on a daily basis.
At the back of my mind, I know the answers are not far-fetched; we’ve lost touch with that core societal values without which a society collapses. We no longer see reasons why things should be done the right way. It’s now “old-fashioned, archaic and retrogressive” to imbibe decorum in our daily engagements. We seem to be in a hurry to always get things done the wrong way.
If it were in climes where people face facts head-on, citizens would have long hit the streets to draw attention to their woes. We are so comfortable in our dealings that whatever befalls is seen as what God has destined for us. A building that does not follow laid down plans collapses and we say it’s the will of God, a container crushes people to death, it’s still part of God’s will etc. President Buhari hits the bull’s eye some months ago when he said if we don’t kill corruption, corruption will kill us.
