OAU Student Union Leaders Budget N1.8m For ‘Official’ Phone Calls

OAU-360x269Student Union executives and legislators at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, have proposed to spend N1, 837, 550 to make official phone calls between August, 2015 and January, 2016, a copy of their budget has revealed.

The leaders also had a separate budget for internet facilities and sending of bulk Short Message Service.

The sum, which did not also 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 respectively.

Others are the clerk, deputy speaker, halls of residence executives, chairmen and secretary of transport, judicial, and budget and finance committees.

The student union leaders, who in totality budgeted a total of N26, 090, 469 for their various needs, are expecting a revenue of about N15m.

A breakdown of the budget, which was debated by members of the OAU Student Representative Council on Sunday evening, 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 fuelling at the cost of N270,000; bus maintenance, N300, 000; ‘intervention’, N300, 000; and security vote, N300, 000.

The speaker’s budget contained expenditure such as welfare – N217, 000; long journey and short journey accommodation – N1, 250, 000; long and short journey trip – N500, 000 among others.

When contacted, the Chairman, Budget and Finance Committee, Mr. Abayomi Samuel, said the budget had not been approved.

Samuel, whose committee also budgeted N114, 000 for official phone calls, however, pointed out that some of the expenses had been reduced.