STATEMENT OF THE EDUCATION RIGHTS CAMPAIGN (ERC), OAU BRANCH CEC GRAFT: NON PAYMENT OF SUBVENTION TO HECs AND MISAPPROPRIATION OF UNION FUNDS IS UNACCEPTABLE IBIKUNLE-LED CEC SHOULD RELEASE AT LEAST N930, 000 SUBVENTION FOR THE 8 HALLS OF RESIDENCE WE CONDEMN THE IDEA OF A “CONTRACT-AWARDING”-STUDENTS’ UNION UNION SHOULD TAKE UP POOR WELFARE AND MASS FAILURE The Central Executive Council (CEC) has continued to deny Halls of residence their rights to “at least fifteen percent of the CEC budget” as stated in the constitution of the Students’ Union (Section 41, Sub section 3). Between August 2014 and January 2015, the Students’ Union has received a total funding of N6.2 million from the University management and bank balance of the previous union leadership led by F-Jay. From simple arithmetic, the Hall Executive Councils of the eight halls of residence are entitled to N930, 000 of N6.2 million. Despite SRC resolutions on 12th January 2014 that the CEC should pay up before 72 hours, the Ibikunle-led CEC has continuously refused to pay this subvention. The argument of the CEC for non-payment of this subvention is that the union could not pay on the basis that it executed certain projects. We find this argument so flimsy as well as absurd, because all the projects purportedly executed by this administration can never gulp up N6.2 million. To make the situation more suspicious, the CEC, through the Financial Secretary, informed the parliament that the Union has only N400, 000 left in her account. We in the ERC suspect that gargantuan fraud and misappropriation is deeply rooted in the Ibikunle-led CEC administration. The ERC support the demand of HECs for immediate release of their rightful subvention. And we call on mass of students, especially from the eight halls of residence, to support their Hall executives in demanding for the legitimate funds of their halls – because this fund was generated majorly from the N300 union due paid by each student as part of the school fees. Firstly the idea that union fund was diverted on “projects”, which are statutory responsibility of the university management, is inane and fraudulent. The university management has functioning departments and units – which are funded from the school fees of students as well as taxpayers’ money – and are responsible for provision of water and construction of roads, including bridges. If the university authority is not doing this, then it is looting or wasting the recent fees squeezed out of students’ pockets on profligacy. A pro-student, vibrant students’ union is expected to call for appropriate spending of university resources; instead of covering for the failures of the university management. For us in the ERC, we condemn outright the idea of project execution or awarding of contracts in Students’ Unionism. When union takes up projects on behalf of authorities responsible for such, the motivation for this is mostly self-serving. Inflation of actual cost of projects, kickbacks and outright looting are accompanying consequences. For instance, the Ibikunle-led CEC claimed it spent N358, 000 on the two mini-walkway bridges situated respectively around Faj-Awo and Faj-Sports. By estimate, each bridge is worth N179, 000: this was probably spent in dream of the CEC members. We have no doubt that if this union leadership is investigated by mass of students or the Congress of Great Ife Students’ Union, then unprecedented scale of looting may be uncovered. The focus of the union leadership on money-related issues, rather than the education rights and interests of union members, is causing students great difficulties. Water supply in the university, aside being dirty and dangerous, is not stable – students in Angola Hall for instance move as far as Quarters to get pipe borne water. In the classrooms, students are confronted with mass failure in some of the last semester’s results that have been released so far. Most times, some lecturers derive happiness from mass failures, while unfriendly academic conditions are catalyst of mass failure in certain cases. Yet the union is unready to take these imperative issues up, but it is ever ready to build “diamond castles” in the sky for students. We encourage mass of students to get involved in the ongoing campaign for probity, priority and sanity in the Great Ife students’ Union. The ERC also advise the Hall Executive Councils to carry their hall members along in the struggle to demand for their rightful subvention. It is also our view that the HEC should not limit their demand to obtaining subvention, because at that it is selfish. If monumental misappropriation is going on in the Union as it is being indicated, then the HECs, who are also representing mass of students’ in the parliament, should join in the call for a Congressional probe of the Students’ Union finances. The Education Rights’ Campaign believes that unless the tradition of impunity is stopped in the union, the Students’ Union would continue to militate against the interest of mass of students. We are aware of the argument in certain quarters that mass of students should not be concerned with probing the Students’ Union executives, because the SRC has a Budget and Finance (B&F) Committee which has been designated with such function. This argument is mischievous and criminally-inclined because the same B&F committee ratified an outrageous N305, 000 for the two bridges in the first instance. This same B&F committee helped the C.E.C – whose finances they were supposed to be vetting – in appealing to the H.E.C to accept a token of what the C.E.C has left of the funds they’ve spent. More so, the parliament as whole ratified this criminal budget under coercive and undemocratic circumstances as gallerians were not allowed entrance to the parliamentary sitting. It seems now that the SRC as well as the CEC are partners in crime. A Congress of all students should delegate the function of this investigation to a committee of Congress for a timed investigation of the union financial activities. The ERC will continue to support mass of Great Ife students in their struggle to reclaim the once-vibrant Great Ife Students’ Union from the current profiteers smashing its values and principles. Even at that, the role of mass of students in this struggle is important. ALUTA CONTINUA… VICTORIA ASCERTA Signed, HON. IBK Ag. Secretary
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 09:13:58 +0000