Hell has three gates: lust, anger and greed
As it seems, the executive council of the students union, University of Ibadan or rather, the individuals in charge of the organization of the Students’ Union week are metaphorically plying the third gate to hell.
The chairman of the committee overseeing the Students Union week, last week was in the hallowed chambers of the Students Representative Council to request the approval of her signed skyscraping budget.
The mouth-watering and soul-wrecking budget is divided into 10 broad sections. The sections include Proposed Budget for UISU Carnival, Proposed Budget for ASUN Night, Proposed Budget for All Sports, Proposed Budget for Cooking Competition, Proposed Budget for Ivory King & Queen Pageant, Proposed Budget for Campus Blast, Proposed Budget for SU Dinner & Awards, Proposed Budget for SU Week Publicity/Awareness, Proposed Budget for SU Healthy Day and Miscellaneous Budget.
That Miss Akpa Chidinma P. bears the intent of giving the generality of the University of Ibadan students’ populace the best and most glamorous event or series of events that will be memorable for years to come isn’t the cause of my disharmony. However, the figures that parade selves as amounts to be expended at these programmes are what make the average man to weep for the present crop of future or today’s leaders.
The legislative house, headed by Rt. Hon. Egunjobi Ife, in its usual manner were prompt to act by reducing the sums and thus eliminating some portions of the corruption-marred piece of papers presented by the budget’s defender. Though, deliberations on the budget are still ongoing in the House, the committee may continue with the budget with the little corrections made, as the House is not expected to sit till a date when the deeds might have been done.
Hence, it is germane to identify and bring to fore the inconsistencies inherent in the budget.
First on the list is the budget for UISU Carnival. Items under this budget include; Sound system, refreshment, security, trucks, hot air balloons, costumes, logistics and miscellaneous summing up to N1,070,000 (One million, seventy thousand naira for one day). On this day, a whooping sum of N150,000 would be expended on Sound system. Then, I’m made to wonder, what manner of Sound system does Miss Chi intend to use on that day, will the sound system be louder than the biblical trumpet sound believed to be heard on the last day? Or will it be louder than that which was reported in the bible to fall the Walls of Jericho? The chairperson of this committee also included in the budget that Hot air balloons would cost the sum of N250,000. I think that the individual who inputed such, should be spanked. HOT AIR BALLOONS- N250,000??? C’mon, this is greed and wastefulness. More worrisome is the fact that a screaming N100, 000 is tagged as Miscellaneous.
Second on the list is the proposed budget for ASUN Night. Though the discrepancies on this isn’t as much as the former, however, I was interested when N200,000 was the amount to be spent on Cow. Hence, I will look forward to the cow Miss Chi and co. would bring to the entirety of UItes vis-à-vis the amount that will approved by the House.
Jogging into third place is the budget proposed for ALL Sports. With amounts like N191,000 for Prize(Money), N200,000 for Jerseys, we can only look forward to the most glamorous, wonderful and colourful sports feat in recent times.
In trying to act like a mother she was perceived to be during the course of campaigning, Miss Chi and team came up with a cooking competition which would cater for the meaty bowels of Uites that are billed to attend. A logical stand, I must commend. However, once again, I will register my displeasure at the costs of most of the items in the budget. In the budget was Special Publicity (flyers) which costs N10,000. Hence, I was prompted to enquire if the Cooking Competition wasn’t part of events advertised in the flyers already circulating campus which captured the entirety of the Union week. Once again, Miscellaneous was an outrageous N30,000 for a cooking competition that is scheduled to last few hours.
…..and the big one, the one that ran into N8,148,500, the proposed budget for Ivory King & Queen Pageant. As expected, Miscellaneous almost ran into a million naira. The venue- a million naira, MC- N100,000, Stage Aesthetics- N300,000, Disc Jockey+ Sound System- N300,000, Guest Artistes- N3,000,000, Security- N150,000, Hype & Special Publicity- N100,000, Ticketing- N75,000, Media- N250,000, Lightning- N500,000, Ushers/Protocol- N75,000, Red carpet- N45,000, Boot-camp & make up- N620,000 and Prize for winners- N648,500.
If we can remember vividly, the leadership of the Babatunde-Badmus administration proposed to or expended 4.4million on the Students Union week and students registered their disapproval over such. But as it seems, the leadership of Odesola Victor hopes to spend almost a double of the amount spent on the entire Students Union week by BB and crew on a single event.
Since it is statutory that we annually blast the campus, another section of the budget comes to fore. For the venue which is to be gotten free, the Stage Aesthetics/Lightning would cost N1,350,000, the DJ and Sound system would also cost N200,000. Furthermore, the Guest Artistes which include music and comedy would be carting away the sum of N3,500,000. The security personnel would also be smiling to the bank with the sum of N200,000. Save the school coercive apparatus and the Man O’ War, on that day, I would be looking forward to seeing the Secret Service or preferably personnel from the CIA and/or M13 since such a sum is expected to be spent for security.
The Proposed Budget for the SU Dinner and Awards is also enmeshed with corruption, just like the ones that in earlier sections. Under this section, Awards of 50 categories would cost N350000, Thus, meaning, that a plaque would cost N7000. Even if it were to be glass plaques, which seems almost impossible, N7000 was too exorbitant, bearing in mind the number of copies to be produced. Maybe they would be gold-platted.
Then come one of few hilarious sections, the section for Proposed Budget for SU Week Publicity/Awareness. Why this was comical was that, it captures items that include A2 Posters, Flyers A5, Flex banners, Jingles, Miscellaneous which were earlier captured as Publicity in some sections. For making the University of Ibadan know about the Students Union week, our elected leaders proposed to spend N183,500.
For the SU Health Day, that often times, the University of Ibadan students’ populace do not know about, a sum of N210,000 would be lavished on Renting of tents and Medical supplies.
Now to the sidesplitting, hysterical and most ridiculous of all: A budget for Miscellaneous. N23,400 would be disbursed for Bulk SMS to 13,000 UI students a day before the Union week, N735 would be spent on Bulk SMS to 102 Union Week committee members × 4times, Welfare for 102 committee members for 3 members at N300, 102 T-shirts for identification of committee members at N1400(One thousand, four hundred naira for one shirt of which 102 copies will be made! Haaaa!) Summing N142,800, the printing of 60 copies of proposals with Laser Coloured Printer would cost N22,800, Transportation also cost N50000, really??? while N10000 was expended on Call credit. The Miscellaneous budget sums up as N341,535- a good amount to even plan and organize the Students Union week if we, as individuals can do things according to moderation.
Quoting an infuriated Uite, ‘these ‘Miscellaneouses’ can build another University. Quoting another Uite, he said, ‘Apa lo mo Akpa yi ke’ roughly translated as ‘Akpa is a squanderer. Quoting another vexed Uite, Lightning for N500,000, shey o fe pe Sango wa ni!, roughly translated as, ‘Will Sango the God of Thunder light up the venue?’ A popular UI comedian, when shown the budget and queried about the amount to be spent on comedy, he said, ‘these millions to be shared is too much, if we give all UI comedians N1000 each to perform at these events, the events would be the talk of the town’. Another asked, ‘N180,000 for Medical supplies, will kidney dialysis plant be available or will HIV cure be available on that day?’
Big mouthfuls often choke says an Italian proverb. And of course, extravagance is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction.
Is waste grandeur? I believe not.
Hence, it is imperative for members of the Students Representative Council to analytically peruse the 5 page document presented by the Chairperson. And subsequently, expunge the wastefulness that is inherent in the budget.
Madam speaker, I and a large proportion of Uites have gotten eyes on you!
I’m Ore Afolayan
I think I have spoken.
